Shipping PCBs with no feet attached!

[Mikey]

I think this is penny-pinching, and leaves PCBs more prone to corner damage in the post. A bag of 100 PCB feet is only about €5 from the Chinese wholesalers.

[AeroCityMayor]

I personally think leaving the feet on makes the pcb MORE vulnerable to damage as the feet can more easily get caught on stuff.

Also, the pcb may never have had feet: 75% of my pcbs don't! I don;t have many to spare and I don't think I particularly need any either!

£0.02

Cheers,

Ralph.

[Ed Oscuro]

All the feet are doing in the shipping box is extending the parts of the board in contact with other surfaces, so it's actually more susceptible to crush damage / corners being snapped off. For protection, you should instead rely on uniformly placed padding that supports the entire board. In an appropriately sized and cushioned box, I don't really see the need to add or remove feet for shipping. Also, if the board sits unsupported horizontally for a long while, it will eventually sag (though this probably takes years to happen; I've only ever seen it on '80s PCBs which came to me that way, but I expect all would sag if given enough time).

I do like feet on installed (edit: I mean in use for a supergun, etc., not standing in a cabinet) boards as they give a bit more air insulation and ventilation.

[emphatic]

I personally think leaving the feet on makes the pcb MORE vulnerable to damage as the feet can more easily get caught on stuff.

Also, the pcb may never have had feet: 75% of my pcbs don't! I don;t have many to spare and I don't think I particularly need any either!

£0.02

Cheers,

Ralph.

^^This.

[brokenhalo]

Feet stink. Get a pcb holder.

[system11]

Yeah, it actually makes damage much more likely - you're increasing the overall height of the board in the box and putting load points right on the corners. It's bad to store games flat in boxes with the feet on too because it causes sag over time. Only exceptions to this rule are larger 2 layer sets with components facing downwards, and boards where you can fit 6 of them.

I remove the feet from most of my games.

[mookie3three]

All of the above. It's a bad idea. I've got bent A board on my Final Fight PCB from storing it with feet on. Won't be doing it again.

[Mikey]

Interesting views. I store boards upright and use a PCB holder in the cabinet, but with so many wooden cabs, the PCB area is horizontal, so the board must be horizontal anyway.

[ELabit]

I remove the feet from all my games except multi stack games where they hold it together. I use those pcb holders in all of my cabs as well

[Dave_K.]

Interesting views. I store boards upright and use a PCB holder in the cabinet, but with so many wooden cabs, the PCB area is horizontal, so the board must be horizontal anyway.

I think there are very few wood cabinet designs that use horizontal pcb installation. At least all my woodies (Williams and Atari) all screw into wood vertically. The only ones I've seen that install horizontally are the mid 90's street fighter cabs, and this is likely because CPS2 is completely encased in plastic, and fine storing like this. All my candy cabs install vertically, with the exception of Naomi and Type X game cabinets.

Anyway, I always take the feet off when shipping, and try to include them in the box, just make sure you bag them as they will cause even MORE damage free floating around the box and rubbing up against the PCB components during shipping. I have had boards come to me like this and was even more pissed than shipping with the feet on.

[system11]

You'd be surprised, in Europe it's very very common indeed.