Sliver mica caps and sockets

[jball85]

Does anyone know if the average C.D. silver mica cap (say 300v) has small enough leads to fit into the usual single sockets that everyone uses?

[cjkbug]

no they are too thick.

[gtr2]

I sometimes prefer just to cut down the cheapies to size.  If you have good flush cutters you can be pretty precise.  It seems harder to cut them than it actually is.  These work great for stuff with thick leads.

This style

http://www.taydaelectronics.com/servlet/the-105/8-pin-DIP-IC/Detail

Josh

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

When I first got into this I met a guy who only collected amps dated from 1958-1964 or something crazy like that and has a good 50+. He was so clean about his work, he once compared soldering to surgery in terms of precision. Anyways he would take a razor blade to every component and scrap away the oxidation that forms on the leads. I though it was interesting though, never heard that mentioned anywhere else. I was looking for a solution to a clean reliable joint, while he clearly has all the time to be insanely tight about his work.
Back to the topic, it might be slightly time consuming but I'm sure you could scrap it down to size, especially if it's only for those particular silver mica's. Or go the easy route and buy those sockets like Josh suggested. 

[jball85]

I got some of the lower voltage silver micas to fit in the sockets everyone uses. Im actually not going to use sockets for anything except for ic's anymore cuz of a massive problem I had  with my boneyard. If its a must socket component I may take exception, but I'd rather save the headache and rage.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

I got some of the lower voltage silver micas to fit in the sockets everyone uses. Im actually not going to use sockets for anything except for ic's anymore cuz of a massive problem I had  with my boneyard. If its a must socket component I may take exception, but I'd rather save the headache and rage.

What happened?

[eldanko]

You using Micas in place of Ceramics, or something else?  What's the advantage here?  (I have a few Micas lying around and never thought about using them in pedals)

[jkokura]

Micas are reportedly 'higher fidelity'. Really, they have less noise than a ceramic cap. At low values, poly film isn't really used (i.e. 47pf), so silver mica is a good alternative to ceramic at that value. However, the caps are larger and the cost is much higher.

If I had a project with 10+ ceramic caps, I'd be very tempted to go with Mica. If I had 1 or 2 ceramic caps to use, I'd be fine with them.

Jacob

[shawnee]

Anyways he would take a razor blade to every component and scrap away the oxidation that forms on the leads. I though it was interesting though, never heard that mentioned anywhere else. I was looking for a solution to a clean reliable joint, while he clearly has all the time to be insanely tight about his work.

Although I am just getting started building pedals, I have been in the electronics field for over 20 years now. Man I wish I could remember everything I learned in school but we swap boards and don't do hardly any component level repairs. I'm trying to "re-learn" some of this stuff now though. Anyway;

I do this too. On the etched PCB's I also softly scrape all of the the solder points and rub them with alcohol. After that, I "tin" the area with just a tiny amount of solder (just enough to coat it with solder and not fill the hole). After I scrape the the component legs I put in it place and put a tiny dab of flux on the hole. Then I solder it in. It takes a few extra seconds but it makes such a nice joint and takes almost no time for the solder to flow from the board to the component. It really reduces the amount of heat that you have to put on the component to make the joint which is always a good thing. It also reduces the chances of solder jumping over making an unwanted connection to a nearby pad. By tinning the board hole, the solder flows all the way around the hole quickly and makes that nice "volcano" looking joint around the component leg. If you have ever soldered a joint only to see the other side where you didn't have the soldering iron and see no solder there, you know what I mean. If your joint doesn't look like a volcano and has solder that looks like it is flowing down and not up the component leg, it is not a good joint. You could use 000 steel wool to clean the whole board but I prefer to scrape just the area that I want to solder. It will reduce the chances of solder going somewhere you don't want it to go (like a nearby pad). By scrape I mean gently rubbing until you can see that the area is shinier than the unscraped areas. You don't really have to do this on the fabbed PCB's though.  Those boards only have the joint area around the hole showing and are pre "tinned".

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Shawnee - That's some precision work your explaining. I know what you mean about the solder looking good from the side where the iron is and not so great on the other side. My simple solution to this is to apply the solder to the opposite side of the lead from the iron. This will cause the heat to transfer over, then I scrape the iron on the lead as I lift it away. Works really well for me. I recently bought the Kester solder diameter .022 IIRC and its fabulous. It's thin so I have to purposely add to much solder which works well cause I apply just the right amount of solder needed. Haven't had any problems with the solder jumping like your mentioning. The stuff I got is 63/37 instead of the normal 60/40 which has a significant lower melting point. No extra flux is needed since it melts immediately and its super flexible. It was so easy to use, it actually got me really excited. Plus this stuff is like 20 bucks for a pound which seems like its gonna last me for the rest of my life with how much I'm using now. Your method definitely helps ensure success with is very comforting!

[shawnee]

Yeah I use the same method of putting the iron on one side of the connection and the solder on the other side. Getting everything clean first really makes it easy though. If you have ever seen inside a Dan Zink pedal you will see pure art! That guy makes the mostly 1590A's and the work is just beautiful. I guess I am alittle OCD too but I am not in his league. Another thing I like to do is solder all of my components from shortest to tallest so when I lay the board upside down on the bench, the component being soldered will be held in place by being sandwiched between the table and the PCB. Usually resistors and diodes, IC sockets, film caps, then electrolytic caps last.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Yeah I use the same method of putting the iron on one side of the connection and the solder on the other side. Getting everything clean first really makes it easy though. If you have ever seen inside a Dan Zink pedal you will see pure art! That guy makes the mostly 1590A's and the work is just beautiful. I guess I am alittle OCD too but I am not in his league. Another thing I like to do is solder all of my components from shortest to tallest so when I lay the board upside down on the bench, the component being soldered will be held in place by being sandwiched between the table and the PCB. Usually resistors and diodes, IC sockets, film caps, then electrolytic caps last.

Daniel Zink is very clean and does very great work. I used to do that method of using the table to keep the component in but I eventually got a vice which makes it so much easier.

[shawnee]

I have a vice too but I like to solder with the board flat on the table. Maybe I am not as coordinated as you are.   

I really need to make a nice solder station/bench/shelf. This pedal building is addicting!

[jball85]

I used sockets for the led clipping diodes on the boneyard. For some reason I couldnt get a reliable solder joint. I tried many times. Its all good now though.