# Possible to bend the tabs on pots holding the PCB?



## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

I've run into a bit of a problem with the Tayda drill tool for the Clandestine preamp.  I am sure it will get solved but it got me thinking if I could have gotten away with the pre-drilled 3 hole 125b.  The holes are off by a few mm.  I am not sure if you can bend the potentiometer tabs to accommodate a few mm?  Has anyone done this in the past?


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 8, 2021)

You could always cut the legs off and run wires to. Bending the legs might be possible but you have to make sure the shafts are still straight


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## Betty Wont (Nov 8, 2021)

Instead of that, consider drilling the holes out a bit bigger and using larger diameter washers on the pot shafts to cover the bigger offset holes.


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## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

Betty Wont said:


> Instead of that, consider drilling the holes out a bit bigger and using larger diameter washers on the pot shafts to cover the bigger offset holes.


I hadn't thought of that.  I dread the idea of marking up nicely UV painted enclosures but I could probably hand drill them out from the underside.  There are also some PCB projects from other sites I want to try.  They are also off by just a few mm.  



Harry Klippton said:


> You could always cut the legs off and run wires to. Bending the legs might be possible but you have to make sure the shafts are still straight



Won't the PCB be flopping around on the wires internally then?  The tags from the pots normally hold the pcb in place right?  Or do people just put in some foam or secure the PBC some other way?


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 8, 2021)

Preverb said:


> Won't the PCB be flopping around on the wires internally then?  The tags from the pots normally hold the pcb in place right?  Or do people just put in some foam or secure the PBC some other way?


Yes and no. Depends on how you do it and how much room is left in the enclosure. I've done it a few times to make my own knob layout and I like the results


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## Robert (Nov 8, 2021)

Preverb said:


> I am not sure if you can bend the potentiometer tabs to accommodate a few mm?  Has anyone done this in the past?



It's certainly not the ideal solution, but I've done it...   I've put a PCB with 1.3" spaced pots in an enclosure drilled for 1.6" spacing by bending the pots outwards slightly.   As long as you're careful and put the stress on the _lugs_ and not the PCB/solder joints you can do it.

What happened with the Tayda drill template?   The coordinates appear to be correct.

Nevermind, I remember, this was the situation where the template tool throws an error for no good reason.

The 3-knob template is the same spacing as the Clandestine Preamp, but you'll have that unneeded center hole.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 8, 2021)

Betty Wont said:


> Instead of that, consider drilling the holes out a bit bigger and using larger diameter washers on the pot shafts to cover the bigger offset holes.


This is good advice too. 

At the end of the day, you just need to try some stuff and build some pedals to find out what works for you. Have you completed any builds yet @Preverb ?


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## temol (Nov 8, 2021)

It's quite easy to break this brown piece of laminate that holds potentiometer legs. So I would not recommend bending legs. Just use different type of the potentiometer (solder lugs, short straight legs) plus resistor cut off legs. If you do not want to buy any extra pots - just cut off the legs close to the laminate and use resistor cut off legs.


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## Robert (Nov 8, 2021)

It's not quite as suitable for the Clandestine Preamp since the only other anchor point is the toggle switch, but in some cases you can mount whichever hardware will fit the drill pattern, then offboard wire the remaining hardware.    This works best when a pot is in the center of the PCB.


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## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

Robert said:


> It's certainly not the ideal solution, but I've done it...   I've put a PCB with 1.3" spaced pots in an enclosure drilled for 1.6" spacing by bending the pots outwards slightly.   As long as you're careful and put the stress on the _lugs_ and not the PCB/solder joints you can do it.
> 
> What happened with the Tayda drill template?   The coordinates appear to be correct.



Don't know.  I had an initial response from Hugo.  I sent him the screen shot earlier today but will likely have to wait till tomorrow now.


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## Robert (Nov 8, 2021)

Try this template and see if it will work:





						Tayda Electronics Drill
					

Tayda Electronics Drill Designer for custom enclosures.




					drill.taydakits.com


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## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> This is good advice too.
> 
> At the end of the day, you just need to try some stuff and build some pedals to find out what works for you. Have you completed any builds yet @Preverb ?



