I just looked up the chip in question and think what he's trying to do is put a multiwatt 15 into a breadboard. Yes, you can bend the pins a bit to make them fit on something like a perfboard but you more than likely won't get them to fit into a breadboard without bending the pins in an extreme fashion. Not that you can't do that if you do it carefully, but you will be sacrificing the ability to reuse them on a real pcb because you won't be able to put them back to their original position later. My suggestion to use them in a breadboard circuit is get some 22 awg wire and solder on an inch or two to each leg and run the wires to the breadboard. It's a pain, but it will work for the most part.
As for the volume pot... What? Seriously, we'd need to see a schematic of what you're trying to accomplish and for the most part, if you have that it'll show you where to hook it up. I think you've delved into electronics without knowing some of the mechanics of it. There's a ton of things you certainly can't plug into a breadboard directly for instance. There are some components you just can't get in through hole packages for better or worse. Using the trick above, however, you can get them usable without any investment in breakout boards and the like.