Technetter's
Let's say a customer designed a board with the wrong pad size, too far
apart, such that a gull wing lead placed on the pad doesn't have a heel
fillet.  Obviously a bad thing.  A redesign is in progress, but in the
interim it has been proposed that the part be reformed to spread the feet a
bit further apart (by about 20 thou).  Component is a 20 lead SOIC.

My questions and concerns are:
 - the bend will have to occur at the point where the lead enters the
component body, otherwise there will be no clearance between the part and
the board.  How dangerous is this from a reliability perspective (class 3
product, conformally coated)?  Should I take the next few weeks off?  Flee
the country?  Anyone have job openings?

 - do any technetters have suggestions of a half decent way to reform these?
I'm currently faced with doing it to about 100 to 150 parts, and doing it by
hand does not appeal to me due to the variability.

Any other suggestions?  I did consider borrowing some of the Freeze-it that
Steve's using on his diodes, and shrinking the boards, but the reflow
process might disagree with that...

thanks!

Graham Collins