wires from pots/jacks/switch etc. to board

[AdamB]

Hey,

For some reason when I solder wires comming from the veroboard or PCB, the wires break off of the board really easily. I've tried using several different spools of wire (always stranded #24 guage) from places like smallbear and banzai effects, but they all have the same problem.

The solder itself holds perfectly, the threads in the wire itself just snap.

Is there some trick to stop this happening? coz as soon as I move the board it just breaks off, and I don't want to have to have to mount everything in a box and solder down the parts to the pots/jacks/switches etc. before I get to test the circuit out sound wise (I don't use breadboard, I just build the circuit and then decide if I should keep it).

Thanks,

-Adam

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Maybe the 'bonded' wire from SmallBear will help.
Anoter approach is to use hot glue to stop the wire bending at the solder point. The problem arises ifor one or both of these reasons:
1. accidentally nicking the wire when you strip it (military stuff specifies that stripping be done by strippers that heat and pull off the insulation).
2. the solder 'wicks' up the wire & stiffens it for a short distance, so that the wire flexes at just this point & snaps. The SmallBear prebonded stuff is immune, because it is already wicked all the way through!!

Another approach is to bundle the wires together & clamp them to the board, so they can't flex at the board junction.

[DavidS]

I've been using the pre-bonded wire from Smallbear, and I'm a big fan of it.

Of course, you can go all out, and have some excess board by the pads with the wire fed through drilled holes in the solder side and looping up to the pads, and then hotglue the hell out of it, like I did for the battery connection in this image:


But for pots and things, it's total overkill. Use thicker wire, or prebond.

[AdamB]

The wire I'm using is prebonded from smallbear,

I don't know why it just keeps snapping, grr! Not sure how to secure it down, as I don't have a glue gun, erk.

-Adam

[nelson]

The wire I'm using is prebonded from smallbear,

I don't know why it just keeps snapping, grr! Not sure how to secure it down, as I don't have a glue gun, erk.

-Adam

I had the same problem with the prebonded wire. Any stranded wire for that matter, I switched to solid core, problem solved.

People report the opposite, but it works for me.