The solder suckers that work best have a tight fitting teflon tip that
you can put down over the pad. Heat the pad first with a clean iron
tip; just before use I wipe mine on a wet sponge and add a tiny bit of
solder.
Immediately apply iron tip to the pad and lead together, watch for the
liquid state, swap in the tip of the sucker and press the button. You
eventually get used to the two handed technique to hold solder iron in
one hand, solder sucker in other and use your thumb to recock the
vacuum. After a solder sucking session, remove the sucker tip and clean
out the solder fines. Some come with a stiff wire tool to clean the
small bore of the nozzle, and that helps. After long use, one of mine
needs you to square up the tip nozzle with an box cutter blade, or to
replace the nozzle, if the bore gets too large a diameter.
Stuart Rohre
K5KVH
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