Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

In my hunt for easier vias, I picked up some 28 gauge brass wire at
the local hardware store. This wire is 13 mil diameter, just a bit
smaller than my usual 13.5 mil holes.

Turns out it's not ∗that∗ hard to get the wire into the hole, but it
does tend to stay put once there. The brass is easily soldered too.
So, I push the wire through until "just enough" sticks out of the
board, and flux and solder that end. Flip the board, cut as close to
the PCB as my cutters allow, and flux and solder that side. Unlike
thinner copper wire, the brass stays put when you solder it.

Brass is harder to bend than copper, but it doesn't need to be bent so
that's not only not a problem, but saves time too :-)