Tid Bit's of Helpful Hints or Beneficial Habits in Your Builds Anybody?

[djmiyta]

Just in case your like me and love tidbits of "Hey I wish I thought of that" or "that's a great idea" or not so great I think someone somewhere can benefit. I do all the time. For instance here I was told I should clean my nasty ass board with rubbing alcohol ( he didn't really say nasty but ). I've been building for years and never heard of that. Since then any troubleshooting is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier with a clean board just a great simple idea

I use sockets for everything modifiable on all (almost) my builds and since I swap out parts different lead thickness can make reusing the sockets difficult mainly when the sockets holes are too big (actually for me that's the only problem) and so what I do is melt some solder onto my hot iron and spread a thin layer of lovely melted solder on each leg /lead I'm putting in the socket if its too thick a few strokes of a needle file and your golden.
Some times the original part is the best and in swapping parts I liked the first one only now the socket holes from the previous swap are too big and the original part just swims in the holes sooooo.......

 

[Barry]

Thank you I’ll check it out

I don't drill without it!

 

[Feral Feline]

Do the two-step: Centre-punch and pilot holes are mandatory, then the step bit can do its thing — certainly improved my hand-held drilling when I still did that.

I've got the PPCB drill-templates now, great for the 1590N1 (125B), but for the 1590A/B/BB I still just measure out where I want everything 'cause I rarely follow build plans and have extra switches or knobs.... Looking forward to trying out my drill-press with the templates!

By small runs you mean building several of the same boxes yes? If so yeah that’s something I’ve never even considered doing maybe 25 years ago if someone had mentioned it to me. I definitely missed the boat seeing I built my first pedal a year or two before the internet was born maybe I coulda been Mr PEDALPCB no.1? Anyways hindsight is always 20/20 they say and I enjoy the hell outta my pedals. Even my ugly babies.

Yeah, I had read that many people will build two of the same pedal and keep one while selling the second — hypothetically to help fund their hobby.

