Hand machined mechanical pencils

Desoldering using a custom "iron" (31/10/13)

I needed to replace a DC-DC converter module on a dozen or so boards - they were very difficult to remove with a soldering iron alone, so I tried making a bigger "iron" from a lump of brass. It worked very well - here's a quick video:

This principle could probably be applied to other multi-pin devices as well (e.g. ICs) as long as you made a suitably-shaped iron.