"Ron" wrote in message
...
Eeyore wrote:


p.p.s The hairline crack around soldered joints is especially common
where the
drilled hole size is not ideal ( oversize ) for the lead diameter. I have
seen
manufacturers specify hole sizes very poorly with the inevitable outcome.
Hence my
PCB footprints often use my own estimation of the appropriate drill size
rather than
the data book one. Plenty of other people do the same.

Graham


My Dad - who taught me to solder some 50 years ago - use to say that a
good solder joint started off as a good mechanical joint.

As a teeenager, I probably spent thousands of hours wiring up uniselectors
and GPO relays with tinned copper wire and sleeving, on every joint, the
wire was either wound around the tag or passed through a hole, if it was a
lead through a circuit board, the wire was bent over at right angles on
the solder side.

We manufacturerd slot machines btw.

Ron

Arrrggghhh !! Dontcha just hate trying to unsolder and remove components
with bent-over legs ... ? Very true though that you should have a good
mechanical joint first. It's the way I was taught too, not quite so long
ago, but close. At college, we had to make connections to lengths of
tagstrip, without melting the insulation on the single-strand wire, as
practice pieces.

Arfa