So I thought I might do 5 or so at a time, but I'd rather build something new each time for myself or a friend. Also no small runs because my pedals' cosmetics are lacking, so far my pedals don't look professional enough to sell (not a criteria for everyone, I know).

```````````````````````````````

Here's a simple and obvious tip for people who use magnifier-lamps or any type of magnifier.
I just cleaned Magnifier with a spritz of my glasses cleaner and lense-cloth. How did so much rosin get spattered on the lense? Was long overdue, easy to do. Why didn't I do it sooner?

>>>>>>>>>

 

[szukalski]

Ah yes, the two-step. Hand drilling without pilot holes is like solder without flux.

 

[andare]

I use the center punch + pilot hole method. So fare I've only added tiny holes to enclosures and guitars. I haven't drilled a pedal enclosure from scratch yet. Do I just hold it in my hand or is there a better method? I've looked into vises but I would need a removable one since I don't have a permanent bench.

 

[MichaelW]

Sometime I will solder just one of the legs of a component then turn the board over to make sure it's positioned straight (or oriented how I want) on the other side, bend or twist it if needed, then I'll turn it back over, solder the remaining leg, then reflow the solder on the first leg to make sure the connection is good. It keeps things tidy. I mainly do this on electrolytic caps. I could see it being useful for something like the LED resistors on univibes other parts that end up in a standing configuration.

This!.....and I thought it was just my OCD at play here.....turns out I'm not alone! I almost always only solder one leg, flip the PCB over, re-flow the solder while properly seating to straightening up the component.

 

[szukalski]

I use the center punch + pilot hole method. So fare I've only added tiny holes to enclosures and guitars. I haven't drilled a pedal enclosure from scratch yet. Do I just hold it in my hand or is there a better method? I've looked into vises but I would need a removable one since I don't have a permanent bench.

I use a deep box as it catches the mess.

I was using my hands to hold it, then I started using the box from my Hakko and the cardboard packaging is great for holding the enclosure in place.

Better would be a drill press, but I haven't got that sort of space.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

what size pilot holes are you all doing before the step bit? I typically just center punch and then do the step bit without a pilot hole as I've found the pilot holes to not really improve my accuracy (usually centered within .15mm or so) at all. I'm always down to get my drilling more accurate

edit: I'm using a drill press, for context

 

[szukalski]

I think it's a 2.5mm bit. The smallest on my step bit is 4mm and this helps the guidance when drilling by hand.

 

[fig]

Thank you I’ll check it out

Here's my 60 second-video tutorial using that same template.

 

[djmiyta]

Here's my 60 second-video tutorial using that same template.

THAT
WAS
AWESOME
THATS it killer

 

[djmiyta]

Now. All nostalgia aside goose pimples subsiding I wanna slap myself for not catching this sooner myself, cause I'm here so often window shopping 'n eavsdropping but better late than never
thanks for the tip really digging this one

 

[djmiyta]

ONE MORE THING If your really Fig from Futurama I just wanna say your an awesome actor emmy worthy easy What's Fry like outside his role? I bet he's cool. and lastly .... you and Leela ever...ya know get together ahhh ya probably don't kiss and tell but did ya?

 

[andare]

what size pilot holes are you all doing before the step bit? I typically just center punch and then do the step bit without a pilot hole as I've found the pilot holes to not really improve my accuracy (usually centered within .15mm or so) at all. I'm always down to get my drilling more accurate

edit: I'm using a drill press, for context

1.5mm

 

[Bio77]

I use a 1/8'' 90 degree spot drill or a center drill. It sits right in the punch hole. The center drills on Amazon work for awhile but not the spot drills (don't bother). You have to get them from sources other than Amazon.

 

[jwyles90]

I use the center punch + pilot hole method. So fare I've only added tiny holes to enclosures and guitars. I haven't drilled a pedal enclosure from scratch yet. Do I just hold it in my hand or is there a better method? I've looked into vises but I would need a removable one since I don't have a permanent bench.

I'm pretty new to drilling enclosures on my own, but I bought a portable Black & Decker work bench that folds up when I'm not using it, then a couple C clamps to hold the enclosure in-place on top of it. It worked really well for me, and is easy to clean up and store when I'm not using it.

 

[Feral Feline]

"Get good at the difficulty level you're at before going to the next level."



"Right, I'm a beginner, so for my first pedal I'm gonna build a combo with:

Electrovibe Mini
Low Tide Mini
VIIB Vibrato
Chaos Machine
Duo Phase
Double Pendulum Stereo Harmonic Tremolo

Which one should I put first in the chain? How do I wire the input jack to each effect? Do they all need power or can I just use separate foot-switches for each LED? Cause I need to save space for some dirt on my board, too, so I don't want to go bigger than a single 125B for those... what's the next size down from a 125B?"







[EDIT: I should've made this clear when I first posted the above: it was a poke of fun at myself and some of the ludicrous ideas I had when I first started building pedals; I may have started a while ago, but still very much consider myself a newb with a hella lot to learn.]

 

[cdwillis]

Here's my 60 second-video tutorial using that same template.

I wish my automagic punch would fit in the holes on the drill jig, but I have to mark them with a fine tip marker, punch, pilot hole, then step bit. It's still faster than trying to use the carpenters square to mark straight lines then measure, mark, and screw up my drilling like I was at first lol

 

[fig]

I wish my automagic punch would fit in the holes on the drill jig, but I have to mark them with a fine tip marker, punch, pilot hole, then step bit. It's still faster than trying to use the carpenters square to mark straight lines then measure, mark, and screw up my drilling like I was at first lol

That one in the video has never misfired. It's like voodoo or something. I'll look for the link...they'd make great stocking stuffers.

 

[MichaelW]

I bought the PedalPCB drill template set.

I had been eyeing it for a a few weeks one the fence about "investing" in what might be a "passing obsession" with pedal building......then, I looked at the 8 tackle boxes of components, two new soldering irons, and thought "Gee....little late for that Mike, just order it....."

Then @fig's video pushed me over the edge and I I clicked "add to cart"

I have only used it once so far and it works like a champ. So great not messing with paper templates and tape.
I also found a "secret" mode for the template. If you flip it over to the silver side it actually fits on a 1590B enclosure!
Super helpful when converting the 125B into the 1590B boxes.

I haven't figured out a way to use the top end jack drilling template on a 1590 yet, so that's all still manual for me.

M-

 

[MichaelW]

I'll also add that being a total noob at this game a couple of things that have helped me tremendously.

Investing in a good Digital Soldering Station. I looked at a bunch, and the two top ones that I saw reviewed highly were the Hakko FX888D
and the Weller W1010NA. But the Hakko just aesthetically looked to me like it came from a Blues Clues toy set....... Both were $105.

I couldn't decide which one so I opted to "test the waters" so to speak with a cheaper unit and bought a Yihua 939D+.



It's half the price of the Weller and Hakko at $49 and it was Amazon Prime, I figured if it was crap I could return it. Well, turns out to be a super solid piece of kit and I LOVE it. It's a huge upgrade for me from the Weller WLC100 I had been using. Super stable, and I realized that I'd been soldering at way too high a temp previously. My tips last a lot longer now. It's got a replaceable iron and the silicone cable is very flexible and doesn't get all kinked up.

Along the lines of irons, I also ran out of the 25 year old spool of 60/40 Radio Shack Rosin Core solder that I had been using for my guitar related mods. So I had gotten some cheap 60/40 from Amazon that came in these nifty little pen dispensers. When I used those up I started doing some research on better solders and decided to buy a 1lb spool of Kester #44. Wow, another huge upgrade. It's not cheap, but this solder just works so much easier and flows so much better and leaves a lot less flux residue than the cheap no name stuff. I've been re-filling the pen dispensers that came with the cheap Amazon solder I had gotten previously. I didn't know what I didn't know before, but after using the Kester, I don't think I could go back to the cheap stuff.

Last thing I'll mention is the type of tip and quality of the tip. I had been using conical tip for soldering PCBs and it turns out that as that might seem super intuitive, it wasn't really the best type of tip for me. They tend to heat unevenly and one side always seems to be hotter than than the other so I spent a lot of time rotating the tip and probably overheating the board and components. I've since moved to a "screwdriver tip" style and it works a lot better, I usually stand it on it's side against the lead and pad, heating both components and come in from the side with the solder and it flows a lot better onto the pad. The Yihua iron uses standard 900-MT size tips and I've had good luck with the Kzerlly brand from Amazon. (Weird name).