Looking for inexpensive resistors?

[Chuck D. Bones]

I picked up a couple of resistor variety packs on Amazon. These will be used mostly for breadboarding, but may end up on a few builds when I don't have a particular value.

925 5% 1.4W carbon film resistors for $7.

2600 1% 1/4W metal film resistors for $13.

I spot checked several of them and they were all in-spec. These are not quite as good as the ones I buy on Tayda, Mouser or DigiKey, but they are good enough.

 

[fig]

They don't have those spindly needle-like legs do they? Those things need a sandwich!

 

[Betty Wont]

They don't have those spindly needle-like legs do they? Those things need a sandwich!

I don't mind skinny legs and all, if I'm soldering them in, but for the breadboard I need fat bottom girls.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I hear ya. Some of my breadboards are pretty tight and even regular leads are hard to stuff in sometimes.

Reminds me of a dirty joke I heard on the radio, but I'll save that for another time.
Suffice it to say it was Bill Ballance's last day at KGBS.

 

[BuddytheReow]

I bought a set from Amazon about a year ago. They say metal file but have closer to 5% tolerance. Still good enough for breadboarding

 

[jwyles90]

I spot checked several of them and they were all in-spec. These are not quite as good as the ones I buy on Tayda, Mouser or DigiKey, but they are good enough.

This might be a silly question, but how do you determine that they're not as good as the Tayda ones? I recently was given a big ol' box of resistors and transistors like the ones you've listed from Amazon. I'd like to make use of them since they're there, but am hesitant to put them into an actual build.

 

[benny_profane]

I would imagine the criteria is build quality (i.e., lead thickness) and conformity to stated tolerance (i.e., is the deviation from the stated value within the tolerance indicated).

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

The main thing that's questionable with the ones I bought on Amazon was the lead finish. It was shiny, but uneven, so I don't know of they are properly tinned/plated or not. I have not tried soldering them yet.