Alterations effects pedals - Newbie question...

[Rebel Clef]

Hello all,

Super fresh to soldering and the wonderful world of effect pedal creating...

Let me phrase my question in a situation example...

If you have an already completed pedal in a mini case, are you able to re-case it to a larger case if the mono socket (guitar jack ports) are mounted directly onto the PCB?
Are you able to unsolder them and extend them out to fit a larger case?   

Thank you in advance!

[idy]

welcome to the forum.
Usually yes. People here love pictures!

Sometimes you have to destroy the old plastic jack, cut it into pieces then desolder one terminal at a time (the pcb is precious, not a jack.) Then wires from the old holes to the new jacks. Desoldering a jack that may have 4 or six solder connections (often people use jacks that have TRS and normally closed for some of these as default, so they only order one kind of jack for every imaginable use) is something you would need to learn about before you go lifting the copper traces off your pcb, There are various tools for desoldering, from suction bulbs, woven solder wick, vacuum guns...

You may have similar issues with DC jack. Pots are similar.

Best tried on less than precious pedals first time. But maybe good choice for first projects.... or practice your soldering on some completely trashed pedal...

[Rebel Clef]

Thank you very much!

I have a couple of pedals I'm fine to depart with for practice.

I bought a couple of DIY kits and I fell they are a little over my head at the moment. So hopefully a couple of practice projects first will help make sure I have everything that I need equipment wise and have a basic understanding of the little tricks that make life easier.

I'll keep in mind pictures for the future

So I'll need separate tools for de-soldering? This plus many things I was unaware of. 

[idy]

Spend a little time looking at soldering tutorials. You can find help at:
http://www.muzique.com/schem/solder.txt
Most of the links on this forum's DIY FAQs page or broken now... You should at least sample you tube videos about soldering and desoldering.

An appropriate soldering iron is key, a good temperature. And watch out for ROHS solder that is lead free and harder to work with...

Other tools are not big deals. A solder "sucker" is either just a rubber bulb with a melt-proof tip to suck hot solder off of things, or a spring loaded syringe that does the same thing. Google solder sucker, solder sucker bulb
Desoldering braid is flat woven metal "rope" that, when hot, wicks melted solder by capillary action. Google solder wick.
De-soldering vacuum guns are expensive! I have a Hakko and it is pretty nice.

Once components are gone a wooden toothpick is good for clearing the (hot) hole without sticking in place.

And like I say, to save the board it is often easiest to "sacrifice" components with lots of leads like jacks, switches, ics... By the time you got each of those leads solder-free (you never would) the board would be damaged and so would the component.

[Jdansti]

^Speaking of soldering tutorials, here's the best one I've seen:

[Rebel Clef]

Thank you for all this!
My city is in lockdown at the moment and delivery delays are challenging... As soon as I receive my new equipment I'm super keen to start trying this all out!

Thank you for such a welcoming and helpful introduction into this side of the hobby!

Here is a picture of what I'm going to attempted first (putting a mini pedal into a standard size casing, then work towards my main inspiration building this boost pedal!