Soldering Component Order

[KRK]

Hi,

While I'm waiting for parts to arrive for a first project (Rebote 2 Delay). I was wondering what order is best for soldering.

ie. place all resistors in the board then solder,

place all caps in board then solder etc...

Or do most people place all components then flip the board over and solder all at once?

Cheers!

[R.G.]

Place them in order of height.

1 - all jumpers
2 - all resistors and diodes
3 - sockets and/or ICs
4 - transistors
5 - nonelectrolytic caps
6 - electrolytic caps

That way you can stuff the board, put a piece of cardboard on top of it and flip it over. The cardboard keeps the parts you've just placed from falling out.

[nelson]

Place them in order of height.

1 - all jumpers
2 - all resistors and diodes
3 - sockets and/or ICs
4 - transistors
5 - nonelectrolytic caps
6 - electrolytic caps

That way you can stuff the board, put a piece of cardboard on top of it and flip it over. The cardboard keeps the parts you've just placed from falling out.

Thats the order I solder components in 

Although I bend and twist the leads once in order to keep them fixed to the board. I solder all the components in then cut the leads with toe nail clippers. Before moving onto caps etc.

[KRK]

Cool, sounds like I'll try and see which way is most comfortable to me... Looks like it is easier to add components by height but soldering is upto me. Cheers!

[petemoore]

  Although I bend and twist the leads once in order to keep them fixed to the board.
  Yupp Sometimes I'll just do 'em in a coulpe or few batches.
  Measuring every resistor, just prior to it's becoming part of the boards populus is a good practice.
  When soldering a row of socket pins, it can be done any order, but I find soldering pins with a next door pin 'open' [no solder on it]...then I have that sides direction I can slop...ie it can be harder to not touch solder if there is solder right next to the pin on both sides. Starting from the middle and working out...if you slip the odds go from 100% chance of an unwanted solder trace to 50%. Globulations of solder between socket pins...no fun, to be avoided.

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

+1 for bend and twist 

for particularly unruly parts i have tape.

[H S]

Place them in order of height.

Thats the order I solder components in 
Although I bend and twist the leads once in order to keep them fixed to the board. I solder all the components in then cut the leads with toe nail clippers. Before moving onto caps etc.

Ditto.  I spread the leads north and south so the components won't fall out.  If you do a lot of boards with the same width--say, your standard 1490BB board--build a cradle with two sides sloping at ~10-15 degrees and separated by about the board width.  Like this:  \__/  That'll hold the board firmly enough without any clamps.

[tiges_ tendres]

Ive started to solder in, out and ground board wires before adding caps, simply because I bought a bumper pack of caps which are great in terms of the values in the pack, but not so great in terms of voltage, and Ive found that some caps are so large, they partially obscure in, out and ground wire holes!

Hopefully, all of you plan better than I do so you dont have to go through this trauma!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Another thing is, if you are soldering with the board flat on the table, some people think it helps to have a sheet of foam under the board (this presses the components against the board).

[R.G.]

Some folks glue that foam to cardboard or thin plywood or other sturdy sheet so they can put it on top of the board, then used clips or rubber bands to hold the board to it. The foam presses the parts in and has a lot of compliance.

But it makes for stinky work if you overheat the leads.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I had one of those frames (about 20 inch by 25 inch) that you can clamp a number of boards in, so then you insert the components, then swing a foam board over & rotate it, then solder.. but I never found it a real advantage, it means you have to put all the components in at once which makes for crowded work) or keep turning it over which is tedious. I just mention it, because SOME people might find it a really good idea, and a DIY person could roll their own easy enough, I guess.

