Mounting DIP IC's

[KingKrak]

Now, I know this will sound like kind of a stupid question. If you had of asked me this yesterday I would have said the same thing.

I have a prototype board back from the manufacturers and was testing to see if all the components fit in all right. On my board I have a 28 pin and a 16 pin DIP package. I used Eagle to create the board and used footprints that came from the standard library. The measurements match what was in the datasheet.

After about 10 minutes of stuffing around I was finally able to get the 28 pin DIP into its place. I didn't even bother with the 16 pin DIP. Anybody who has seen a DIP can probably guess what the problem was - the legs on the chip are angled ever so slightly and not straight up and down.

So if I get this manufactured how is a robot/slave labor going to fit these things easily? It's probably just an easy enough fix (move the holes out a tiny bit) but then wouldn't everybody else have this problem as well?

 

[terrapinlogo]

The legs are angled out slightly so that when they are wave soldering they squeeze them together just enough to get them in the holes the they spring back out and hold the ic in place. An easy way to get the legs straight is to use a leg straightener, just pop the ic in and squeeze the trigger thingy.

 

[arunb]

or use a setting plier to straighten the pins, you could also press the socket against a smooth surface with the pins at an angle

 

[Mickster]

This is a pin straightening tool:
**broken link removed**

 

[crutschow]

Malpin also has an **broken link removed**.