Stephen, I guess I would consider myself as and old salt so I have run into this problem more then I would chose to. One solution is yes the old dremel and another is to put a socket in. You can buy them so the barrel of course is round but the inner part is square. Hope this helps>> Salty Stephen R. Gregory wrote: > Hi ya'll! > > I'm pretty sure that one or two of you "ol' crusty" types (I mean that > in a > GOOD way), have run across this problem I have a time or two. I have > this > board I'm building in a quasi "prototype/pre-production" run that has > a PTH > rectifier diode installed vertically...some of you have may have > guessed what > my problem is already from my subject, the hole's too small. > Lead diameter is right around .050" +/- a mil or two, guess what the > hole size > is? .050", +/- a mil or two...that's just peachy ain't it? It goes two > times > per board, and we gotta' build a hundred of these, maybe two hundred. > > So tell me, what have all you "old salts" done to make a square peg to > fit in > a round hole? I've had some REALLY GOOD suggestions from some > "experts" here, > one was to get a dremel and drill the hole out (sounds good to > me!...snicker), > another was to get a can of "Freeze-it" and spray the diode leads with > it, > then hurry up and stuff it in the hole before it warms up and > expands...that > sounded pretty keen too, except it's hard to hold the diodes when > you're > wearing mittens to keep from getting your digits frostbitten. > > So I told my "helpers" that I really appreciated their suggestions, > but that I > would like to give the technet a chance to offer some guidance to me, > and that > no-way were the suggestions from the TechNet going to be as good as > theirs, > but I wanted to see what popped up...and I would come to them if I > needed > anymore "help"...in other words, don't call me, I'll call you. > > I'm sure glad this is email, it would be kinda' hard to carry on this > conversation with my tongue in my cheek like this... > > So, what's the verdict? Am I hosed? I looked around on the NET trying > to find > the same spec'd diode with smaller lead diameters, but no joy. The > only two > companies I found were Motorola and General Instruments, and they both > listed > the same thing that I have now. > > Is there any trick that any of you have done to make something like > this work? > I'm afraid if I don't figure something out, I'll be in mittens > spraying diodes > with freeze-it on the production floor...ya' gotta save me! > > -Steve "soon to be numb-fingers" Gregory- > > ################################################################ > TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV > 1.8c > ################################################################ > To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with > following text in the body: > To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> > To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet > ################################################################ > Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" > section for additional information. > For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or > 847-509-9700 ext.312 > ################################################################ ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################