9mm Potentiometer support tabs?

[D.M.N.]

Might be a dumb question, but did a fair bit of searching on this and other forums and didn't see a definitive answer (could be a missed something). I have a design I'm working on that's very dense, and I want to use 9mm potentiometers. All that I can find have those support tabs sticking down from the underside of the pot to secure it to the board, but can those just be clipped off? Board is already going to be well secured, and if I need the pots to stay stable better, I can just do a dot of hot glue on the back of the pot to the pcb. Besides stability, those tabs don't provide any other functionality, right?

 

[Erik S]

They’re a little harder to get a hold of compared to the ones on 16mm pots, but you can snap em off with a good set of pliers.

 

[jcpst]

I keep two pairs of wire cutters. One where I jacked up the spring by snipping metal tabs, now reserved for snipping tabs. The replacement pair just cuts wire.

 

[Nostradoomus]

dremels are great for this

 

[pricklyrobot]

Some mini Side and/or End-cutting pliers are good to have around for stuff like this.

Tips (to avoid dulling/breaking your pliers):
• start from one side and cut it in 2 or 3 ‘bites’ instead of one
• or just score it with your cutters then bend it back and forth with your regular flat pliers till it snaps off.

 

[vigilante398]

They can be clipped off and aren't needed for anything but stability, but if your design is so densely packed that you absolutely have to do that to make it fit, are you even going to be able to get your fingers in there to turn the pots?

 

[pricklyrobot]

I interpreted it as the 9mm pots are being used because of the dense design, and the OP just doesn’t want to bother putting extra holes in the PCB and soldering in the support tabs that aren’t needed structurally.

Not that it’s so dense that the support tabs won’t fit

 

[Erik S]

I thought we were talking about the little locator pin on the shaft side of the pot.

Just realized you're talking about these. I did one project where those needed to be removed. I just bent them back and forth with pliers until they snapped off. I probably wouldn't subject a pair of cutters to that.

 

[Feral Feline]

Might be a dumb question, but did a fair bit of searching on this and other forums and didn't see a definitive answer (could be a missed something). I have a design I'm working on that's very dense, and I want to use 9mm potentiometers. All that I can find have those support tabs sticking down from the underside of the pot to secure it to the board, but can those just be clipped off? Board is already going to be well secured, and if I need the pots to stay stable better, I can just do a dot of hot glue on the back of the pot to the pcb. Besides stability, those tabs don't provide any other functionality, right?

I clip them off all the time for 1590A builds (and other builds of varied enclosure-sizes).

There is almost always a sharp little nib left over after cutting them off, so I take a file to the nib — that way I don't slice myself while handling them putting them into the build.


Occasionally I'll just bend them inwards so they're out of the way, but I prefer to snip them out than bending.


Of course, if they're going in a PCB designed for them, with the requisite accommodating holes, I don't snip them.

 

[D.M.N.]

I interpreted it as the 9mm pots are being used because of the dense design, and the OP just doesn’t want to bother putting extra holes in the PCB and soldering in the support tabs that aren’t needed structurally.

Not that it’s so dense that the support tabs won’t fit

Yep, this is how I intended it. Cramming two Ashly SC-40s in a box, and I want to populate the board like with 16mm with components on the other side, and didn't want to have to work around the tabs for routing. Plenty of space around the pots themselves to be easily turned. And thanks for the tips everyone, won't be using my wire cutters for them, I have proper cutting pliers or mini tin snips that'll handle the legs easy.