I have this small mosfet with pins that are about 1mm in length that I need to solder to wires that are maybe 3 times larger than the pins.
Should I just drop blobs of solder on it or is there a better way to approach this problem?
Electronic – Soldering a wire to a small MOSFET pin
soldering
Related Solutions
A crimp is usually used inside heaters for connecting nichrome wire to other metal parts or wires. Since it can get hot, you'd need a bare metal (not plastic coated) butt crimp.
Its a very reliable method if you use the right tool and a very poor method if you make-do with pliers and brute force. With the right tool, the two metals in a crimped bond are actually cold-welded together, forming a gas-tight bond. Other connection methods (including soldering without sufficient flux) may leave oxide layers or admit oxygen which can affect conduction and mechanical strength.
The "right tool" is the ratchet crimp tool recommended by the manufacturer for the particular crimp and wire. Ratchet tools ensure that the correct pressure is applied before they release (unless you use the emergency release lever which is only meant in case of trapped fingers). As opposed to a pair of pliers, which may under or overcrimp the part, not shape the crimp correctly, slip off etc. Ratchet crimp tools can and should be calibrated.
Soldering wires to TO92 packages may be a bit fiddly but it is well within the capabilities of an amateur hobbyist.
When I have trouble, I use a magnifier and some "helping hands"
If I wanted to hand soldering SOT23 to wires, that would be much more of a challenge!
Best Answer
I'd check out Proto-Advantage. They have a lot of nice SMT to DIP/SIP boards that are pretty cheap. Like Madmanguruman mentioned, it's far easier to properly solder the components to a board and utilize a plated through-hole for your wire.
Here is a board I found on their site that might work for you assuming the MOSFET you're using is a SOT-23 package. They have plenty of boards for other packages as well.