Klein Bottle SMD Question

[EBK]

By the way, as a heads up (even though you won't get there for a while), Peter never reveals in his build instructions how he manages to solder the two potentiometer pads located between C5 and C21.  This was the hardest part for me.  The right-hand pad in that spot can be left unsoldered (it doesn't electrically connect to anything).  The left-hand pad there is a tight reach.  If I had to build this again, I'd leave C5 off until after the pots are soldered and then solder C5 in topside by keeping the leads long.  But, you can come up with your own strategy when you get there. 

[Masochist]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely take that into consideration when I get there. Have had some challenging builds where it gets pretty tight when it comes time to solder the potentiometers.. I've definitely scorched a few caps! Would love to avoid this sort of thing though

[Masochist]

Quick update: I used my new rework station to desolder those 2 chips and soldered a couple of new ones in the correct way this time

Man you weren't joking about the lack of space between the caps and pots!! Doesn't help I got the 4x .47uF WIMA caps from Tayda because Mouser didn't have them in stock.. they are a little thicker than the outline on the board so there's a bit of overhang on each side.

Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should solder in everything apart from the electrolytic caps that are obstructing my access to the pots, then just like in the video I'll put the pots and switches in loose then insert the lot into the enclosure and solder those in place so I know it's all going to line up perfectly with the drilled holes. Then I can take it all back out, solder the caps and wires in and continue on from there?

Will watch the video again and see if that is going to cause issues. Can't see that it will but better safe than sorry.

[EBK]

My .47uF caps were a bit wider as well, and I think I used the ones from Peter's shopping list (I did have to substitute a few components to avoid backorder, but I'm pretty sure I didn't change those).

For the trickiest solder joints, I ended up soldering all of the components but taking the board out of the enclosure to solder the pot pins from the back.  I had to bend the pot out of the way a bit, but it still lined up fine afterward (not ideal, but should hopefully hold up well).

One more heads up while I am thinking about it:  the powder coat on my enclosure was coating quite a bit of the inside of the box.  If I were to simply assemble it as instructed, the enclosure would have been ungrounded due to this insulation around every jack (yours may be different).  I chiseled off some of the finish inside the enclosure so that the output jack sleeve could make electrical contact.