Workflow for building a big batch all at once

[Coach_McGuirk]

If working on a a few dozen pedals, (or more) what is an efficient way to break down the work. Does it make sense to try populate most/all of the board and then solder? Or place and solder one component at a time? Or some approach in between?

Previously, when I've done a "big batch" of pedals, I went through and placed the common resistors, then soldered those. Then I did the rest of the resistors, soldered those. Capacitors, solder. Etc. This worked well enough but spread my soldering work across many days. I'd rather condense my soldering into more discrete chunks, because I often need or want to clean up my entire soldering workspace area.

Also, when I was placing components. I would look at the bag (e.g. 100k 1/4 resistor) and then look at each board and place those resistors. At the end, I would go back and catch any that I missed and get those one at a time.

The question seems to come down to how much of the board to populate before it makes sense to solder and trim the leads before populating more. It doesn't make sense to populate a board completely if the leads get in the way when soldering.

 

[drgonzo1969]

I usually do 10 or so pcbs at once. I just do all the resistors and diodes for all boards first then solder all at once. Then continue on with caps and transistors.

 

[Erik S]

One at a time personally, but I’m not in any hurry.

I’ve seen a few pedal company production floor tours on YouTube. EQD definitely has some out there. I forget who else. I remember one that showed boards getting populated maybe 4 at a time in a flippable vise.

I’m always interested to see how workbenches and workflows are set up in production environments and in hobby shops. I’ve had a few jobs where I got to work on optimizing assembly processes and I really enjoyed it.

 

[Barry]

You could bend the leads all the way to the board and snip them at the edge of the solder pad, then go through and solder all at once, it might make removal a bit more difficult if you had to replace something.

 

[Coach_McGuirk]

I could probably do 10-15 pedals at once.

IC sockets, Resistors/diodes capacitors/transistors (clean PCB with IPA), pots/switches and off-board wiring

It does get grueling building this way though, because there is no payoff for a while and then suddenly a lot of pay off all at once. I just have a lot of time to kill recently and figure there are worse hobbies.

 

[Coach_McGuirk]

You could bend the leads all the way to the board and snip them at the edge of the solder pad, then go through and solder all at once, it might make removal a bit more difficult if you had to replace something.

This is what I actually end up doing anyway. Call it bad soldering practice. I don't snip the leads before soldering though. I just do a good handful and then solder and then snip. I

 

[Barry]

If I'm building three or four of the same pedal I've found it best to build and test one, make any changes or corrections, and then I'll do the others simultaneously.

 

[Barry]

This is what I actually end up doing anyway. Call it bad soldering practice. I don't snip the leads before soldering though. I just do a good handful and then solder and then snip. I

I wouldn't call it bad soldering practice, many people do it that way.

 

[Fingolfen]

I've never actually done more than about 6 at once, but I do assembly line at least the PCB population. I do resistors in batches of 10-15 or so... depending on what the spacing of the board will tolerate. Robert's perfectly linear layouts lend themselves to doing more than 15 at a time... my... not so linear layouts... do not!

I use the standard order as well - resistors / diodes / IC sockets / film caps / electrolytic caps / transistors / trimmers (and other odd stuff)

 

[falco_femoralis]

I don't want this to feel like a "job" so I'll switch it up every time. Sometimes I'll do all the resistors on each board, then all the film caps, etc. Sometimes I'll finish one board at a time.

Usually I don't have every component on hand to finish a build so I'll get as far as I can with what I have and then order what I need to complete it, and depending what is left over will determine how much of that board I'll do. But I never build say 10x of the same board, it's always maybe 5 or 6 different types of boards I'll make in an afternoon.

 

[Robert]

When I was building in batches I did it like this:

I split my BOM into two or three sections.

I'd work down the BOM inserting each item on the list into all PCBs one at the time. (eg: install all 1K resistors into 20 - 40 PCBs, move to next item) This repetition cut down the "hunting" for the spot on the PCB where a component goes.

Once I finished all of the components in a section of my BOM I would solder, then clip leads.

Continue on to next section, repeat.

Pots/switches, mechanical assembly, and wiring all came last.

