shop and tool tips & tricks

[Buzz]

A drillpress vice is a piece of essential kit I really have to invest in.

Would come in mighty handy drilling enclosures too. Beats my current method of wedging it between the wall and a lump of 4 x 2 with my foot.

Davent, do you have a pic of a jig in action? Would be good for the peeps to see it done properly instead of my mug lair version.

At first this may look like a time waster, but in practice it's a time saver. Seriously takes one minute to make. Saves many minutes and frustrations when you are soldering.

[davent]

Whether or not it's proper...  is totally anal.  Drill the jig to match the enclosure, mount the pots and switches to the jig and wire things up. I leave the jig big enough that i can grab any edge in the vice. I use thin plywood i have around but have seen others using boxboard, whatever you have on hand.

Only found one vice picture but you get the idea.

[Buzz]

Nice one.

Maybe anal, but that looks as neat as a pin. Having the board outside the box would also be an advantage when shaping solid core wiring.

[Jdansti]

I've found that stiff cardboard works well for a wiring jig too.

A trick I see in your photos is using clear plastic packaging as insulator material.  You can see it under the PCB in this photo:

[armdnrdy]

A trick I see in your photos is using clear plastic packaging as insulator material.  You can see it under the PCB in this photo:

One of my clients (cell phone battery R&D lab) uses rolls of thin, clear Mylar in one of their processes. An employee gave me half a lifetimes supply of the stuff. Insulators as far as the eye can see.  

[davent]

Bingo... John hit the nail on the head, plastic packaging rescued from the recycle bin, again, whatever's handy.

(22awg Teflon stranded wire, can only get large radius bends to hold)

[seedlings]

Solder outside the box and make a jig.

After drilling out the enclosure the holes can be copied onto a piece of scrap timber and drilled out to the same dimensions.

I use thin plywood i have around but have seen others using boxboard, whatever you have on hand.

Wood?  I use marble.

CHAD

[PRR]

I just got new glasses. Adjustable focus. Pretty cool.    

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=107641.msg978886#msg978886

[joegagan]

DAMN - you guys are all awesome. i owe every one of you a couple days worth of time with what youall have saved me already.

[bluebunny]

A trick I see in your photos is using clear plastic packaging as insulator material.  You can see it under the PCB in this photo:

I use the plastic envelope that my guitar strings come in.  It's thick enough to stay in place without much coercing, and thin enough to take a crisp fold.  A bonus for me is that I don't even have to buy guitar strings: Dr Tweek in the UK uses them to ship components!

[Buzz]

I just got new glasses. Adjustable focus. Pretty cool.    

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=107641.msg978886#msg978886

They're going on the wishlist.

[deadastronaut]

I just got new glasses. Adjustable focus. Pretty cool.    

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=107641.msg978886#msg978886

yep, they are brililant....i wear glasses for reading/driving, but also have stronger ones for close up (reading resistors/transistors)

so they would be ideal...cheers paul.

[davent]

I wouldn't even think to try soldering without these.

[Kipper4]

The new on board Bread Board power supply
With Vbias rail


[/URL]

I used hot melt to stick it down and help hold the 2.1mm socket
Included is an led on indicator.

[davent]

One eye's buggered so no up-close depth of field vision, makes drilling pcb's and soldering much more challenging then it was. Rigged  my Dremel press with a usb endoscope so i can align the pad holes with crosshairs on a laptop screen and drill through the dead center of the pad.

Details thread.  http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=105520.0

[garcho]

DAMN - you guys are all awesome. i owe every one of you a couple days worth of time with what youall have saved me already.

and there's an art to starting a useful thread, thanks Joe

[italianguy63]

Henry Rollins holds my probes.

I'm sure he would be overjoyed to know that.



MC

[deafbutpicky]

that's before he gets to know you're using non lead free solder and kicks your... 

The most useful tool for me is  a tweezer to hold the wire while doing in box soldering
and keep an eye on your cat while laying out the components. I've had my revenge though
using one of his mugs as a solder sponge holder.
Spare strips of vero are useful for star gound connections too.

[Buzz]

My breadboard rig.

The base is an offcut from a kitchen cabinet kickboard. The blue box with the stompswitch once held brads for a nailgun.

All the offboard wiring for an effect pedal is in there with a 3PDT switch, in / out jacks, battery snap, 2.1mm 9v jack and an LED indicator.

Four wires extend from the box terminating in breadboard pins. +9v at the top. Board in, board out and ground at the bottom.

Very handy item.

[garcho]

^ nice. it's tempting to cram too much into a breadboard station, better just to leave it tabula rasa.