question about soldering the boards

[Ralph Bing]

I am beginning to put together my Ren 8 SS

are the parts supposed to touch the circuit board?

I recall something I read somewhere? you should use a spacer
such as 2 index cards to keep the components from touching the actual board
you remove the spacer after soldering which leaves a small gap for things
like resisters, diodes, etc the only items to actually touch were things like

RG45 jack, and other larger items

this will allow air flow around the items for greater cooling

Is this correct?

I have NEVER soldered on a circuit board but want to make sure I do it right

Thanks for helping

Ralph

[dirknerkle]

Yes, the parts can certainly touch the circuitboard. The only place where you might not want to do this is if the part itself is metal or has an exterior metal case that might touch other portions of the circuit that are on the same side of the board. The SS8 has a solder mask over everything so you're fine.

[Ralph Bing]

I was more thinking about air flow so that it could stay cooler

[dirknerkle]

I was more thinking about air flow so that it could stay cooler

These boards don't get hot. The triacs can if you pump a lot of current through them, but that's why you might use heat sinks on the backs of your SS8's triacs if you intend to run 2 or more amps through a channel.

There's a heat sink template in the Wiki for the SS8, SS16 and SS24. You can make one heat sink out of thin, aluminum angle stock you can buy at Home Depot/Loew's, etc.

Up here in Minnesota, we don't worry too much about heat -- nothing up here gets very hot when it's -20F outside!

[budude]

It's probably a very good practice but I doubt if anyone really does it to be honest. If you're just starting - hey - do things right from the beginning! I don't think there are too many parts that get that warm that you would have to worry about it - and those that do tend to lead themselves to having heat sinks applied such as the triacs.

[Wayne J]

Spacing them up is not neccesary, and will only add more time to your build. ;)
Spend the extra time making sure all of your solder joints are done correctly, this will save you more time in the long run.

Oh, relax and enjoy yourself.

[Ralph Bing]

Thanks
I was just checking
I guess I just dreamed that the pieces should not touch the board
else Surfacemount would not be surfacemount

My stupid question of the hour
I will have more I am sure

Thanks for all the help