Perfboard/soldering question

demogo

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OK, so I got some perfboard that uses standard .100 holes and I have 8 wires coming into this board and will have 16 leaving. That's going to push my components / wires to use holes that are close together.

I'm looking at this thing with its tiny holes and .100 spacing and am wondering if it really is reasonable to be using holes that are next to each other? They seem really close; the tiniest mistake and I'll bridge them or not use enough solder and won't get a good connection.

Am I just worrying about nothing or is it bad practice to try to use the holes next to each other with perfboard?

Thanks!
 
I would have no problem using holes next to each other if it was absolutely necessary. Just check for bridges with a multimeter before firing it up.
 
The surface tension of molten solder make it more difficult than you expect to bridge.

I had a cut trace the other week... Cut was tiny, less than 0.1mm wide. I scraped the mask off the trace on either side, and tried to bridge the gap with solder. Couldn't get it to bridge... it always just flowed back to either side of the gap. Had to solder in a tiny strand of wire it to bridge it.
 
The surface tension of molten solder make it more difficult than you expect to bridge.

I had a cut trace the other week... Cut was tiny, less than 0.1mm wide. I scraped the mask off the trace on either side, and tried to bridge the gap with solder. Couldn't get it to bridge... it always just flowed back to either side of the gap. Had to solder in a tiny strand of wire it to bridge it.

Never underestimate my ability to screw something up. :)

Thanks guys. Will try to position some blank holes wherever possible to give myself some room to get the soldering iron in there.

Soldering too many wires/legs in adjacent .100 holes gets challenging after a while. Hopefully this will turn out okay.
 
It shouldn't be too challenging. If it is then you're probably using a tip that's too big or too much solder.

My tip is conical I think. Should I be using a smaller tip? I want to say I have a chisel tip too but I'd think that'd be even bigger.
 
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