[phaeton]

Interesting and ironic that this thread was here... i was just going to start a discussion on board population/soldering

So far, -I- have always populated the board with everything, then soldered and clipped as I went.  True, this does make for a crowded board, but i guess i need to have the whole layout planned ahead before I commit it to metal.  I mulled this over a lot yesterday when I stuffed my latest creation on a RS board (the one with all the bus strips and stuff), and then took everything out and re-populated them in a smallbear pad-per-hole board about half the size.  I find pad-per-hole boards with no busses on them a mixed bag of creative satisfaction and downright aggravation.  It got cramped quickly, and well, i still think it'll work, but it's going to look like hell when I'm done.  Twisted up balls of metal, jumpers to go across the board to other subsections, and jumpers coming back, etc.  Some of the boards I've seen you guys make are beautiful.  I've still got a lot of practice till I get there.

Something else I started doing, but probably is a bad idea too-  In places where I want to say, connect a transistor lead to a capacitor lead, I place them in holes next to each other, and twist the leads together.  In theory, I can solder the joint down low and then snip off the rest.  They usually don't get soldered to the pad, just the mechanical twistforce is holding the components down.  Is that bad?

Another part of me says that moving to etched pcb might somehow be easier- I can lay out contacts and traces ahead of time on paper and drill bigger holes to connect more leads directly together, etc.... But well... you know...

heh.

[phaeton]

*bump*?

[Mark Hammer]

In part, the "correct" order is given by the physical properties of the components.  This includes:

• height
• susceptibility to heat and static (more susceptible best left for last)
• match to layout spacing
• awkwardness of insertion

So, the reason why resistors generally go in first is because it is very tricky to insert a resistor in between two tallish caps wedged in close on either side.  It is also easier to fit the cap over top of the resistors after the resistors are already in.  If the cap can be bent over to lay flat on its side, it is also easier to judge the component-side lead length needed by the cap to do so if the resistors it will sit on top of are already there.

Diodes can generally go in at the same time as resistors.  If I'm going to use IC sockets, these will go in after the resistors, partly because they are the next tallest thing and have a similar height to each other, and partly because they are tricky to install last.

For me, a more critical decision is whether to solder leads to the board and trim them appropriately to attach to chassis components, or to solder leads to the pots and switches and trim the leads for installation to the board.  These days, I dab a small "hill" of hot melt glue around the base of any leads that are secured to the board, for strain relief, and to prevent fracture.  Naturally, one tries to strike a balance between remelting the glue during installation of other components to the board AFTER the wires are attached, and the awkwardness of trying to apply glue to the wire and board around it when all this other stuff is in the way.

[phaeton]

Ah.. I see...

Unfortunately it's too late for the current project.  I soldered it up last night.  I had the board already populated with everything all at once.  I guess I'm just trying to rush things too much.  On top of it, there were more things on the board than I was comfortable with.  It was pretty cramped, but of course it wasn't until *after* I was done that I considered standing the resistors up on end (take up 2 hole spaces) instead of laying them flat (take up 4 hole spaces).  I was using a smallbear board but I remember some of those crummy RadioShack boards I used in the past having holes big enough to where I can stuff two leads through them instead of one.  That's pretty handy for a lot of stuff.  The smallbear board (which is highly superior anyways) doesn't seem to let me do that.

Also, because of my poor layout, I ran out of places to attach pots, switches etc to ground on the board.  I ended up creating a 'common ground' on the ground terminal of the volume pot, and grounding other things through that.  In theory works the same, but looks really sloppy.  *plus* the tip on my soldering iron has burned down to a blunt little nub.  I need to improve the lighting in my new work area.  Heh... all kinds of things working against me.

I always say "well, i could always rebuild this circuit later" but this one is probably the worst job i've ever done.  It really bugs me.  I'll most likely build another one just to have it done *right*.  Besides, now I'm considering modifications and/or enhancements- "But if I put a 1M or 500K pot on the drive instead of the 100K, it will let more amplitude into stage 2 and have even MORE gain" etc.......  This one *may* develop some reliability issues, but it should still sound good in the meantime! 

[vanhansen]

Interesting.  I didn't know there was a proper order, or recommended order.  Since I perf everything, it's much easier for me to just do one part at a time following the layout.  Sometimes I'll put two parts in at a time and solder but they're usually ones that are before or after one another in the circuit.  This method helps me to know the exact flow of the circuit and easier for troubleshooting (if needed).