Perfing perfing perfing

[orgaqualia]

I perfed a Lavarim and a Mosfet boost recently and found the process rewarding, but a bit tedious.
After doing some searching around here, I have picked up some pointers but I still have a question.
Is creating solder bridges between pads and mounds of solder on and around component leads the only way?
I tried sticking some thin gauge wire in the holes with the leads and jumpering the leads across the top but soon realized that I couldn't stuff more than one wire in there reliably. I guess that I'm asking for a survey(if there are enuff diffrent ways that is) of technique.
I have bought boards and etched boards and like some others here I hate the chemical process involved in etching. I have ruined every pair of pants that I wore during the process due to nearly fatal clumsiness.

[MarkDonMel]

I may not be understanding your question, but have you tried those flea clip things?  I have also broken old tranny sockets and taken the little things out of them???

Thanks,

Matt.

[snoof]

if you're asking about joining adjacent holes on a pad-per-hole perfboard, I usually tilt my iron slightly and heat up both pads at the same time and flow the solder between them (solder bridge).

[Doug_H]

I don't use pad per hole. I just route the component leads to ea other and solder them. For "jumpers" I use lead trim and cover those with stripped wire insulation.

[Meanderthal]

 Ditto what Doug H said... I find pad-per-hole too easy to accidentally create solder bridges, and too restrictive with the layout if I'm just following a schematic. If I wind up with pad-per-hole, I just flip it so I solder on the side with no pads.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

<cough> stripboard <cough>

[orgaqualia]

Yeah, I'm interested in stripboard, just haven't tried it yet. I have used those weird boards from radioshack with the busses and 2 and 3 hole traces, but I think that they're too constricting.
I don't know wy I never tried the soldering the leads together thing. I will add that to my arsenal though...
thanks,
Dave

[Processaurus]

<cough> stripboard <cough>

Yeah, if theres any doubt in your mind about needing to change stuff around, its a royal pain to desolder perfboard when you use the bent over component leads to make connections (especially if its the good board that has through-hole plating, what a nightmare).  Plus strip board is the only board medium that I know of where you can understand what's going on without looking at the bottom of the board.  If you run out of room or need to get more compact, you can always cut the traces like vero. Its easy to duplicate designs too.

My favorite stripboard is the stuff with the ground plane on top, its convenient to be able to solder components to it if a ground bus isn't nearby, plus it can help keep noise lower.

[aron]

The radio shack perfboard with square holes used to be able to easily flow solder from one pad to another. Of course this is a double-edged sword....

[oldschoolanalog]

The radio shack perfboard with square holes used to be able to easily flow solder from one pad to another. Of course this is a double-edged sword....

A razor sharp one at that 

[Barcode80]

i use vero and pcb most of the time, but i think a good perf build is a confidence builder and is very rewarding, given the detail required. i try only to perf small circuits, though, given the pain of desoldering bent leads if something goes wrong.

when soldering perf i generally have a similar approach to aron's (check out the beginner build pictorial). solder the pad where the lead comes through, then solder the other end to the other lead. i usually have 3 or 4 components that provide the main leads to solder everything to then the other components are clipped short like on vero. so if i have a resistor that 4 things connect to, i will likely pull its lead through, bend it over, solder the pad where it comes in, then route shorter leads from the other components to it.

did any of that make sense?

[Meanderthal]

 Yes, that's better than trying to create a pcb with solder bridges...

[orgaqualia]

I did another mosfet boost last night and I think I prefer it, at least for simple circiuts. I got a block of foam rubber and stuck all of the components in it through the board for a test layout. Once I had that figured out I did the bent leads thing and presto! It took all of an hour and a half. At first I was a bit concerned about the "looseness" of the components on the board itself but after adding a few more it tightened right up. Of course, I haven't tested it yet, but I was really careful and it seems all right.
I agree with all of the comments suggesting that a perf build is more educational than PCB plus boosting confidence.
Thanks for the advice.
Dave