Removing SMT packages with a hot air gun by hand is do-able. Not easy - practice on a dead PC motherboars, but do-able. The little gas (butane)powered catalytic hot air guns work a treat. Just go round the package with the gun fairly quickly and lift the chip with a scalpel blade to flick it off the solder. Like Rob says, a good coat of flux helps too.

I posted some other comments on SMT assembly a couple of weeks ago.

Steve