Am I missing something about how these breadboards work?

[elroy]

I needed a new breadboard, so recently I ordered a 3M Model 309 Solderless Breadboard from a major U.S. national retailer.

When it arrived, I found that excessive force was required to get any of the included wires into the sockets. I really had to wiggle hard, and the wires tended to bend before they would go in. I was concerned about damaging pins if I tried to insert IC's.

I therefore contacted the retailer, and they obligingly agreed to send out a replacement board right away. It just came this morning, and surprise -- same thing again. I'm using 3M's own pre-stripped wires that they include for jumper purposes, trying sockets all across the board, and these wires are just not getting inserted anytime soon. By contrast, I've had several breadboards from other vendors (Archer/Radio Shack, various no-name), and uniformly they have always been easy to insert wires into with minimal force.

So I'm suspecting that I got two lemons in a row, and I should probably just return both for a refund. Before I do so, though, is there any possibility that there's a special trick to modern breadboards? Something you need to do to "unlock" them?

[nicalitz]

I have one of these 3M Mod 309 breadboards myself, bought a few years ago. The 'clamps' inside mine is more stiff that your run-of-the-mill eBay board yes. I've never been concerned that it could damage my components though. Some thin lead passives might require pliers to insert, but no problems with ICs. Maybe just something to get used to? Or yours might just be duds. Try a few cheap components, see if it damages anything.

[Richard Crowley]

Those are the original industrial-strength solderless breadboards. Of which all the others are cheap knock-off clones.
Most users complain about the opposite.  Boards with wimpy clips and intermittent contacts.
You might find it instructive to read some of the other recent discussions of solderless breadboards.
There are also 2-3 decent YouTube videos about solderless breadboards.

[paulca]

I bought 2 Wisher breadboards and had the same issue at first.  I was wondering if I'd made the right choice buying a branded one.

However having gone bad to another project on a cheapo ebay breadboard, I do actually prefer the wisher.  The cheapo one is definately easier to wire up, but it's prone to poor connections and "wiggling" about does things in the circuit.  With the wisher it can take a bit more effort but it's usually very stable once done.

The only thing I don't like about the Wisher boards is the split unlabelled rails and the larger than normal gap between the matrix and the rail.

[rstofer]

I often use needle nose pliers to insert the leads (other than DIPs, of course).

[elroy]

Those are the original industrial-strength solderless breadboards. Of which all the others are cheap knock-off clones.
Most users complain about the opposite.  Boards with wimpy clips and intermittent contacts.
You might find it instructive to read some of the other recent discussions of solderless breadboards.
There are also 2-3 decent YouTube videos about solderless breadboards.

Thanks, I'll look at the discussion threads and search on the videos. It really does seem as though the force required for these boards is extremely high, but it could be my insertion technique is wrong. If I still think there's an issue (beyond my own cluelessness) after working through that, I'll come back and perhaps post a video of what's involved with inserting leads into these boards.
 

[paulca]

I often use needle nose pliers to insert the leads (other than DIPs, of course).

I have a pair of Klein needle nose pliers which are tiny, they come to a point about 1mm wide.  The downside is they are deceptively powerful.  When I use them to insert breadboard jump wires they often cut through the insulation.

[Gregg]

No-ox-ID is a light grease that is electrical connection compatible.  I find that a very light coat on leads that won't easily go into my 3M breadboards will allow easy insertion.
The Telco industry uses this stuff on almost every 48VDC power connection.  The only minor downside is it will attract dust and dirt more readily than bare metal. 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NO-OX-ID-A-SPECIAL-HD-Anti-Corrosion-Antenna-Electrical-Contact-E-Cig-Grease-NEW/331880590406
 

[SparkyFX]

Good idea to put some contact grease on those...  and some test leads i got here just because. Just ordered an equivalent - importing chemicals is not that easy.

[RoGeorge]

With all do respect, this was funny to read, and a little surrealistic when you start to imagine people fighting their breadboard with pliers in order to plug terminals  . Breadboarding is supposed to be easy, and breadboarding a schematic should be ready in minutes if not seconds. It is not supposed to replace the PCB or to stand vibrations.

Judging from this thread's writings, it's obvious that 3M breadboards are not good for breadboarding.
Never heard of oiling a breadboard before. 

[Richard Crowley]

OTOH, those solderless breadboards were designed for things like DIP pins on an integrated circuit package, and the size wire (16AWG?) that we used to see on 1/4 watt resistors and big orange-dip capacitors, etc.

The kinds of leads that come on modern capacitors and resistors are half the size we used to see, so it is not surprising that the original-design boards may be too stiff for modern (wimpy) connector leads.  So, maybe that is why the cheap knock-off boards have weaker spring terminals?

[Old Printer]

I cut my leads at a 45 degree angle and it seems to help. I don't have any of the 3M boards, but I have found that Marlin Jones in south Florida sells a house brand of 830 point boards of very good quality. Ben Eater on YT has built an entire computer of discrete logic IC's and a zillion wires, all on dozens of solderless breadboards. He did a separate video on the art of finding good quality boards, and the ones I have been getting from Marlin Jones match his top choice specs. The unmounted boards sell for $4.95 but they go on special occasionally for about half that and I stock up.

[elroy]

Original poster here. So, I read a number of message threads on this forum about breadboards, 3M and otherwise, and looked at several YouTube videos. And I ran more tests plugging various components into the 3M board.

While the 3M board does require more force to insert a lead, once I got the hang of it I concluded it wasn't all that bad. Ironically, the force in some cases is about the same as required where a wire is inserted into what is described as a poor-quality board at about 1:36 in this video:



On the other hand, I examined the sockets closely with a magnifier and concluded that the "funneling" of the electrical contacts (see ~3:10 in the above video) was in good shape, and not malformed in any way. So my conclusion is that 3M boards are just designed to be a tighter fit. The upside, as others have mentioned, is that the electrical connections can be expected to be more reliable.

After I got more experience working with the board, I'm finding I can insert most wires and components fairly easily. A 14-pin IC I just tried went in quite easily. On the other hand, a header with a whole lot of pins (such as you might use, say, for an Arduino) seems like it might pose a challenge. Also, as Richard Crowley notes, some leads on current-day components are pretty flimsy, and in some cases a pair of needle-nosed pliers made this go much more easily.

So, I talked to the retailer and I'm going to keep the original 3M board I ordered. Thanks for the suggestions here.