Am I becoming obsessive?

[glowinganode]

Not a general question, but relating to resistors in this instance.
We all know how to read resistor colour codes.
I've found myself consciously wiring them in circuit, so that the current flow is in the same direction in which you read the bands.
I find it does help to visualise the current flow when tracing the circuit, also helps when measuring the voltage drop as you can tell which way around to connect the test prods.
And before you ask with AC the first band is the highest voltage wrt chassis.
Rob.

[fido]

I suppose you will be truly obsessive if you start removing resistors from existing kit to put them the "right way round". I know an elderly joiner who was taught when fitting things like door hinges to finish with all the screw slots horizontal

[Retired]

Hi,

Well done Rob it shows that you care about what you do. Colour codes do absolutely nothing for me though because I'm colour blind so it wouldn't bother me if the colours were omitted.

I try to align slotted screws with the slots up and down as I feel in exterior applications water is shed more easily.

I like a place for everything and everything in its place; immediately after using a tool it is usually returned to its home; piling tools on a bench can actually damage them especially cutting tools. I've been in workshops where it takes ten minutes to find a screwdriver with not an inch of bench space showing together with a single track walkway. I would never criticise anyone's workshop or the the way they work because we are all different.

I'm obsessive about keeping machinery beds clear of offcuts and debris; any offcuts left on a circular saw bench always walk as if by magic towards the blade where they are instantly turned into missiles.

After a session in the workshop or garage I check and double check that everything is switched off. My soldering iron is tucked neatly just under the bench out of the way but fully accessible and is fitted with a mains panel lamp. My 3 phase transformer in the garage is also fitted with a panel lamp; it is so easy to forget to turn items off.

I don't think you are obsessive Rob; just taking pride in what you do and such practices are to be encouraged.

Kind regards, Col.

[Pamphonica]

Yes, Rob, you are becoming obsessive!:D You need to get out more. Make friends, drink beer, go skydiving...! Come on, get a life!

Actually I am coming to the conclusion that we have a geriatric gene that makes neat behaviour increase over time. My bedroom when in my teens was stuffed with electronic junk so deep that I had to sweep a path to the bed each night!

Now my workshop is lined with endless boxes and trays, (reasonably) neatly stacked (as Rob knows).

But as for resistors, I just try to put them the same way round across a board, so they can easily be read left to right when the board is being serviced. Caps ditto, with legends clearly visible.

Luckily we are all different, and tolerance allows us all to rub along together just fine.

Here's to diversity.

Jeremy

[Shaman]

Well Rob, it happens to us all sooner or later, :P Senior moment now, its up to you how you like the order of things, a lot of members here like Col, have tidy workshops, mine as Kev Hoyland calls it is an Alladins Cave, i know where everything is, and everything does have its place, tidyness is not an illness unless it becomes compulsive, and runs our lives, you carry on with your resistors, and enjoy...regards....Alan.

[beam me up schottky]

Ever since I started with electronics I've installed resistors with the tolerance band to the right on the horizontally mounted and south on the vertically mounted. My college lecturer actually noticed this half way through the first term and said he was pleased to see such attention to detail but I had been building stuff 4 years before I started college anyway, so it was just a discipline I had developed for myself.
I did it with caps too, where they weren't polarised and had a difference one end to the other.
Also, when I'm replacing parts in valve radio's that are assembled with tag strip and so on, I solder suck the connections in question so I can remove the original wrapped wire from the tag and install the new component as original. It's the electronic servicing equivalent of wearing a hair shirt but I simply can't do it any other way ! Not for me just snipping out and touch soldering the new part in place !
I reckon it is obsessive compulsive though as other people make comments about my working practices being 'intense' !

[glowinganode]

Well it's not just me who does it.
Finally got round to looking at that old Spec-An of yours, Brian.
It seem H-P fit their resistors the way I mentioned, I must have picked up the habit unconciously.
Two resistors replaced, and a bit of magic touch on the EHT board and I've got a trace, just got to sort out inbalance in Y- amp.
Rob.

[DODGERN]

Well done Rob.
Like Col I try to keep my workshop clean and tidy.

Roger.

P.S. That's not really my workshop!

[Brianc]

I, like many in this thread, like to install resistors so that the tolerance band is always in one direction - I hadn't thought about making them easier to read as Jeremy said, but it just looks right! Also, like BMUS, I clean the tags of wrapped wires to leave a clear hole through which to wire the replacement component which I also wrap. However, I sometimes cause myself a lot more work by wrapping joints when I make mistakes - we all do, come on lads, admit it - because I have to go through the cleaning procedure again. As to orientating caps, when they have a black band, as some modern ones do, that always goes to the cold end if there is one and they are always installed so that the value can be read easily.

All in all Rob, If you are obsessive, so are most of us in our own little ways. As a matter of interest, do you count as you do repetitive things such as using a file or a saw? I do - now that I find obsessive :D:D.

[Bluebottle]

When I was a young apprentice, over 50 years ago, in the gas industry we were taught to line up screwheads when doing things like replacing floorboards, fixing pipes to walls or fitting parts to appliances, and quite honestly we didn't consider it odd at all ,it was the way it was in the works manual and became just the way the job was done ..........................