Separating a 5m reel of strip into 1m lengths used to take some wrangling with a soldering iron trying to get each joint separated … with a hot air station? Howsabout:
Step 1: Cut the paper backing (from the sticky backing)
Step 2: Apply hot air … one Mississippi, two Mississippi … DONE.
Really? Wow.
Ok! Now we know!
When I’ve taught blinky class, each student’s kit includes 1m of LEDs, and my tireless assistants have patiently desoldered each segment by hand, and then soldered jumper leads on each one.
Maybe it’s time to get access to a hot air rework setup.
What exact equipment did you use?
I have a flat tip that is wide enough to heat up all the connections at the same time, as opposed to doing each one, one by one, with an iron.
I will be doing the leads with an iron though. Though I suppose I might be able to use paste and solder them with hot air as well. Dunno …
By the way, when I said “flat tip”, what I mean was that I took a regular round tip, got it hot and proceeded to flatten it so it’s a slit now. I did it specifically for separating LED strips.
I just picked up the Ayoue 968+ solder and rework station. It has a soldering iron and a hot air station in one unit. the solder station has a vacuum to suck the solder smoke out of your eyes and it can also be used as a pick and place vacuum pickup too. It is an excellent value - 10 solder tips, brass tip cleaner solder holder, an extra hot air element and the pick and place vacuum tool. Check it out on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/110839316933?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Huh. $160. For me the cost-per-mistake-I-can-fix-now is pretty modest. #volume
Yeah, the SFE one is $99.99, which I got for free after winning a $100 certificate. 
#happycamper