What is desoldering braid?

Desoldering braid or desoldering wick is finely braided strands of copper wire that contain a flux.

It usually comes supplied on a roll. It’s prime, and I think the only use is to remove solder. Don’t be fooled into thinking that all desolder braid is the same, it’s not. The best desoldering braid will soak up solder like a sponge; unfortunately, some of the others are all but useless.

How to use desoldering braid or wick?

To use desoldering braid you simply heat up the joint that you want to remove the solder from by applying your soldering iron tip. When the joint becomes molten you just feed the braid into it while still applying the soldering iron.

You will see the desoldering wick soak up the braid and vanish from the joint.

You then pull the braid and soldering iron away and you should be left with an almost solderless joint. Then you will need to cut off the used section of the braid. Sometimes you may have to heat any remaining solder and try again with the wick until it’s all soaked up.

If you want more detailed information about desoldering techniques, read my Learn how to desolder – A beginners guide here.

There are many times when you need to desolder. In the picture below you can see a solder “blob” that needed to be removed from a compact disc laser mechanism.

Often compact disc lasers are shipped with this solder bridge to protect the laser while it’s in transit.

Use flux with desoldering wick

This is the one thing that you should use in conjunction with desolder braid. It makes the wick soak up the surplus solder like a sponge. It’s the magic item for using solder wick.

It will also make all your other soldering much easier. Read here to find out why flux is essential for home electronic soldering.

Solder wick alternative

If you don’t have desoldering wick to hand you can make an alternative homemade desolder braid. You may have noticed that desoldering wick looks a bit like the screening on coaxial cables. That’s what we’re going to use. If you’ve got any around it’s used on audio, microphone, satellite and TV aerials.

Cut a couple of inches off, strip off the plastic, pull out the central core then apply some flux. Make sure it’s the electronic kind, not the plumbing stuff. Without the flux, it won’t work very well.

What is the best desoldering braid?

I get mine from Amazon and as a Prime member, I get free next-day delivery.

If you look at the reviews for it you’ll see I’m not alone in thinking it is the best desoldering braid, especially considering the cost. Some of the others I’ve tried didn’t work particularly well if at all. I think the main reason is the flux that is used or the lack of it.

If you need various sizes the pack below works out well with five different sizes from 1mm to 3mm. Use rosin flux with it though for best results.

If you find your wick underperforming try applying solder flux. This will make any wick perform better and I always use it with a desoldering wick.

This is another flux paste that I have used. If you have not tried rosin flux paste before give it try. You’ll be surprised at the results, if you’re soldering or desoldering, the solder flows much better.

Final thoughts on the best desoldering braid

Solder wick is excellent at soaking up solder when you need to desolder. It’s better at removing small amounts from a joint. If you need to remove larger amounts of solder, the best desoldering tool I’ve found is the Engineer SS-02 below.

I’ve used many solder suckers in the past and this is by far the best I’ve ever used. Its suction is fantastic and you just slip silicon tubing on the end of it instead of replacing teflon tips.

If you need to desolder larger joints you may be better off using another technique first. if you need more information be sure to check out my learn how to desolder article which covers a lot of different ways to desolder and includes several tips you may not have seen before.

If desoldering is something you frequently do you might want to consider getting a desoldering station. these are ideal for lots of desoldering. We frequently used desoldering stations as technicians at Leicester University and most other electronic production places I worked at.