Connecting potentiometer to breadboard?

Using Arduino General Electronics
1

Hi,
I'm new to arduino.
I am trying to connect a potentiometer but I was having trouble.
The potentiometer I have looks like this:

The potentiometer I think I should have got it one with pins for my breadboard like this:

888×1040 74.8 KB

I put 3 jumper wires in the 3 holes at the top but found that the connection kept being interrupted b/c it was not a strong connect.
What I did was strip 3 of those jumper wires that came with my arduino starter kit and wrapped them around the terminal.

This seems to work, I can lift up the potentiometer in 1 hand and doesn't look like anything goes wrong.

Is this a safe thing to do? Is there a better solution.

2

You have the right idea.
But flash some solder on those wire-tab connections.
Mount the pot to bracket.
Fabrication (Fab) skills.

3

I have a soldering iron and solder at home.
But I don't know if it's a good idea to use it. What if I want to use this for something other that a breadboard?
I guess I would have to desolder...?

4

seal308:
I have a soldering iron and solder at home.
But I don't know if it's a good idea to use it. What if I want to use this for something other that a breadboard?
I guess I would have to desolder...?

Sure, not a problem. Coincidentally, I did the same thing today. Desoldered some old wires from a pot, cleaned up the terminals with desoldering braid, soldered new wires on so they'd plug into a breadboard. I used 22 gauge solid wire which works well with breadboards but too much flexing or moving of the pot could eventually cause a break, so I secured the pot with some double-sided tape. It's just for a demo I'm doing, so not a long-term situation.