PCB Mounted Pots . . . bending a straight lead?

[Jederino]

Hey all, long time lurker, first time poster.

Bout to make a large order from Tayda (5 pedals and a amp mod), and I can get EVERYTHING (awesome!) from there.  Well, just about.  They have PCB mounted pots, but the leads come straight out.  Can I bend those down to mount to the egodriver pcb I just received, or do I need to get pots where the leads are pre bent?  I've seen them from mouser, but if I can get all parts from one place, especially for Tayda's price, I've prefer that.

Thanks!

And much appreciation to everyone, I've learned a lot here!

[Haberdasher]

they won't be long enough to reach the pcb when bent.  I wouldn't bend them, I'd say you should just extend them with wire or clipped diode leads or other.

[Stomptown]

Unfortunately they are not long enough to bend and mount. However, you can just buy the normal solder lug pots and solder leads to the lugs and bend them 90 degrees. You can use the extra leads from your resistors, or better yet from a 1n4001 diode (the leads are thicker). Just solder the leads first. Then mount the pots inside the enclosure. Next, thread the leads through the pcb. Get the pcb level and solder the leads to the pcb. Last, cut of the excess leads and BAM! PCB mouted pots! Hope this helps...

[aballen]

Just get solder lug pots.

Also get some king of "pot protector" like this.
http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=1195

Then do the leads like this, using the snipped of resistor leads


My pic is of the right angle leads, but you get the idea.  This approach is actually pretty handy because if you need to debug your build you can bend the pots over and get to the board... no so easy with right angle board mounted pots.