Like @falco_femoralis said, working this way turns into a job really fast and takes a lot (all?) of the fun out of it... but if you're doing it with the intentions of selling large numbers of pedals it is a job.

 

[Bio77]

I bend the leads flat against the board and snip them before soldering. Just be careful with the snipping part. I once bought an expensive sniping tool that ended up being too sharp. It cut through the masking of the board and I had a bunch of resisters shorted to the ground plane. I switched back to my cheap-o Hakko snips after that.

 

[Coach_McGuirk]

Thanks for the tips, y'all. Good stuff.

I'm not building batches of the same pedal, rather. I ordered a bunch of different PCBs and am trying to build all of them relatively quickly and efficiently.

Seems like I'm more-or-less following the same type of process but there are some good tips in this thread.

 

[The Gator]

Personally I like to build one board at a time on a rotating circuit board holder. I install all of the resistors first along with diodes and if needed sockets for ICs. Basically all the physically low level components go on first as they will be hard to reach if you put the tall stuff on beforehand. Then I like to add in capacitors and pots toggle switches and such. I recommend not bending the leads on the other side they tend to just get in the way more when your populating a lot of components at once. Instead I would use some tack putty put a row of resistors in and then put the tack putty over the top and press it down to hold them that way when you flip it over all the leads are straight. If you ever have to troubleshoot or fix a mistake bending the leads makes it extremely difficult to remove components later on when you're desoldering. If you use the putty and keep the leads straight, it works a lot better. The component almost falls out Wendy soldering. I build one board at a time even when I'm doing multiples of the same board I like to test the more complx components to make sure that I'm not going to have to remove them due to a flaw later on. I take each board when it is completed and go over to the test Iowa power board and plug it in and check it out

 

[Big Monk]

My largest batch so far was 30 of my newest version of the Pompeii simultaneously.

I do it in chunks, i.e. Power supply components for all boards, then input buffer for all boards, first and second stages, then I/O boards with diodes and jacks, switch boards and stomps, then pots for all boards. Just prior to final terminations, I'll prep and pre-soldered all offboard wires.

 

[airbud]

wow, great insight in this thread. I just got my first few sales, so having this info squirreled away is very useful and timely.

 

[Coach_McGuirk]

My largest batch so far was 30 of my newest version of the Pompeii simultaneously.

I do it in chunks, i.e. Power supply components for all boards, then input buffer for all boards, first and second stages, then I/O boards with diodes and jacks, switch boards and stomps, then pots for all boards. Just prior to final terminations, I'll prep and pre-soldered all offboard wires.

Sounds like you're taking more of a circuit perspective approach, whereas others seem to be thinking more in terms of the physical characteristics of the board and components.

I suppose that is a good way to learn circuits for those of us who are still new to this stuff. I hardly even look at the schematic when I'm building. I'm mostly just reading the silk screen and populating the board, hardly thinking at all about the circuit itself.

 

[Alan W]

This is what I actually end up doing anyway. Call it bad soldering practice. I don't snip the leads before soldering though. I just do a good handful and then solder and then snip. I

I end up clipping my leads twice, the first time, leaving 1/4 inch or so, then the second, after soldering. The first clipping keeps the board a bit more accessible and also gets rid of the longer leads, which act as heat sinks while you’re soldering, although with the 1/4 w resistors and small caps used in pedals it probably doesn’t make a big difference.

 

[JTEX]

I'm not building batches of the same pedal, rather. I ordered a bunch of different PCBs and am trying to build all of them relatively quickly and efficiently.

If they're all diferent designs, it seems to me that there isn't much of an advantage to building them all at the same time instead of one at a time It might even turn out to be slower and more error-prone as you try to focus on too many dissimilar things at once.

 

[DailyDovetails]

I bend the leads flat against the board and snip them before soldering. Just be careful with the snipping part. I once bought an expensive sniping tool that ended up being too sharp. It cut through the masking of the board and I had a bunch of resisters shorted to the ground plane. I switched back to my cheap-o Hakko snips after that.

I had always snipped after I soldered but I tried this yesterday and it seemed to work well. I'm going to explore it a bit more. It was nice to not have to maneuver the iron around all the leads and I'm guessing without having to heat up the extra mass from leads it might be a little easier to solder.