Short transistor legs

[chris.knudson]

I've wrapped a few round and then soldered them but the joins looked terrible which is why I started the thread in the first place. I'm going to have another go tonight now the helping hands has arrived. I'd just like to get them a little tighter and then I'll use some heat shrink to hide my sins.

Heat shrink will also help the joints from coming apart when you solder them to the board. Even if the solder melts, as long as they stay together, they should stay connected.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Well I've had another go at this and think I've gotten a technique which is fiddly but works. My joins are still pretty ugly but I'm confident my next one will look better and after I get some heatshrink on I don't think it'll look too bad.

I used my new helping hands to get the transistor and my new leg in place. Then used some really thin wire from a stranded cable to wrap around.




First wrap around the leg. This pretty much locked them in place together and it was much easier to get the other wraps on.



All wrapped up and ready to solder



After soldering. It's still pretty ugly but not as bad as attempt number one on the top leg. Attempt number two was the bottom leg.




It looks worse all zoomed in like this than it actually is. The main thing is that they feel really sturdy, I'm not too concerned about it coming apart when I solder the transistor onto a board and the import bit is it still works. I had my doubts tbh.

It's a 2sb175 with a hfe of 71 and a leakage of 0.039

I just need to find my heatshrink now and then have a go at another one. I think these could look pretty tidy once I get my technique down.

Major thanks to @Nostradoomus for pointing me in the right direction. I was trying snipped resistor legs but they were much too large and more of a challenge than the super fine wire I ended up using.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

That's the second one done. It was a bit tidier and a lot quicker to do. This definitely works and I'm pretty pleased with the final result. I'll try them out in my fuzz face tester board tomorrow after I drop my kid to school.

 

[Nostradoomus]

Nice save! I guess I should have said they were from 1/8w resistors

 

[chris.knudson]

That looks like it'll work.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Nice save! I guess I should have said they were from 1/8w resistors

I'd probably still have struggled with those too. I felt like a ham fisted idiot through the whole thing

The wire I did use is super thin. I took one strand out of some stranded cable. Now I've got a process the other ones I need to do tonight should be much quicker.

 

[fig]

Dang...I've got a lead-stretcher somewhere....I'll look around for it.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Dang...I've got a lead-stretcher somewhere....I'll look around for it.

You wouldn't have a big one of those would you? I could do with another few inches of height.

 

[Johnnyorange500]

Nice one! Great info and methods. I’ve got quite a few transistors with short legs and mentioned something about some nkt275 I’ve got that have short legs in a post not so long ago, so this has helped.

 

[temol]

What about the broken transistor leg - flush with the base? Have you ever tried repairing? Metal can with resin filling. Or soviet transistors.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

What about the broken transistor leg - flush with the base? Have you ever tried repairing? Metal can with resin filling. Or soviet transistors.

I've thankfully never broken a leg on a transistor. Would it even be possible to fix a leg broken flush with the resin filling? I suppose you'd have to try and carefully chip some of the resin away to expose metal to solder to but it's bound to be crazy hard to do.