Ways to secure circuit board

[mnordbye]

Anyone have any good solutions to fasten the circuit boards to th enclosures? I know about plastic standoffs, but i'm looking for a solution which not involves drilling the enclosure. I found a post of gluing standoffs, which obviously would work too. 

anyway, anyone have any other brilliant methods other than standoffs? i'm asking because my board doesn't have room for the standoff hole.. (More planning should have occured  )

Thanks
Magnus N

[Papa_lazerous]

I personally use stand offs where I can but double sided foam tape is great too its sticky as anything and the foam part stops sharp soldered joints getting though to the enclosure

[mnordbye]

that sounds like my kinda thing. I see if i can get something like that here in Norway. Where do you usually buy yours?

Magnus N

[Papa_lazerous]

Just art and craft store in town, if you cant get any.  get some real thin foam and used double sided tape on each side and make your own

[aron]

Velcro works too!

[mnordbye]

You just reminded me that i bought some Velcro (don't know why, maybe i've asked these questions before?  ) a long time ago. Should i just glue one of them to the board and then one to the enclosure?

Magnus N

[moro]

I really like hot glue. It's also handy for keeping LEDs in place.

[aron]

>Should i just glue one of them to the board and then one to the enclosure?

I used the velcro with the sticky stuff already on it. Just stick to board and stick to enclosure.

[Crawf]

Hi, I find Blutack really good for this
http://www.blutack.com/BLU_TACK.htm

[Dave_B]

There are a couple of references in the Wiki.  Take a look at "1.4 Mounting PCBs"

[petemoore]

  I've wrapped them up in urethane [even plastic] so nothing except insulation materials can be seen or accessed without poking in the wrap, stuff that in the box, use some packing material.
  Line the bottom of the box with the plastic packaging we get on lots of stuff [clear, tough, insulating], a couple lines of glue along the sides where the material will run up the sides of the box [shape insulation so it can go in, but covers or goes between as much conductive surface as possible, or cradles and inulates the circuit, sometimes I'll wrap a band of electrical tape all the way around the board to itself. get that in there then place and pack circuit in there with...whatever, or hot glue in wood columns vertical to the board along part of two edges, press the board to the insulation on the ground plane [inside surface of top of box], trim columns to the length that'll pin it when bottom is fully in, pad the bottom of the box to be flush with the bottom of the top [eye across the bottom of the sides to size the dowel cuts.
  Press-install the bottom as straightly as possible, board comes right out when bottom comes off.
  Hot glue sticks to phelonic but you can peel it off easy enough, re-heat the column ends [on old teflon] and use a little fresh hot glue on the board to re-install.
  Put paper under the board while hot glueing, try to get only 1 'rubber band' of hot glue honey per dabulation...try to get the glue only where you want it.
  If it's a perfboard, use end stop pieces under the bottom of the board edges under the columns, [build up thick hard cardboard] so the board sits flat and the columns dont crush one jumper into another under the board .
  Thick hard cardboard, exactly the width of the inside, couple layers, then end pieces built up to support, then pin the board to the bottom 'plate' of cardboard, stuff that fit between the sides, hot glue dab on each side or trust the friction fit, if the wires are coming off only one side, using the plastic I mentioned above as a 'slider' surface, the board can be slid into the 'side slots'...use staples on each 'slot' end [the edge of the board goes in the slot] in case the glue won't stick to the plastic good enough. Q/D/~free, pretty easy to work with.
  Line the box bottom, with hard cardboard, make a hard cardboard over-strap for the board, HM glue it, pin strap tight, you're done.
 

[tranceracer]

I make the PC boards cover the whole area of the inside of the box, drill 4 holes in the board for the bottom cover screws to pass thru and secure the board using the bottom cover.  The bottom cover has enough clearance to keep the sodder side of the board from grounding. 

Let me know if you want to see pics...

Of course if the ckt is small this is a lot of wasted space on a PC board but the extra space can easily be used to add another simple ckt like booster or eq.

-tR

[Pushtone]

I'm still loving the nylon machine bolts and nuts.

Not the cheapest method but versatile.

[moro]

Those are really cool. Where do you get them and how do they attach to the enclosure?

[boyersdad]

Personally I almost always allow the boards to sit sung against the sides of the enclosure, components facing "up" (towards the stomped-on surface), and use a piece of non-conductive foam or gaff tape to keep the solder points from shorting on the cover. I try to keep my boxes real tight (ie I have TMK syndrome inside of a B box!) and I've never had any problems with breakage and not working, even with my insane guitar player who maniacally whips his guitar case in and out of the van, up and down stairs, etc. I have yet to repair any of my pedals he uses, but I've fixed the input on his Proco Rat twice now .

For a box with more room to move, why not get some of those little square shaped cable tie pyramids? Stick them on the box, drill a hole large enough for a cable tie, and away ya go! I like those 'cause they're really lo-profile.

Otherwise you could use the same sticky-back standoffs that are used to hold PC motherboards down sometimes. Drill a hole in the board and slip it over the spike. Sorry if you don't understand what I mean. I can't for the life of me think of a better way to explain these. 2am and a few drinks will do that to ya Most PC repair or electronics stores should have a good selection of standoffs which require no drilling. Nothing mucks up a nice finish like a stupid screw on the front of you box for the sake of a standoff.

Remember that many commercial pedals (like the Boss') don't use anything except a thin sheet of plastic to separate the board from the cover. No screws hold it down.

[calculating_infinity]

I use plastic standoffs when I have them.  I recently bought some permanent mounting tape at my hardware store.  So far it has worked very well!  It was very cheap which is why I like it so much.   

[JimRayden]

Call it cheating or not but PCB-mounted pots will keep yer board from bouncing around without any additional securing.

---------
Jimbo