Hard solder

[reeferman]

I’ve been soldering on consumer electronics since 1965 and consider myself very competent, but this Vizeo has me stumped. It was given to me by a friend who got excellent service out of it (since 2013 or so) until it broke. I don’t work on Vizeo, but since this was such a good set I thought I’d try my hand.

I removed and replaced some SMD regulators and fuses, no problem. The problem was trying to remove some bulging electrolytics. I’ve tried heating it (using fresh flux, flowing fresh solder on the joint) with many types of tips at different temperatures, and even used my old Weller that puts out 100+ watts, all to no avail. The solder just sits there. I finally cut off the caps above the board. Even then I couldn’t get the solder to flow. I wound up soldering the replacement caps on the stubs.

If I didn’t know better I’d swear they used an epoxy. Maybe concrete.

Has anyone else experienced this and have a possible solution?

Thanks
Phil