One comment about my solder bridges totally rewired how I work

About 6 months back I posted a pic of a fuzz pedal I built, this little vero board thing with a bunch of jumper wires everywhere. Some guy commented, not mean or anything, just said 'lots of exposed leads there, you'll chase shorts forever.' I brushed it off at first. Then I had to debug a nasty squeal on a different build two weeks later, and guess what, it was a solder bridge under a 3PDT switch I couldn't even see. I spent 4 hours with a multimeter and a magnifying lamp in my basement in Akron. Now I cut all my component leads super short, like flush with the board, and I use insulated wire for every jumper, no bare copper. My last three builds powered up first try, which never happened before. Has anyone else changed their whole routine over one small critique from a stranger on here?

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1 Comment

mary_schmidt1mo ago

Fix that lead trimming habit though, cause cutting them flush with the board is actually what causes solder bridges in the first place. The solder wicks right up into the hole and can bleed across to the next pad if you're not careful. I learned that the hard way after I trimmed everything super tight and then had a nightmare short on an op-amp build. The trick is leaving just a tiny bit of lead sticking out, like maybe 1mm max, so you can see the joint and the solder doesn't sneak where you don't want it. Insulated jumpers are definitely the way to go though, that part you got right. And honestly, it's not about trimming shorter, it's about using less solder and giving the joint a good visual check before you move on.