dspt and spst switches under boards

[hahafender]

any advice as to how to mount boards on top of these two types of switches commonly found in many circuits? i've found it rather difficult. it's also hard to keep the height down to fit in a 1590b or a 125b when you have some standing 50v electrolytic caps  

thanks

[IvIark]

Mount the board upside down with the components facing down, then you can usually rearrange the components so the switch slots in between them somewhere.  

When you've built the board, have a look at it and work out approximately where the biggest gap is, or an area where there are more resistors maybe (so they are lying flat on the board and so low profile), and just try to put the switch in approximately that position.  Add a couple of blobs of silicon sealant or similar to the switch lugs if you have any concerns about it shorting resistor leads or similar.  Mounting the board upside down means you can add switches pretty easily.

Alternatively put the switches at the very top between pots and mount the board lower down so it doesn't interfere with the switches at all.  You will get away with this with a lot of the layouts, but when the number of rows goes up it becomes more difficult.

[hahafender]

nice. that helps a lot. thanks!!!

[AC_FX]

You know what else is nice - short-lever switches like these:  at Small Bear

The little short lever makes putting them on the side of the enclosure seem more reasonable - sometimes you can find a good spot for them out of the way of the board.

[Vince]

Also, there is usually two nuts and a lock washer on the switches so I sometimes remove the nut at the base of the switch and use the lock washer on the face of the pedal. It shaves off a couple of millimeters which can sometimes be the difference between a smooth build and one that ends up against a wall...

[hahafender]

sweet. thanks for the tips guys!

[rocket88]

I do the same thing that Vince said and remove the lower nut and lock washer. I also try to put it somewhere where it's out of way too, like in between the pots, or upper corner near where I put the doc jack cause I leave extra room for it.

[inefficiency]

I just had this problem with my tubescreamer build.

I added 3 dpdt switches for more gain, fat mode and asymmetrical clipping and it made things a VERY tight fit.

I just bent the leads on the electrolytics so that I could lie them down flat against the board. I also had a couple of Mylar caps that were too tall to fit in there, so I replaced them with poly-boxes. Poly-boxes are so compact that they make me very happy.