Surface mount component soldering

[DrKnow65]

Here's a technical one guy's.

For those of you who are modding esc's or make a living with integrated circuits, what techniques and tools do you use for dealing with SMT components?

Example: fried FET(s) on a printed board with SMT.

How do you remove the bad part?
How do you clean the board?
How do you prepare (for) the new part?
How do you attach it?

I recently came into this scenario (bad fet, though mine was soldered over a tiny SMT resistor, manufacturing defect). I tried prying up on the fet while heating the solder joints, cracked the fet in the process
Anyhow I removed the offending resistor and cleared the pad by first adding new solder, then using the solder sucker to remove the bulk, then cleaned the pad the rest of the way with a solder wick.
I am waiting for new part to show up but I plan on adding a small amount of solder (low melting point type) to the pads on the board and keeping it melted with a hot air blower (attacment to a butane torch) and then setting the fet into place. I have seen that I can also solder from the pads to the tabs with the fet in place as I bulked up some of the other weaker joints on the other fet's...

What is your MO? (modus operendai)? >mode of opperation

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If I could only draw what I see in my head, then afford to build it, and finaly get to play with it...