Desoldering

I've used everything from temp. regulated vacuum desoldering stations to prying resistors off circuit boards with a precision screwdriver while holding a soldering iron under the circuit board.  The former method costly and the latter a little tricky, I would recommend a desoldering device that consists of a hollow soldering tip on a spring loaded plunger.  It plugs in like a soldering iron and allows you to lock the plunger down while you put the tip on the solder joint, melt the solder, push a button on the side of the plunger and , wa la, solder is sucked up into the thing to await its release at your leisure.  When ready to emty  it can  be taken apart and the cylinder cleaned.  A little mineral oil applied to the inside of the cylinder makes for easy future cleaning.