A newbie question, what's up with the stretch limo pot shafts?

So, as I was looking through my parts for the 1176, and looking through various other parts lists and such, I keep seeing this pots with huge long shafts on them. Is this like the John Holmes Pot Collection or something? Why is that? Who would ever us such a thing? Seem slike something just waiting to be broken off. Are you supposed to just mount it then hack saw off what you don't want before you put on the knobs?

yeah, since we are diy'in, you can have the shaft you dreamed of--however long that is, I suggest you use a vice or some other means of mechanical support when you start hacking away at your shaft--so you are sure not to damage the fragile wipers/contacts/tracks

hold the shaft in the vice.
kiss the balls.
no seriously don't put the housing in the vice or mount the pot to the panel and then hacksaw the shaft or you will wreck it

But seriously, it's intended that we'll hack saw off what we don't want?

yep, like the song says, you can't always get what you want but you get what you need.

sometimes the long shaft is needed for fancy front panel designs where you have a bracket that holds the pots at a distance from the panel so other stuff.  I go to a surplus place that has a lot of pots with 4 inch and 6 inch shafts. guess these practically mount at the rear of the case.
Kelly

I thought of one other thing.  I make my own front panels, I've learned to be sure and order my parts and lay the actual pots etc out before finalizing the illustrator document that I use for drill patterns and front panel design AND before I order the knobs, because it's not just the pots and the shaft but also some pots have bigger mounting assemblies and nuts than others.  With some pots (like the nice PEC and the RV4N types) you need a pretty big knob with a skirt to cover this up, whereas other pots, same values have small profile mounting hardware and you can get away with a little knob.
Have fun.

OK, I'll clamp down on the shaft and saw it off. I just wanted to make sure, because I just finished stuffing my 1176 board and it's time to move on to the case and wiring.

A dremel is much faster and easier...

Not if you include the time to earn the money to buy one 

I've restored or converted a few bakelite radios and all of them need long shaft pots, as the pot is mounted on the chassis but the knob has to clear the front panel which is rarely flush up against the chassis. That's one historical reason for long shaft pots, there will surely be others.

Actually, I can just avoid the whole thing. I accidentally ordered a solder lug type one (short shafted) before I realized it had to be mounted to a board. I can just just solder short jumpers onto the end of the solder lugs and do it that way. Maybe I'll saw the long one first. If that doesn't destroy it in the process, I'll use it. Otherwise, I'll fall back to the other one.

Mbira said:

A dremel is much faster and easier...

Click to expand...

Yep, +1 on the dremel with a cut-off wheel.

-a