Break Away Female Headers - How do you cut/break them

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1

I am talking about these: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … cts_id=115

Quote from product description:

Single row of 40-holes, female header. Can be cut to size with a pair of wire-cutters.

I am having a hard time to cut/break/saw these nice. The male headers break easily though.

How do you do it? Is there a trick?

Thanks in advance!

2

They aren’t really designed for breaking. I cut them with sidecutters and tidy them up with a scalpel. It wastes one or two each time, but they are cheap.

Leon

3

I’ve done it Leon’s way. I’ve also used a sacrificial knife blade and heated it up. final product looks really good if you’re careful.

4

Ok, thank you guys. I will try it that way!

5

Use two pairs of pliers: one on either side of where you want it to break. Snaps easily.

6

I ‘discovered’ the joy of the exacto saw the other day. Works great, and you don’t waste any. Something like this bad larry: http://www.amazon.com/Xacto-X75300-Prec … dbs_misc_3

7

As leon said these arent designed for braking, these are: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … cts_id=743

8

Those only accept machine pins, though. You can’t use them to plug on to .1" header pins, so their usefulness is limited.

I’m not certain why they are labeled breakaway as they are clearly not from the pictures. I have breakaway female headers and they actually have break lines and snap apart cleanly similar to the male ones.