Fxing a broken pin on a rare chip

[gmphillips]

I'm sure if you've been collecting chips long you have run across a rare ceramic DIP chip that's a gem other than the fact it has a broken pin on one of the 4 corners.

I usually pass these by but I had a chance to pick up an extremely rare
chip a few days ago cheap. The chips in great condition except for
a broken pin on one corner.

The pin is broken off right below the "pad" where the pin is brazed onto
the ceramic package.

I going to try and repair this chip. I want to make a professional looking repair that will look completely original. Here's my plan. I would appreciate any advice or comments.

1. I will use a dremel grinding wheel to grind the remaining stub of the pin
from the package. I will grind down to the pad where the pin was
originally brazed to the package.

2. I'll now have a clean flat pad that's pretty much flush with the edge
of the package. Now I'll take a junk chip, a chisel and a hammer and
chop off one corner. This will give me a new pin. Using the dremel, I
will remove the the piece of ceramic leaving just the pin.

3. This part gets tricky. I need to either solder or better yet braze
the new pin to the pad on the chip I am repairing. I'm pretty sure
I could solder the new pin to the pad pretty easy, but to make the
repair look completely original, I would need to braze it back on.
Brazing scares me because the hear require could easily
damage the chip.

I've even considered taking the pin and the chip to a jeweler and
letting them try to put the pin back on. Jewelers can do some
amazingly intricate brazing.

Then there's the option of using some sort of conductive glue
(epoxy). If the pin and pad were flat, the seam between the
two would be extremely difficult to see if the pin was glued
to the pad.

[Simmayor]

I can't think of another way..... good luck!

[gshv]

I think using conductive epoxy (if you have one) is the way to go. It's less likely to damage the chip using this method rather than other methods, especially if the chips is small like 4004 or 8008. If epoxy is not available/doesn't work then I would go with soldering, but this is because I'm not familiar at all with brazing process.

Gennadiy

[Riviera]

I think using epoxy would be the best way.
You might get some information about conductive epoxy at: www.chemotronics.com