Still waiting on the PCBs to come over to Australia.  And my Tayda order has been delayed due to some error with the drill tool.  That's what prompted this thread.  I suspect the pcbs will get here pretty soon though.  Hopefully Hugo will figure out why the error is occurring when I try to assign the template to the job.  I've built a few amps in the past so hopefully the pedals will go smoothly.


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## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

Robert said:


> Try this template and see if it will work:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for that.  Unfortunately still the same result.  I wondered if submitting the drill request by itself without the UV printing would work but no luck with that either.


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## Robert (Nov 8, 2021)

Ahh well, was worth a shot.   I thought that _maybe _since it was derived from the 3-knob template (with one hole removed) that it was still expecting the extra set of coordinates so I recreated the template from scratch... no such luck.


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## Preverb (Nov 8, 2021)

Robert said:


> Ahh well, was worth a shot.   I thought that _maybe _since it was derived from the 3-knob template (with one hole removed) that it was still expecting the extra set of coordinates so I recreated the template from scratch... no such luck.



Thanks.  Appreciate the effort!  Hopefully it will get sorted out soon.  Otherwise, I might try to just make the 3 hole 125b work.  I guess with this one, the switch will have even shorter tabs so all of the tab bending will have to be at the one pot.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 8, 2021)

Preverb said:


> Still waiting on the PCBs to come over to Australia.  And my Tayda order has been delayed due to some error with the drill tool.  That's what prompted this thread.  I suspect the pcbs will get here pretty soon though.  Hopefully Hugo will figure out why the error is occurring when I try to assign the template to the job.  I've built a few amps in the past so hopefully the pedals will go smoothly.


Hope all your stuff gets there soon and you can get this thing on the move 🕺


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## Bio77 (Nov 8, 2021)

I bend pot tabs all the time and a lot farther than a few mm.  It's not a problem.  Best way is to put the pots in the enclosure first then mount the PCB and solder it in.  You can take it out from there if you need to test it.  You don't want to bend the pots once they are soldered in because it can put stress on the joints.


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## Robert (Nov 8, 2021)

Speaking of that, ever seen how a King of Tone is assembled?

Like I said, bend _slowly_... those take like three years to bend.


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## Preverb (Nov 9, 2021)

All is good now.  Hugo fixed the error on his side.  There is a pcb from another site that I was thinking of for bending the tabs.  But now that the drill tool seems to be up and running again, maybe I can create a template for it.  Only problem is his stuff is in imperial.  When is the US going to adapt metric?  Imperial seems so archaic...


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## music6000 (Nov 9, 2021)

Robert said:


> Speaking of that, ever seen how a King of Tone is assembled?
> 
> Like I said, bend _slowly_... those take like three years to bend.


I always thought the waiting list was for that the build take so long to populate.
So all this time is spent trying to get the Pots to line up with the holes so you can put the lid on!!!


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## music6000 (Nov 9, 2021)

temol said:


> It's quite easy to break this brown piece of laminate that holds potentiometer legs. So I would not recommend bending legs. Just use different type of the potentiometer (solder lugs, short straight legs) plus resistor cut off legs. If you do not want to buy any extra pots - just cut off the legs close to the laminate and use resistor cut off legs.


You are in for a shock when you pull a circuit that has the Long Leg PCB Pots, I've seen them with a 45 degree twist in them & they still work!


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## mnemonic (Nov 9, 2021)

That top row of pots on the KOT looks like a real time waster from an assembly point-of-view. 



Preverb said:


> Won't the PCB be flopping around on the wires internally then?  The tags from the pots normally hold the pcb in place right?  Or do people just put in some foam or secure the PBC some other way?



I’m a cheap-ass and I will buy the cheapest pots for my builds, often solder-lug or short pcb pin, I just solder solid core wire to the pot and bend it to wherever it needs to go. Never let me down. Not as stable as the usual angled pcb pin pots but if your pcb has 3 or more pots it’s very stable.

For tagboard stuff I usually stick some double-sided foam tape I get from wilkos or B&M (in the U.K.) which comes in a roll, on to the back of the pots and push the solder side of the board on to that. It holds pretty good.


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