I was looking for tips on replacing SMD caps when I found this tip from Mr. Carlson's Lab on youtube It's a bit unorthox but it's tempting to give it a try If you don't want to watch the whole video you can skip to about 1:30
He does make it look very easy. I wonder if it would work with all makes of capacitors, or ones where the electrolyte hasn't leaked. I have commented before how tantalum capacitors are standard fit is military equipment as they are much more reliable.
I wouldn't recommend this for anything but surface mounted devices where access makes it difficult to de-solder. In theory, this works for SMD devices because the leads break free from the capacitor without lifting the trace from the board.
I needed to remove some caps today and tried two methods. First I removed the first cap with two soldering irons. One in each hand. That was kind of fun. Then I tried twisting one off with pliers it worked just like Mr Carlson. It was pretty easy! I depopulated the rest of the caps on the board with pliers that way with no damage.
I don't recommend twisting caps on certain Walkman models with weak or corroded traces (Mid 90s Aiwas), but as a safeguard, you can hold the plastic base with another pair of tweezers as you turn the cap.
