Build order of components

[philbinator1]

Hey guys,

I want to improve my neatness in my builds, wondering in what order you place switches/components/jacks etc for maximum neatness and ease?


cheers
phil

[petemoore]

  The short ones first, the tall caps last.
  A thousand ways to neaten up wires, making all the pots on one side of the board, and all the boxes about the same layout makes it possible to make each one better than the last, or as good as it gets.
 

[philbinator1]

  The short ones first, the tall caps last.
  A thousand ways to neaten up wires, making all the pots on one side of the board, and all the boxes about the same layout makes it possible to make each one better than the last, or as good as it gets.
 

good tip with the caps!  nice.  but, can you tell me the thousand ways to neaten up the wires.    or some anyway.  cos that really is a source of annoyance, having them spagetti all over the  place.

[MikeH]

For a cleaner build I don't solder the leads to pots, switches, etc until I have the box layout done.  That way there's no extra length and you can make your wires run along together, eliminating 'spaghetti'.  Also zip ties are helpful.  The little ones.

[caspercody]

I solder wire to first pot or jack. Than mount pot or jack to box. Than place board where you want it, cut wire to length and solder to board. Than continue with the rest of the pots or jacks.

[philbinator1]

For a cleaner build I don't solder the leads to pots, switches, etc until I have the box layout done.  That way there's no extra length and you can make your wires run along together, eliminating 'spaghetti'.  Also zip ties are helpful.  The little ones.

when you say box layout, do you mean when all the components (jacks, dc jack, pots, switches, led, circuit board etc) are in the box first, then measure your wires and cut to length?

[jasonled75]

I know Im a noobie but this is what I did with min and they turned out pretty neat inside.
1.I put in my LED or LEDs and solder the resistor in place and a small (2 to 3 inch) jumper to go to 9v later.
2.I put in my pots
3. I put in my 9volt socket
4. I put in my switches
5. I start at the left hand side of the board and run one wire at a time to where it goes
6. I bend the wire to follow the contours of the box in the path I want it to go. When I get to the connection I snip the wire about 1/2 inch longer than it needs to be and strip 1/4 inch of insulation off. I use hemostats to shape the end of the wire to fit the connection and solder it. If i have a little extra wire beyond the connection after soldering I snip it off.
7. I get all the wires soldered in this maner except the ones going to the jacks.
8. I put my Jacks in the box last then run the wires to them just like I did every thing else.

I hope this helps
J

[philbinator1]

I know Im a noobie but this is what I did with min and they turned out pretty neat inside.
1.I put in my LED or LEDs and solder the resistor in place and a small (2 to 3 inch) jumper to go to 9v later.
2.I put in my pots
3. I put in my 9volt socket
4. I put in my switches
5. I start at the left hand side of the board and run one wire at a time to where it goes
6. I bend the wire to follow the contours of the box in the path I want it to go. When I get to the connection I snip the wire about 1/2 inch longer than it needs to be and strip 1/4 inch of insulation off. I use hemostats to shape the end of the wire to fit the connection and solder it. If i have a little extra wire beyond the connection after soldering I snip it off.
7. I get all the wires soldered in this maner except the ones going to the jacks.
8. I put my Jacks in the box last then run the wires to them just like I did every thing else.

I hope this helps
J

theres some good tips there man, thanks.  but what is a hemostat?

[R.G.]

theres some good tips there man, thanks.  but what is a hemostat?

Latching clamp used by surgeons to clamp off blood vessels, originally. They turned out to have many other uses as well. Look much like scissors at first glance, but have dull tweezers-like ends instead of cutting blades like scissors.

I posted some things about this a while back.

I insert components by height, shortest first, as was mentioned before, but I try to group them by components which have close to exactly the same height if possible. This lets me put in all of the X height stuff, put a flat piece of cardboard (for example) on top and then turn the board over without anything falling out. Solder everything that's not soldered, flip it back up to component side and insert the next height-class. This procedure's optimized for making soldering and insertion simpler.

[philbinator1]

what a great idea, i'll try that today on my dist + or dist III build.  cheers!