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Making the stripboard

A project log for Dirty Dan Compressor

Fast Compressor built with minimal components

john-wetzelJohn Wetzel 05/07/2023 at 02:280 Comments

Actually assembling a stripboard is a somewhat therapeutic process. I started with cutting the board to the size needed. To do this you score along a line of holes, as well as the bakelite on the exact other side. Then you can usually just snap it using your hands or against the edge of a table. I broke the board to the size needed and then sanded all the edges flat. Then I rounded off the edges and corners. It's absolutely not necessary for this part of the process, but something about it makes me happier with the end product.

Next is the important part. Placing the cuts. Now if you're really clever you can probably flip the drawing of the layout in your mind and know where to place all of the cuts. I am not really clever. I just go back into diylc and make a copy of the board and all the components on it below the original. Then I delete all of the components and comments making sure not to delete the cuts. Then I select the now barren clone, right click and select Transform>mirror horizontally. I suppose you could do vertically as long as you can keep track, but I seem to like horizontal better.

Then it's just a matter of marking out all of the locations of the cuts on the copper side of the board with a marker. Marking them out makes it much much harder to accidentally slip a position and put a cut somewhere you didn't intend. Originally, I would make these cuts with a hobby knife. It's not the most reliable method and it doesn't look the best. Instead, it's better to wrap a drill bit that's slightly larger than the copper row with tape to make a handle. You can then spin it on top of your markings and with light pressure it will drill just enough to take off a round little cone of the copper trace. Get all of these done and your board is ready for assembly.

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