Offboard wiring - ant techniques?

[DWBH]

I was find a PITA to do the wiring on my boxes. I always cut the wires too short or too long, and usually I find it difficult to put everything in a BB-sized box (my bsiab hardly fits in one of those!).
I don't know if there are any techniques, but no matter what I'd like to improve the offboard wiring on my stompboxes.
I always drool myself and feel frustrated and annoyed when I see those super-clean, neat and tidy wirings on the Pictures thread.

Oh well, what do you have to say?

[DWBH]

bump

[R.G.]

http://geofex.com/FX_images/solder_block.gif

[soulsonic]

This is something that's easier to show than to describe in words. It's also something that comes more from practice than anything else; since everyone has a unique style that I think evolves from what is comfortable for an individual to do.

As far as getting everything to fit; I will trace the dimensions of the box on a sheet of quad-ruled paper and spend time placing the different parts on it to see how they fit. Knobs and pots are usually the hardest thing to get positioned correctly, and I/O jacks can be an issue too, but once you find a "system" for layout that works well, it's easy to repeat it.

For compact boards, I build nearly everything hand-wired on unclad bare perfboard. This construction style is basically point-to-point with the perfboard serving as a jig to hold the parts in place. This allows you to potentially cram components very close together in ways that are nearly impossible with a printed circuit board. I've also built circuits entirely point-to-point with no perfboard or terminal strips - this can be done fairly easily with most simple booster circuits - all that is required is careful positioning of components and it can be very easy to build once that's figured out. I've even built an entire circuit on the back of a 14-pin IC socket before, so anything's possible with a little ingenuity.

The main reason why I don't have any layouts posted up here is because I generally don't use any personally. Most build I do are an "improv jam" where I just grab a perfboard and a handful of parts and just start building. If I end up making more than one, I use my original as a build sample. That's how I did stuff at Weber; build up a Production Sample, then use that as the standard from which all the others are built. 99% of the stuff done there is all hand-wired, so I got my practice and technique for hand-wiring from building hundreds and hundreds of Weber attenuators. I think I first learned how to do it by studying how old amps were built. Whenever I'd get a new thing, I'd open it up to study how it was built - I've learned alot that way, that's the main reason why I'm a big fan of gutshot pics.... I'm usually more interested in seeing HOW something is built than what the actual circuit is.

[captntasty]

Everybody develops their own method of layout over time.  There is the approach of carefully designing it on paper or going freestyle.  The first thing to take into account is your board size - this will often determine whether you use a 1590B or 1590BB size.  I've pretty much given up on 1590B's for all but the most simple one knobbers, I like elbow room.

My method for layout is to build the board, populate it then rest it into the box, from there I know where I can place pots, switches, jacks, LED, etc. and how long my leads need to be.  There are a lot of variables to consider.  As for your leads being to short... cut them extra long, you can always shorten them later.  It is also advisable to cut them to a length that if you need to make repairs/adjustments to the board you have just enough to pull it out of the enclosure a bit and turn it to the foil side.