Wattage for desoldering?

[Spaz Monkey]

Long story short, have a Killer Instict board, jackass who I asked to wire the board into a multi-board system removed the pins for the kick harness and soldered the wires directly into the holes.  Wires have broken I have solder filled holes.  I'm trying to use a 15w iron with a desoldering braid, but it seems that the solder doesn't want to flow.  Should I go for a higher watt iron over at Radio Shack or what?

edit: Yes I am putting the braid over the hole and then the iron on top of that.

[MonMotha]

If you're going to buy a tool specially for this, the little 40W thing with built in vacuum bulb radio shack sells does work fairly well, though don't expect to use it for more than a few projects (it'll get clogged).

Generally for desoldering things that aren't in large planes or have good thermal reliefs, 30W is a minimum, with 45-75W temp controlled being good.  For large planes, 50W seems to be a bare minimum, with 75W often inadequate.  I had to use the iron plus a heat gun to swap out a power jack on somebody's laptop mobo recently.

[CheffoJeffo]

15W is going to be a little low.

Try flowing some new solder onto the spot you want to desolder.

[SirPeale]

As said, higher wattage, add solder, don't use braid!  Use a sucker.  You want to pump that plug right out of there.

And what ass removed the freaking harness? 

[Spaz Monkey]

Like I said, long story short.  Don't know why the [self-censored]s just didn't solder the wires directly to the exposed pins, or even modify a CPS kick harness, but that's why they're [self-censored]s and why they don't have a shop in Sacramento.

Should I get a higher watt iron with a "pencil tip" and just poke through the hole, or should I use a separate handheld sucker and use a "flat tip" on the iron?  All I have is the 15watt iron and I assume that 15watts is generally not enough power for soldering/re-soldering things back on?

[Kevin Mullins]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731

[newbee]

 A 35 to 50 watt solder iron would work, however, be carful that you are using a proper sized solder tip for your work.
 A good solder sucker, purchased from an electronic supply house, would be a good idea.
 If any of the solder pads are lifted from the pc board, there are pad repair kits available, to repair your board.
 
 

[richms]

Buying a fixed wattage iron is like getting a stereo with no volume control.

If you think you will be doing any soldering in the future more advanced then putting a 6.3mm plug on a guitar cable then you owe it to yourself to get a temperature controlled station. Braid or wick will not really clean a plated thru hole since it cant draw the solder off the inside surface, a pump or bulb are needed for that to be easy. It can be done, but you may end up cooking the board too much in the process.

Otherwise take it to a local small time repair place and talk to a tech with some liquid credit and ask them to do it.