Under board wire soldering

wadeberglund · Post by **wadeberglund** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:36 am

For those of you who have done this, have you every had any trouble with the wire coming unsoldered while you are soldering on the board components? I'm worried that one of them is going to come loose from the turret and it will be a pain to get it resoldered.

Thanks!
WA

rjgtr · Post by **rjgtr** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:40 pm

A trick someone here suggested is to loop the wire through the top of the turret and hook it. I've done it both ways and both work. Now I generally solder all the top components and then solder the under board stuff. I also leave the under board connections to a minimum, where I've really got a long run.

Guitar Adjuster · Post by **Guitar Adjuster** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:54 pm

I have underboard on my 12xxx and will never do it again. It's too easy to drop a connection if you change anything on the board. Much easier to have everything on top and I think it looks better, just my 2 cents.

wadeberglund · Post by **wadeberglund** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:38 pm

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to stick with wrapping the wire ends around the turrets and soldering that way. It seems like it would be a nightmare to get one of the wires reattached if it did come loose from the bottom of the board. I typically manage to have a couple of wires desolder themselves when I am soldering board components, so I better play it safe.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:29 pm

i tried the bring it up through the turret & put a little hook on it this week. worked beautifully.

wadeberglund · Post by **wadeberglund** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:33 pm

Yup, I saw George suggest that a few days ago, so I did it on the build I just finished up. I agree, it did work great.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:54 am

in fact, i am doing it a little different this time. i soldered all the "connecting" wires around the pins. put the the buss wires underneath hooked in & place & have all the components laid in unsoldered. seems to be working well. no hurry, waiting on trannies.

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:12 pm

I solder all my wires underneath, and then the componets on top
before I even put the board in the chassis.
Then I check that nothing came loose underneath. (It never has, but I allways check anyways.) Then I bolt in the board, and connent all the leads that are just hanging at this point. The board looks like a 40 leagged octopus before I put it in the chassis.

Doing all this before makes checking a lot easier.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:52 am

exactly the way i will be doing mine MM

JD · Post by JD » Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:22 pm

For the underboard wires, you can put a small piece of masking tape or dot of adhesive to hold the wire so if you are soldering on top it will not drop down.

NitroLiq · Post by **NitroLiq** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:14 pm

I've been thinking about this alot lately as I'll be doing this soon for the first time (board wiring) and right now I'm leaning towards wrapping them around the turrets topside. Underboard wiring looks neater but if you have to go back to resolder underneath the turret after everything is wired up and the board is in place, it seems like it would be a nightmare to get to, especially if you're running short leads....alot of desoldering/resoldering time. If the wire is wrapped around topside, you get a very good mechanical connection and it's easy to get to if you need to swap the wire (or the component it's connected to) out.

wadeberglund · Post by **wadeberglund** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:44 pm

If your board has holes drilled to keep the wire from moving around while you are soldering to the turret, I agree. I think that this is probably the way that is most ammenable to making changes or repairs to your circuit. However, I always hated the connections that had three wires coming in (ie, where the choke, OT center tap, and fuse holder connection). I have a hard time keeping them all wrapped to the turret while I'm soldering. For that one I run under the board, have all three wires come over the top of the turret, bend them over the top and solder in place. Although I do have to admit that if I have to desolder a wire from my circuit, I usually just trash the wire and start over since the remaining solder makes it a pain to work with. I find that it is too hard to bend back around the turret and I never feel like I've gotten a solid connection. For the way I like to do things, going under the board and wrapping over the top of the turret from the inside works best for me. Everyone has their own method that works best for them though.

NitroLiq · Post by **NitroLiq** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:00 pm

Yeah, one of the negatives about wrapping the wire around the turret is desoldering. It's great to make a great connection but sometimes desoldering and trying to unwrap it can be a pain (especially if hot solder flies your way...hah!). Maybe it's eaisier using a desoldering pump as I'm only using desoldering braid to soak up the old solder. To get the wire to stay wrapped I usually just tin the end of the wire (a little dab will do ya) and wrap it around a pen or pencil to create the hook...makies it alittle easier to shape it for the turret. Soldering "around" a turret is definitely trickier than filling the turret's hole.

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:10 pm

mightymike wrote:I solder all my wires underneath, and then the componets on top
before I even put the board in the chassis.
Then I check that nothing came loose underneath. (It never has, but I allways check anyways.) Then I bolt in the board, and connent all the leads that are just hanging at this point. The board looks like a 40 leagged octopus before I put it in the chassis.

Doing all this before makes checking a lot easier.

exactly the way i do it.