I'm looking for some advice on how to cut an HDMI port anchor leg off using some type of miniature cutting wheel. I bought a dentist micro drill, but I'm unsure which type of burs to purchase and type of metal alloy that can cut through this kind of metal.
currently the HDMI port is soldered onto a pcb board already and I can't seem to desolder it that easily as its mounted on 4 legs. The easiest solution i believe is to just cut off the legs.
You should be careful to have all the signal lines de-soldered before you try cutting the legs. If you don't you can easily tear up the signal traces when cutting away the legs. Use a small X-acto knife to lift up each leg of the signal lines while heating the connection with a soldering iron. Once you have all the signal pins lifted away from the contacts you can then cut the metal support legs, often with just a good pair of small diagonal cutters as the metal on these connectors is not that hard. I find that safer than using cutting wheels that can catch or break and end up damaging other areas of the PCB. I often save a damaged pair of diagonal cutters for such jobs as sometimes you may mar the blades on the cutters. If you have a nice pair of cutters and don't want to risk them, go buy a cheap pair for doing jobs like this. Once you have the legs cut you should be able to heat them up individually and pluck them from the holes.
The easiest solution is to use a heat gun. You'll destroy the connector, but if you blanket the rest of the board, you shouldn't affect anything else. It's rather hard to control the cutting forces on a hand-held cutting wheel, you might easily destroy the board and/or other components on it.
Besides, the connector is likely made out of a soft metal. You can cut it into pieces in situ with precision wire cutters. No need for a motorized tool.
Cutting away structural pins, then desoldering and picking them out one by one is a legitimate technique, as long as you know that you will sacrifice the connector.
Cutoff wheel for rotary tool (dentist's, Dremel, and so on) is efficient at cutting brass. It's diameter it fairly large, so you may have to cut vertical slots and complete dice the connector.
Any typical burr micro drill bit or cutting wheel will work. Very soft metal, you will cut through it like butter. Mind the metal dust.
