Keeping the Feegle XS as slim as possible
I use 0.3mm thick steel washers as a spacer between the PCB and the bottom piece. This requires all the component leads to be cut as flush as possible to the bottom of the PCB.
The easiest way to accomplish this is to trim the leads before soldering.
I use an old Feegle XS PCB as a guide to trim the leads off. I have a dedicated PCB for this task since damaging the traces with a sharp flush cutter is inevitable. I also sanded the soldermask/copper layer off one side to make the PCB slightly thinner, this makes the leads slightly shorter when trimmed flush.
Before and after trimming the 4.5x4.5mm switch.
Switches in place before soldering. Leads are even with the solder pads.
I also trimmed the ATmega328p and the USB socket.
This is what a PCB that was not pre-trimmed looks like after soldering. Trying to trim the leads now is next to impossible.
PCB after soldering pre-trimmed parts. There were a few spots that were taller than 0.3mm, I lightly sanded the bottom of the PCB against 200 grit sandpaper on a flat surface to flatten the high spots.
Comparison of a 0.3mm spacer (single washer) vs un-trimmed with 2.2mm spacer (1.6mm nut + 2x0.3mm washers).
