Well the smoke you usually get when soldering is actually the flux. You can’t heat up tin-solder that it becomes gas-state. However, PCBs can emit hazardous gases so ventilation comes in handy (we actually use it, you can see it in the upper left corner when the cam shakes).

We have quite good results with the desoldered parts, my estimate of 20% of all desoldered parts being broke seemed to be too much – now I guess it’s more like 5 to 10%. Of course, desoldering action could reduce the overall lifetime of the parts, so if you need something that lasts several years, then you should buy new components just to be sure.

Some parts are less fragile to heat than others; for example, oscillators and crystals are virtually immune (unless you heat them up for a very long time). ElCaps are a bit more sensitive, ICs are somewhere in the middle. As the video is real-time, you can see that we usually don’t take too long to remove the parts, so most of them will be just fine.

Temperature is 350°C for our pot. Smaller pots usually won’t do the trick, it’s hard enough with our solder pot for some stuff as the component area needs to be covered by the pot.

your plan is flawless…. until your wife breaks part of hers and starts scavenging yours for parts. :)

Say what you will…

I’ve got a favorite pair of Sony earbuds which do exactly what I want them to do.

They were neither expensive, nor inexpensive, for their performance (I paid about $50 for them).

I like them a lot, but I’m afraid to use them much because I don’t want to break the absurdly-thin wires that tie the bits together and lose their use forever.

If they had detachable (and user-serviceable, or at least replaceable) cords using industry standard connectors, though, I’d use them all the time: Worst case is I’d be out a bit of cash for a replacement cordset.

As it is, however, when the cable breaks the headphones break. And since this model is no longer in production, and other current models are of vastly different design, I’d then have to replace them with something altogether different (which I’m not inclined at all to do, as (again) I rather like this set).

-Please- give me six easily-repaired mechanical connections and a replaceable wire on a set of earphones which are not of objectionable sound quality.

Serviceability FTW.