Can anyone recommend a good desoldering station under about $200, that has enough heat capacity to desolder components on PCB's with lots of copper?

I'm currently using one of these:

http://www.radioshack.com/products/radioshack-45-watt-desoldering-iron?variant=5717855877

It works OK on thin boards, but I recently removed a bunch of parts from an amplifier PCB with a really thick copper layer and it just wouldn't melt anything, at all. I had to get a little crazy with the hot air to get anything melted, then try to get the solder sucker in there at the same time the air was on to get anything out. I'm hopeful that a unit with more capacity will do a better job.

 

I don't know of desoldering iron fitting your requirements, but...

If the problem is getting the solder to melt, you probably just need a higher wattage iron, possibly with a higher tip temperature. I have a vacuum desoldering tool on my hot air tool, but I've used a spring loaded solder sucker for 4 decades and still use it.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm pretty happy with my soldering station, it's the desoldering where I'm looking to improve. Maybe I'm relying too much on my electric solder sucker and would have better luck using my regular iron in combination with the spring sucker @dl324 mentioned. Here's a web picture of what I'm currently using:

It works great, unless there's a lot of copper in the board, then it doesn't really work at all (not enough heat).

This is what I was thinking of moving up to, FF to about 20:30 to see it work.

 

I have something similar on my Aoyue 2702A+ hot air station. Since the tip is hollow, I don't think it will be much better for what you described. Works fine on "normal" stuff and I use it when I have a lot of desoldering to do (e.g. salvaging components). For most repair work, I use the spring loaded solder sucker.

 

I desolder anything "hefty" over a solder pot.. using kapton tape to protect other nearby components..

You will more than likely need 100W+ and you won't find that in your price range..