Poll: who snips before soldering?

[dan.schumaker]

I populate a little, bend a little to hold, then flip and solder.  I trim when the forest of leads gets too thick to get the soldering iron in.

I am intrigued by the cut and bend nippers.  But part of me wonders if I would be able to change, I'm probably stuck in my ways 

[matmosphere]

Ok.  I'm going to add one of these to my Amazon cart soon.

They seem to be called cut-and-bend or cut-and-clinch tools.  Anyone own one?

Had never heard of this before. I just ordered one. It'll take a few weeks for me to get it but I'll report back.

The one I got was:
Hakko CHP TP-5000-15-D

Cost a little more than I'd hoped but if it works and I could populate everything the solder all at once it will be worth it.

[HamSandwich]

My mind is blown that people snip then solder. I refuse to believe this isn't a dream.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I populate a little, bend a little to hold, then flip and solder.  I trim when the forest of leads gets too thick to get the soldering iron in.

Same here. Populate and bend until just before the leads get too 'dense'. Flip, solder, snip... repeat. 

Order of Operation:

- Resistors, IC sockets, and diodes
- Film caps
- Electro caps
- Transistors
- Other electronics (relays, transformers, etc.)

[Bio77]

Mixed.  Sockets in with blu tack, solder then snip. Bend and snip resistors and diodes, solder in one pass.  Bend and snip film caps, solder all in one pass. Electros and transistors, usually place one or two, solder then snip.   

[Ben N]

After.

[Aentons]

My mind is blown that people snip then solder. I refuse to believe this isn't a dream.

I don't understand how you would even be able to solder without the component falling out if you don't bend the leads

[madbean]

Load all resistors and diodes, snip.
Load all electrolytics, snip.
Load all film caps snip.
Load all transistors and sockets, whatever is left, snip.
Solder everything in one go.

Meh, it works for me.

How do you keep everything in place before turning it over to solder?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I yell at them until they are too scared to move.

[Philthy]

Thanks for the replies guys.

My mind is blown that people snip then solder. I refuse to believe this isn't a dream.

I don't understand how you would even be able to solder without the component falling out if you don't bend the leads

^This is fundamentally why I started the thread. .

[WormBoy]

Thanks for the replies guys.

My mind is blown that people snip then solder. I refuse to believe this isn't a dream.

I don't understand how you would even be able to solder without the component falling out if you don't bend the leads

^This is fundamentally why I started the thread. .

Well, I thought the question was about when to snip, and not when to bend?  Further, if you solder the components in order of increasing height, the table is your friend.

[somnif]

I don't understand how you would even be able to solder without the component falling out if you don't bend the leads

BlueTak!

[EBK]

Ok.  I'm going to add one of these to my Amazon cart soon.

They seem to be called cut-and-bend or cut-and-clinch tools.  Anyone own one?

Had never heard of this before. I just ordered one. It'll take a few weeks for me to get it but I'll report back.

The one I got was:
Hakko CHP TP-5000-15-D

Cost a little more than I'd hoped but if it works and I could populate everything the solder all at once it will be worth it.

I'm really looking forward to your report.  I have the same model sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to decide. 


My life changing experiences in building:

1) Using a step drill bit for the first time
2) Switching from diagonal cutters to flush cutters
3) Discovering the joys of eutectic solder
4?) Changing to a snip-before-soldering workflow?

[davent]

After, but... i've read you risk damaging the solder joint doing it this way so not recommended.

As to keeping parts from falling from the board, i load same height parts starting with lowest, flip it over so the components are resting/supported by the bench or flat riser then solder away. I do use one of the cheap crappy third hands to hold the pcb and stop it skating away while doing the soldering but the pcb and components are resting flat on the riser.
dave

[Aentons]

I don't understand how you would even be able to solder without the component falling out if you don't bend the leads

BlueTak!

As to keeping parts from falling from the board, i load same height parts starting with lowest, flip it over so the components are resting/supported by the bench or flat riser then solder away. I do use one of the cheap crappy third hands to hold the pcb and stop it skating away while doing the soldering but the pcb and components are resting flat on the riser.
dave

but..but..... why? 

[MTK]

After, but... i've read you risk damaging the solder joint doing it this way so not recommended.

As to keeping parts from falling from the board, i load same height parts starting with lowest, flip it over so the components are resting/supported by the bench or flat riser then solder away. I do use one of the cheap crappy third hands to hold the pcb and stop it skating away while doing the soldering but the pcb and components are resting flat on the riser.
dave

That's how I do it too. Just started it recently. It's waaaay faster than 1 at a time like I was doing for an entire year.