bending a lot of resistor leads

[Wagener]

I need to bend all the resistor leads for my leach amp before I solder them to the board.

The resistor lead bending tool is too expensive for me at this stage.

Any hints on bending more than 200 resistors so that they fit perfectly on the board?

[dmfraser]

A little hand bending tool that has graduated steps op .05" from .4" and larger is about $5.00. If you cannot afford that, you can't afford to build the amplifier.

Otherwise, for a 0.5" lead spacing, cut a strip of wood so it is 0.45" wide. Then just bend the leads down over that. For 0.4" spacing, cut the strip to be 0.35" wide and so on.

[tiroth]

I have installed some thousands of resistors in my life and have never used anything but my fingers. As long as you leave a bit of an angle to the bend instead of making it 90 degrees exactly, the leads will form to the right distance when the resistor is inserted. Especially with 500 mil spacing.

[Peter Daniel]

Also the spacing can be adjusted by amount of force you are using to bend the leads. That's what I actually do all the time.

[Wagener]

thanks for advice. After about 100 of them I got it right using only pliers.

As for the bending gauge - here in south africa the cheapest one goes for R390 (about $48) so its not really an option and it is because of the amp that I don't have the bucks for that!!!

Well I will manage without it

[Keld]

this wonderfull tool (biegelehre) costs 0.6€ at Reichelt, :

[UrSv]

You need:

3 cans of Windhoek Lager.
5-10 old scrapped CDs after failed copy session of some copy protected game CD.
1 roll of duct tape, preferably the one the Police use to seal off crime scenes.

1. Open a can of beer (if you're old enough otherwise it to Dad).
2. Tape the right number of CDs together in a neat pile offsetting either 1 or 2 CDs from the stack top and bottom enough to let the resistor fit in the pit formed on that side.
3. Press the resistors against the pit bending the legs around the edges.
4. If the angle is to sharp on the legs, open the other two cans of beer.

[jleaman]

i use a resistor bender for any kind from the cheap junk resistors to the really expensive one's my dad gave me 2 of them to use.. because i was using pliers. So no i use this new tool that was given to me..

[GRollins]

I use an old pair of slim needle-nose pliers. Each side of the jaw has a semi-circular cross section. Open the jaws and put the end of the body against the flat of the jaw, then bend the lead down across the outside of the jaw. It makes a perfect bend every time. You can change the radius by moving up or down the jaw where it thickens or thins.
There are those who say that a 90 degree bend does bad things to the crystalline structure of the wire, thus effecting the sound. I have no opinion. I just bend quarter-rounds because I like the way it looks. If it sounds better too, then that's fine by me.

Grey