Standoff Clamp for White Oak PL Backplane Board

[NavLinear]

I had some free time on my hands and wanted to design something to hold the cool standoffs that Joe is using for his backplane design. So here's my first cut with a couple of fastener types. The fasteners I used are nylon so it won't hinder the heat transfer to the standoff and board. I only soldered in one set of standoffs as my wife wanted a barbeque tonight - but the pair of standoffs went in fine and no apparent issues with the nylon screws.

 

[NavLinear]

That was an amazing combination for me - free time plus machine time at the same time equals these. The standoffs in photo 2 and 3 on the right hand side have been soldered in place and the other two have not been soldered.

 

[laatsch55]

I KNEW that was messin with ya!!!! Me too. In order to get the solder all the way around it AND NOT see a bunch disappear to the other side was almost impossible.Now that you can apply some back pressure it will make it so much neater and more consistent on the miniscus.......VERY COOL FaboNav!!! Once again you have lived up to your nickname!!

 

[Gepetto]

That was an amazing combination for me - free time plus machine time at the same time equals these. The standoffs in photo 2 and 3 on the right hand side have been soldered in place and the other two have not been soldered.

Neat stuff Dennis...if you don't melt the nylon, you are good to go. Nice idea.

 

[Gepetto]

I KNEW that was messin with ya!!!! Me too. In order to get the solder all the way around it AND NOT see a bunch disappear to the other side was almost impossible.Now that you can apply some back pressure it will make it so much neater and more consistent on the miniscus.......VERY COOL FaboNav!!! Once again you have lived up to your nickname!!

I have a trick that I do to get a nice even meniscus, I spin the standoffs slowly with the shovel tip of my 80W iron once the solder gets molten. It spreads the solder nicely and makes a great joint.

PS: I get a lot of practice on the cap kits and the big standoffs. That is where I learned that trick.

 

[NavLinear]

I KNEW that was messin with ya!!!! Me too. In order to get the solder all the way around it AND NOT see a bunch disappear to the other side was almost impossible.Now that you can apply some back pressure it will make it so much neater and more consistent on the miniscus.......VERY COOL FaboNav!!! Once again you have lived up to your nickname!!

I was thinking about you with the fastener style in photo 4 in post two - fat fingers (and cold ones for that matter) will have an easier time with these. You could even use a spin tight for them. What I found was that very little pressure was needed to hold the standoff in place. I used the white colored nylon screws and gave them a light finger tightening (sounds nasty doesn't it?) and that was all the pressure necessary. The PC material acts like a spring and gives you just enough pressure to hold these dudes in place. I'll try to get an arse tonne of these guys built before Christmas.

 

[laatsch55]

I have a trick that I do to get a nice even meniscus, I spin the standoffs slowly with the shovel tip of my 80W iron once the solder gets molten. It spreads the solder nicely and makes a great joint.

PS: I get a lot of practice on the cap kits and the big standoffs. That is where I learned that trick.

I had my iron pressed against the side, so when it was time to spin it it never seemed to work out. So you keep solder out of the threads by not touching solder to the iron, just the side of the standoff?

 

[laatsch55]

Does your mind ever turn off Dennis?? Or is it churning out ideas all the time?? My partner in Marlin is like that, just an idea factory.....

 

[NavLinear]

Neat stuff Dennis...if you don't melt the nylon, you are good to go. Nice idea.

That was my main concern going into this. My second option would have used a metal fastener but that would require more dwell time on the joint. I'll give it a spin tomorrow and see how they stand up to the heat.

 

[NavLinear]

Does your mind ever turn off Dennis?? Or is it churning out ideas all the time?? My partner in Marlin is like that, just an idea factory.....

Shit Lee - this is what I love to do. The last several decades have been spent solving other peoples problems and that seems to blow my skirt up.

 

[laatsch55]

Yeah, me too, it's what I do everyday...

 

[NavLinear]

Yeah, me too, it's what I do everyday...

I'm glad you get to show us what you do Lee - it's fun to see what all is involved with your line of work and the way you solve problems. I especially like the blow torch to the oil spill fix - you would get your ass torched for doing that in this state!

 

[NavLinear]

Got a few more clamps made.

 

[NavLinear]

I used the clamps for both boards with no ill effect to the nylon screws and that translates to the fact that they didn't melt and dick up the standoff threads. What I discovered was that using these clamps will correctly position the standoffs keeping them flush to the PCB. One issue I had was the mylar tab on the standoff separating from the base of the standoff while soldering with the result that some of the solder migrated to the mating surface of the standoff. I used a very fine file to remove the solder from mating surface.

I have another thought that may help mitigate this but we'll see how it works out. Anyways here are a few photos of the clamps in action.

 

[laatsch55]

That's some beautiful stuff there Dennis!!

 

[NavLinear]

Here are the fat finger fasteners - actually they are a lot easier to use compared to the nylon screws by themselves. I prefer them although they take some time to fabricate.

 

[laatsch55]

I see you used the laatsch55 version for display purposes...