The idea is to avoid any undue pressure on the attachment of the lead to the part - especially with glass diodes.
I've always simply bent the lead, making sure it was free to take up its own natural radius that depends upon the stiffness of the lead. I hold the body in one hand and push the end of the lead with my other hand. I've never lost one yet doing that, but others report they have broken glass diodes unless they carefully support the lead with needle nose pliers where it exits the body of the part. It sounds like what you are doing is similar to get a tighter bend. The lead forms a lever with your thumbnail at the fulcrum, working against the body of the part as you bend it. It will increase the strain on the part somewhat, depending upon how close to the part you put your thumbnail and how much force is needed to bend the lead. I don't know that it'd be enough to break a diode. On the rare occasion when my method didn't produce a tight enough bend to fit the holes in the PCB, I've squeezed the bent leads near the body of the part gently to make the radius of each bend smaller. I'd suspect that puts the same sort of strain on the diode that your method using a thumbnail does. Have you ever broken a diode that way? I haven't....yet, Hi! Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- What's wrong with simply holding the diode body between thumb and forefinger and bending the lead against your thumbnail? de Joe, aa4nn _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
