Teknotoyz
Well-known member
I have been tinkering with some U5000 chassis's and I think every one has transistors that are loose on the neck board.
These transistors have nothing other than the traces holding them, and get damn hot to boot.
So, the perfectionist in me decided to build a better mouse trap.
I know most just load up the traces with solder, but I really like something solid.
After a little bit of looking, I found these copper micro rivets on Ebay.
This picture is them on a TOWEL! really tiny things.
This is the neck board after I removed the transistors.
Decent traces on the left, terrible on the right.
I practiced a little on a junk PCB and found that a little dremel to open up the hole in the trace first helped a lot.
If you go straight to a drill, the traces tended to lift up and tear due to the spiral of the drill.
Inserting the rivets (grommets) wasn't too bad, I think it was a 1/16 drill bit and a little wiggling to make the hole snug.
This was actually one of the practice boards, I used a bit slightly larger here and the rivets were too loose for my taste.
Rivets are installed, looking real good.
I haven't yet punched them.
My punch rig.
I used the bolt head to be the "anvil" for the component side.
It was small enough to fit to the PCB and miss the resistors.
My punch was actually a 1/16th scrapbook punch ordered off of Amazon.
After punching the rivets.
Just a light tap did the job, too much and it spreads out near other traces.
Solder will seal the hold on the board.
The finished repair!!
It's not nearly as clean as I normally like it to look, but it is secure and connected.
I'll clean off the flux residue before I install this.
These transistors have nothing other than the traces holding them, and get damn hot to boot.
So, the perfectionist in me decided to build a better mouse trap.
I know most just load up the traces with solder, but I really like something solid.
After a little bit of looking, I found these copper micro rivets on Ebay.
This picture is them on a TOWEL! really tiny things.
This is the neck board after I removed the transistors.
Decent traces on the left, terrible on the right.
I practiced a little on a junk PCB and found that a little dremel to open up the hole in the trace first helped a lot.
If you go straight to a drill, the traces tended to lift up and tear due to the spiral of the drill.
Inserting the rivets (grommets) wasn't too bad, I think it was a 1/16 drill bit and a little wiggling to make the hole snug.
This was actually one of the practice boards, I used a bit slightly larger here and the rivets were too loose for my taste.
Rivets are installed, looking real good.
I haven't yet punched them.
My punch rig.
I used the bolt head to be the "anvil" for the component side.
It was small enough to fit to the PCB and miss the resistors.
My punch was actually a 1/16th scrapbook punch ordered off of Amazon.
After punching the rivets.
Just a light tap did the job, too much and it spreads out near other traces.
Solder will seal the hold on the board.
The finished repair!!
It's not nearly as clean as I normally like it to look, but it is secure and connected.
I'll clean off the flux residue before I install this.
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