PCB夹具配件

Summary

Aside from 3D printing, I dabble in hobby Arduino electronic projects. When soldering up components to a PCB, it is helpful to have a good way of supporting the PCB when soldering small components to the board. Those little support devices with alligator clips are not that useful. Many years ago when I hand soldered small circuit boards, I had a professional PCB support device that had a padded fold-down top that would cover up the components and keep them from falling out while flipping over the device holding the PCBs and soldering the components. That's way easier than taping them down with masking tape or bending leads to keep resistors and capacitors from falling out.

I recently came across a PCB support clamp on both Aliexpress and Amazon. Amazon actually had the lowest cost on this device at the ti9me, which is really a good price for the item and its use. The device in question is the "Velleman VTHH6-VP Circuit Board Clamping Kit, 11.81" x 6.5" x 4.92" Size" or equivalent; it seems that there are a number of product names for this same device. A link to Amazon's item is included here. The clamp easily holds small circuit boards allowing you to place components, flip over the PCB, then solder the wires, and finally clipping off the excess wires. However, that does not help in keeping the components in place while flipping the board and soldering. I came up with some simple padded covers to place over the components and use two clamps to clamp the cover to the PCB supports of the device. I designed a cover that would be set in 2.5mm from each side of the PCB and added a wing on each side of 15mm by 30mm where the wings would cover the device clamps and then clamp the cover to the device clamps. For the clamp, I used wuguigui's clip but did not need to use any jaws. You can find the clip at: "Clip by wuguigui on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4849576". For this use, I needed only two copies of the "Clip-small-body.stl".

Once the covers are printed, I used "Neoprene Sponge Foam Rubber Roll Adhesive,Easy Cut DIY Foam Sheet, Perfect Cosplay Padding- Multi-Function Soundproof Rubber Foam Sheet (12 in x 59 in x 1/4 Inch, White)" cut to fit the central are of the cover; this leaves the two wings without any foam.". I actually had the foam on hand to use in the jaws of a robot arm, but the foam found a good use here. Link to foam is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RB3BCJ1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

After I decided to post this project, I made a number of other small covers sized to work with various small PCBs I have. The covers are easily designed in FreeCAD. I also decided that it really needed something to hold a solder spool while using the clamp. This was designed in FreeCAD to be able to slide onto the end of the PCP Clamp. The spool holder was designed to fit an M4 Female Thread Knurled Nut. I screwed a long screw into the insert to steady it vertically while I headed up the brass insert with a soldering iron pressed against the brass until the plastic melted slightly allowi8ng me to push in the insert. I then glued a small M4x6mm cap screw to the hole i9n the spool cover; this is a round disk that is screwed to the solder spool support arm's brass insert nut - the gluing keeps the screw from getting lost. Simply place the solder spool onto the arm, tighten the spool cover to the arm, and push the holder onto the horizontal bar of the clamp. It's a nice tight fit.

I used PETG for this project for its strength. Everything prints without supports or brims.

Links:
Velleman PCB Clamp: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WD69MG1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Cover Clamp: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4849576
Foam: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RB3BCJ1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Brass Nut: Simply search for "Female Thread Knurled Nut"
Screw: M4x6mm socket head screw