Now this is probably getting into the realms of ‘well I do it like this’ and I’m sure there are heaps of solutions - of which I’d appreciate any tips of course, but until my fingertips are suitably ‘annealed’ I have yet to find a way to hold components straight & even when soldering.
Also, I don’t like bending leads - too hard too swap out components that way.
I was thinking of a spring loaded holder which clips onto 2 opposite sides of a PCB which would have a 2-axis ‘slider’ and another axis for up/down positioning - somewhat like the configuration of a plotter.
Anyway, another product that’s probably already been made which I haven’t found.
You can buy assembly aids that consist of a frame holding the PCB. The components are inserted and then a plate covered with foam rubber is pressed against the top of the board, holding the components in space whilst the frame is turned upside down, for soldering. They are quite large, so that many boards may be assembled at the same time.
One of my occasional tasks at my first job after college was assembling boards. Typically I’d have to hand solder 50-200 boards when the regular assemblers were too busy or needed help.
The trick is to solder only the components that are roughly the same height at once. So start by stuffing the board with resistors & diodes only. Hold a piece of foam rubber (we used a large blank board with some foam glued to it) on top of the components to keep them from falling out and turn it over. Now you can solder all those components. Clip off the leads and inspect.
Insert next highest component (we arranged trays of parts on the assembly tables in order of height) and repeat.
It goes quickly. Until our volumes got to the point that wave soldering was cheaper, this is how we did it for years. It’s still the way I hand solder any through hole parts on my boards now.
Hey, thanks people for the tips. Much appreciated.
Did a bit of searching last night and didn’t find much at all, so the net is
a bit light on info regarding this.
Leon (and lyndon), just wondering about how the foam locates components at a specific height, and gets them vertical, also how do you get in there to reposition the components?
beebop, yes I’ve tried tape, also Blu-tack which sorta worked.
Anyway, thanks again for the tips. Of course I’m still hoping there may be a ‘product’ type solution (or heat-resistant fingertips at least :-).
The foam copes with small height variations, if they are too great you do it in stages. You have to be careful lowering it onto the board, to make sure that the parts remain vertical.