Cheap breadboard renovation

[mdh]

I just discovered something that may be interesting to folks who have inexpensive breadboards that have started to wear out. I have a Radio Shack board that I got probably around 15 years ago or more when I was a kid, and I've noticed lately that there are very few places on the board where I can plug in even an 8-pin DIP and make reliable connections to all of the pins.  I also recently came across this thread: http://www.elixant.com/~stompbox/smfforum/index.php?topic=33942.0, which made some mention of which breadboards are any good. Jameco got good marks, and Radio Shack in particular didn't.

Well, looking at my board from the side in the long dimension, I noticed that in some places the board was pulling away from its base, exposing some of the little strips of springs that act as tie points. Aha. Perhaps it's not that the springs are wearing out, simply that they're pulling away from the board. Turns out Radio Shack used this really high-tech substance known as double-stick tape to secure the breadboard to its base, and the board pulled away, especially toward the middle.

Anyway, since I'm really, really cheap, I took it apart, and I'm pretty well convinced that it will be trivial to fix. In general, it looks like the springs are in pretty good shape. There are even holes in the back side of the breadboard which are just asking for little #4 or #5 self-tapping screws.

No question, really, just thought this might be useful to some of my fellow cheapskates.

[Noplasticrobots]

I've noticed the use of that rare and expensive double sided tape you speak of in my RS breadboard. I'm just waiting for it to fall apart...

[Dave_B]

I've only used the RS boards and I've got at least eight of them.   Most of mine date back to 1980-83, though they've only seen a few years of actual use.  I can certainly confirm the problem of leads bending when inserting components and the general pain-in-the-ass nature of the RS boards.  Until I read this thread, I thought that's just the way things were.  Jameco boards are available to me locally, so thanks for posting that!