I've successfully cleared holes with a hand pin vise and an assortment of really teeny drill bits. Start with an obviously too small bit and work up in size until the component just fits. Go slow, clear the swarf often.?
Successfully opened up many in QDXs, QMXs and 50Watt amps.?
Lately though, I bought some Chip Quick brand desolder braid. Just needed some more and decided to try theirs. Fabulous stuff! No extra flux needed and it really pulls solder away. I flow extra fresh solder on the hole in question and then apply the braid and iron quickly. Tug the long end up a bit and hold while it flows up the braid. Works a treat as the Brits say.?
On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 8:33 AM, mux_folder2001 via groups.io
<canthony15@...> wrote:
Thanks Hans. The hole diameter is good to know. I used my old dial micrometer, which is calibrated in inches, to measure a diode from the kit and then did a bad mental conversion to metric. Still, much smaller than a regular 1N400x. When you clear the holes
with a solder sucker, it leaves some solder still in the hole which has to be cleared out to get the fat diode leads in there.
73,
Tony
AD0VC
Hi Tony
I just measured one of the 1N4007 diodes from the kits, the wire diameter is 0.4mm. According to the PCB CAD program (I just checked) the footprint for these diodes specifies a 0.8mm drill size. So the holes ought to fit 0.7mm wire too.?
On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 5:07?AM mux_folder2001 via
<canthony15=
[email protected]> wrote:
Nothing fancy on these connections. Top layer and bottom layer traces only. I just checked with the meter and all is well. My question really was about the diodes. Where do you get 1n4007 diodes with .3mm leads?
Tony
AD0VC
Tony,
?
The QMX series of radios uses a 6-layer PCB. Making the drilling hole larger could cause gaps in the internal layers. It would be better to use a thin lead and solder the fat lead above the board. Look at the board trace pictures and the schematics to
verify that the connections are still there.
?
73
Evan
AC9TU
