How do YOU solder wires to pcb mount pots?

[A.Gillies]

Does anybody have any interesting ways of doing this? It's really a pain to solder wires to pcb mount pots, but their soooo much cheaper than pots with lugs (as far as I've seen), that I find that it's usually worth the aggravation. I would be glad to hear how other people go about doing this.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

I've had excellent results bending the pins into hooks and bending the wire the same way, then soldering the two hooks together.

Physically strong and creates a good "space" for the solder.

[KazooMan]

If you are having trouble simply winding the wire around the post and soldering (with some heat shrink afterwards) then why not just use a small piece of perfboard or (even better) vero board?  Cut a piece that is 2 holes by 5 holes and mount the pot.  You can then feed your wires through the appropriate holes, bend them over and solder.  With the vero board you already have the connecting trace, so you can just insert the wire and solder as usual.  Nice, neat, strong and easy to remove if you need to change pots.

[Sanguinicus]

Veroboard is a great idea. I recommend tinning both the wire and the lug and just soldering them together. Personally, I never wrap wire around lugs or put them through the holes to 'tie' them on.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Vero works well but it's a PITA to snap neatly.

[ThunderShowers]

Solid Strand wire. Bend a small loop in the pot end of the wire, and slot it over.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Solid Strand wire. Bend a small loop in the pot end of the wire, and slot it over.

You have to put that stuff in very last or I find it snaps at the board end.

[frequencycentral]

Bend the lugs 90⁰. Tin them. Tin the wire.

I sometimes cut a long thin piece of perf to mount multiple pots onto.

Vero works well but it's a PITA to snap neatly.

Whenever I snap perf I always file the snapped edges smooth.

[KazooMan]

Regarding snapping vero, I don't.  For such small pieces you can use a decent pair of tin snips.   Until you get beyond the point where the jaws of the snips are trying to force the board to bend too much this works very well.

I have tried a lot of different ways to cut regular copper-clad pcb stock, perf board, etc.  My woodworking band saw works great, but not everyone has one.  I actually quit using it.  What I have found works really well for me is a hand held tool originally called a "Fein Multimaster" (or at least that was my first introduction to one).  I have a "real" multimaster and it cost quite a bundle.  You can get a perfectly usable replica at Harbor Freight for a song.  This tool works like a surgeon's bone saw.  It has a small (ca. 3" diameter) circular blade mounted on a shaft that gives a rapid reciprocating motion.  So, the edge of the saw blade is going back and forth very rapidly, but with a very small amount of movement.  You can actually touch the blade with something soft like a finger and nothing happens.  It just vibrates.  With a rigid substrate, the saw blade digs in and cuts.  

I take a couple of pieces of scrap wood and sandwich the board material between them with the edges of the wood aligned along the desired cut line and clamp all of this to my workbench.  (***This is hard to describe.  I could post some pictures if anyone is interested).  Turn on the saw and using the wood as a guide make several passes along the board until the cut is complete.  Perfect cuts every time and actually there is a lot less annoying dust than with other saw methods.  

Here I would cut a strip of vero five holes wide with the connecting traces running the long way.  Then I would cut off two trace pieces.  

I usually tidy up the cut edges on a piece of sandpaper just to make everything look pretty.

[ThunderShowers]

Solid Strand wire. Bend a small loop in the pot end of the wire, and slot it over.

You have to put that stuff in very last or I find it snaps at the board end.

Never had that happen. may have something do do with how I strip wires though...

[phector2004]

I do the double hooks trick, but is there anything wrong with threading the wire through the pot "holes?"

(I'm talking about the rivet things)

[blooze_man]

I do the double hooks trick, but is there anything wrong with threading the wire through the pot "holes?"

(I'm talking about the rivet things)

I've done it a bunch of times with no problems.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

I do the double hooks trick, but is there anything wrong with threading the wire through the pot "holes?"

(I'm talking about the rivet things)

Does it still sit flush with the surface though? Those are "even" with the top surface aren't they?

[Scruffie]

I do the double hooks trick, but is there anything wrong with threading the wire through the pot "holes?"

(I'm talking about the rivet things)

Does it still sit flush with the surface though? Those are "even" with the top surface aren't they?

There's just enough room to get away with it, i've had it go wrong once when some solder dripped inside the pot otherwise it's been fine, you just have to be careful and cut the wire as close to the rivet as possible.

I usually stick a piece of electrical tape on the inside of the enclosure just in case anyway.

[jdub]

I use the hook method- works great.  A couple of times, for boxes with a lot of pots, I've also used the mount-to-perf method or some variant thereof.  The cost difference makes the bit of extra effort worth it for me. 

[EATyourGuitar]

Solid Strand wire. Bend a small loop in the pot end of the wire, and slot it over.

exactly, solid copper one conductor wire. make a loop with needle nose pliers and slide it on straight. it helps if you have lots of room to work and you dont have the other end of the wire connected. everyone is using tayda cause its cheap and the alpha pots come with plastic pot condoms. the lugs are a bit too large for perf anyway. so why waste the time cutting AND drilling your perf.

cutting perf: I tried the fein multimaster and it took too long + dust + dull blade instantly. tin snips come in all sizes. the standard wiss snips work good on small boards. big boards get scored and snapped on the edge of the table or in a vise. you can get 18" handheld tin snips and they will cut anything 10" wide.

[Paul Marossy]

I've had excellent results bending the pins into hooks and bending the wire the same way, then soldering the two hooks together.

That's exactly what I do.

[Derringer]

Vero works well but it's a PITA to snap neatly.

I use vero for pcb pots.
I never snap vero or perf. I always just clamp it in my vice (piece of cloth around the part being clamped) and just use a hacksaw to gently work my way through the plastic.
Then I use a dremel to smooth out the cut edge.

I think it's a very precise way of cutting perf/vero/copper clad.

[Mark Hammer]

I tin the lugs and the wire, and then sweat the joint into place.

HOWEVER......I have also taken to slipping a piece of heat shrink over the finished joint as insurance.  Partly to keep the wire in place but also as protection against fracturing at the joint.

[Thomeeque]

 I'm trying to avoid it, but if I have to..



The yellow wire.. T.