I've populated (nearly) my first board and noticed during the process that my DIP sockets have legs that protrude out the other end of the board farther than my other components which have had the leads trimmed after soldering. Should I trim those legs or leave them alone? They're like little needles!
You can trim them without a problem. I use flush cut wire cutter (similar to what you would use for fret job) to trim the socket legs.
Alright, thanks! I've got a set of Hakko flush cutters that I've been using to trim all the other leads, so I assume they'll work.
They should work fine. I just use the bigger wire cutters to try and save the wear on my good micro cutters. It's a pretty lousy feeling when you nick up a good set of cutters - I didn't do it on DIP legs, but I grabbed my best Xcelite to trim a low E string, and ruined them completely (when it says "Only cut copper wire" they mean "Only cut copper wire.").