Radio Shack/Aquarium pump hot air pencil

[Sunny]

I'm collecting the parts to make a poor man's hot air pencil from a
Radio Shack desoldering iron and aquarium pump, as discussed recently in
the "SMD desoldering tutorial" thread.

The reasonably priced air pumps are rated at 4.0psi and either 2000,
2500, or 2900 cc/min.

Anyone know which would be the best choice?

TIA

Sunny

 

[Johnboy]

Get the strongest one. You will lose a bit of air pressure when
you add the inlet filter. If you leave the filter off, the pumps
rubber parts will eventually crap up with contaminants from
the rosin vapors. If you can smell the vapors, the pump will
also suck them in. I use Pace machines and make my own valve
plates from sheet rubber in about 5 minutes. I learned the hard
way about the filters, and like the big filters with the replaceable
paper element. Also remember that you want airflow, not pressure.
I had to add a needle valve to the pencil to carefully control things
when removing SOT's.
Hope this helps, unless I am off topic!!