attaching wires directly to components

[bassmannate]

I have to say that I just plain suck at this. I have a hard time getting things to stay put long enough to get an iron and solder onto a wire and component lead and when I finally do, the result is much less than ideal. Any tips on how to do it correctly?

[Kearns892]

I try to avoid this, as it is less than ideal in most circumstances, however, I do this occasionally to hook up LEDs. Just remember that solder should be providing as little physical support as possible. I use  third hand tool (should be less than $5 from harbor freight or ebay) to hold both pieces, strip a good length of wire and essentially bend two hooks one around the other. After that I solder the connection and cover it with heat shrink to prevent shorting and relieve stress.

[maarten]

Have a look at old tube amps, and you will see that they connected components not only to tagboards etc., but also to each other - in well built amps this was done by holding the legs (wires) of the 2 (or even more) components next to each other and then a thin, uninsulated wire would be wound around the legs of the components. Maybe 4, 5 turns minimum, maybe 10 or 12 turns maximum. After binding the components together in this way, the whole connection would then be be soldered. This will give you a very strong connection. I still tend to do this when building tube amps and then especially with connecting high voltage parts, just to be sure that bad soldering or unforeseen forces applied to these parts do not cause any problems. You have to be sure though that you are connecting the right components, as it is a nuisance to alter your connections later on.

Maarten
edit: and use heatshrink of course, like Kearns 892 said, surely when working with high voltages!

[mth5044]

I typically wrap the wires around the lead of the component so that when put down, it doesn't move. Solder it up and heat shrink and it's good to go.

[bassmannate]

Thanks, guys! I'll give some of these a shot! Do they carry heat shrink tubing at Radio Shack? I've never looked. I've only got 1 PTP component and it's going from a pot to an output jack.

[R.G.]

In general, it's a bad idea to simply attach a wire to a component lead when the component lead is not massively bigger and more sturdy than the wire.

This is because the leverage of the wire will likely break off the component lead over time with vibration or mechanical movement. Wires need mechanical support somehow. Even then the wire often breaks itself right at the joint or at the place where the insulation was stripped.

[Philippe]

*hmmm...vaguely recalling a somewhat antiquated pre-PCB method called 'point-to-point'* 

[R.G.]

*hmmm...vaguely recalling a somewhat antiquated pre-PCB method called 'point-to-point'* 

Me too. Those "points" were mechanically secured to lugs and terminal strips to keep the components from breaking leads.

The first rule of point to point wiring is to wrap the component leads into the lugs on the terminal strips or sockets so the joints were mechanically solid before any solder is applied. The wires never go directly to the component leads, but only to a terminal strip lug where the wire is mechanically held in place by the terminal lug, not the component lead wire.

Any time you see a component lead wire (that is, resistor, capacitor, transistor with wire leads, not wire lugs) soldered directly to a wire, you can think to yourself "That's going to break off with any mechanical problems at all."

[Steve Mavronis]

The only place I've done this is with an offboard indicator LED. But I first solder on a metal socket pin (after I file off one end to make it hollow through) something like these on the LED leads and then solder the wires into the open ends. I figured it would be a more secure and solid connection:

[bassmannate]

Once again, thanks for all the tips. I'll probably find some way to secure everything down. I've already started transferring my circuit to a new board. Until now, I've always had trouble with soldering in general. The past few days, I've discovered that it's mainly working with wires in general since most of the stuff I've done has been guitar cavity wiring as opposed to anything involving components on a board. Putting components on a board is a piece of cake. Attaching wires to anything at all (including to a board) is tricky stuff. Maybe I just need the right sized wire. I've been having to drill the holes out on my strip board because the wire I have on hand is too big to fit in them. I use the smalled bit I have but then the hole is a bit too big and I have a lot of space to fill in with solder. Maybe I'll make a trip to Radio Shack to pick up a few bits and pieces and some smaller wire while I'm at it.

Edit: What if I used sockets for all my off board wiring? They're much more like components than wires (the board will lay flat while I'm soldering) and then I can just push my wire into them? Does this sound practical for all my off board wiring?

[Steve Mavronis]

You don't need sockets for off board wiring points. Just add strain relief holes to better secure your wires from breaking off like I do. Look at the picture in my post within this related forum topic about pedal construction tips:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=86156.0

[bassmannate]

You don't need sockets for off board wiring points. Just add strain relief holes to better secure your wires from breaking off like I do. Look at the picture in my post within this related forum topic about pedal construction tips:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=86156.0

Wow. I wish I had thought of that. We do this kind of thing with cable runs at work. Not through a board or anything but we keep pressure off the connections fairly similarly. I've already got my board cut down so I'll have to figure out some way to tie the wires to the board. It would help if I was patient enough to get everything into the enclosure before I wire it up, too, so that everything's not flopping around.

[petemoore]

  Leads-through small patch of perfboard, solder. This method made mounting and insulating easier.