How to solder to a broken potentiometer?

[jdduffield]

I didn’t have a lug version of the potentiometer I needed. So, I removed the legs from a PCB mount version of the values I needed. (See photos.) When I soldered wire to it I either destroyed the pot or couldn’t get a good connection. Is there a good way to solder to a pot where the legs have been removed? Or is it simply a case of “buy the right one”?

 

[maxamendel]

yea I've done the same in a pinch. "buy the right one" is always good advice.

for this situation, I would've left at least an eighth or even a quarter inch of material on the end so I had something to solder to. you can do that by trimming after where the lug goes ata right angle and then folding it back.

its not very likely you've burned the pot out yet, and if buying and shipping more pots is cost prohibitive and you just want to get it over with, get creative with soldering some solid 20 or 22awg wire to try and give your self more material. and no such thing as too much solder

 

[Harry Klippton]

You can solder right on to the metal there where the legs were snipped off. I've done it loads of times

 

[tegendemuur]

You could've twisted multi-strand wire into "lugs" and give them a good twist-around over the legs. Anyway, to fix this, a bit of flux on the wire and flowing some solder into it should make it grab rather quickly onto the leftover bits.

 

[pricklyrobot]

I cut the legs off PCB-mount pots all the time, but I leave more of the leg on there so I can just use the existing hole like a lug.

Given what you have, I’d probably loop the wires through the remaining hole (the ones on the PCB-like stuff), give them a twist, and solder to the flat piece of leg metal on the back. Heat shrink at the end as needed.