Collin's Lab: Electronics Tools

so you know i receive quite a bit of email from folks asking me what tools do i use to build electronics well it's about time that i went down a list of my must-haves so without further ado i present to you dear viewer colin's list of tools necessary for the convenient and sensible construction of electronics or clt ncsc e for short kind of in any case presented in the order that they occurred to me while sitting at the workbench here they are no electronics maker should be without a pair of needle nose pliers they're super useful for bending and straightening leads holding heated parts in place while soldering and well a long list of other uses i think of them as a more precise and heat resistant extension of my thumb and forefinger definitely indispensable also they look a bit like birds or dogs and that's kind of a nice bonus feature when more precision is required a pair of tweezers comes in handy angled tweezers work well for placing surface mount parts and hemostats provide a helpful locking mechanism for keeping a good grip on small bits to cut all those leads wires and whatnot you'll also need a good pair of snips also known as clippers aka nippy clippers aka mr sharp jaws himself that's right most snips weren't designed to cut anything harder than copper if you do attempt to use them on something harder your snips will likely end up looking like this this was my nicey nice pair which were defeated by an unusually sturdy lead on a 9 volt battery clip ever since that unfortunate incident i first checked to see if the lead is bendable by hand before attempting snippage this seems a fairly reliable way to prevent damage of course your mileage may vary for all my very heavy duty jobs i use a pair of ridiculously sturdy straight cut tin snips these are great for cutting pcbs and tin apparently haven't tried that yet if you've ever tried to strip a wire lead without a pair of wire strippers then you know why you need a pair of wire strippers they're available in both manual and automatic varieties i've found the automatic type are great for stripping a large amount of wires in one session but for some reason i always return to using a traditional manual style pair for later jobs perhaps the printed gauge guide just seems a bit more precise not sure exactly of course i wouldn't forget the mother of all electronics tools the soldering iron if you consider soldering to be a frustrating process chances are you're working with a low quality iron a good quality soldering iron and tip really do make a world of difference and you don't have to spend a lot to get a good one for about 20 us dollars you can pick up a zytronic xy 258 a surprisingly high quality tool for the price if you want something with a few extra frills a weller wlc 100 adjustable soldering station goes for around 40 bucks and comes with a good coil stand cleaning sponge and a nice cushy grip the iron i use nowadays is this metcal mx500 and it is awesome it heats up in seconds automatically shuts off when left unused has an incredibly flexible cable and a super slim and lightweight handpiece which makes it a joy to work with these go for around 500 bucks new but secondhand units go for hundreds less on ebay which is where i found this one if you plan on removing any soldered parts from a board you'll definitely want a desoldering tool on hand the simplest of these is a desoldering bulb which is cheap and straightforward but it doesn't supply a whole lot of suction these soldering pumps are inexpensive and work well as long as you clean them out now and again helping hands tools are okay for holding small pcbs but i've found they're just too flimsy for regular use though i do still keep this little guy around for tinning wire he's also got personality and that goes a long way i'll take that as a compliment you're much better off using one of the ever popular panavise juniors for board holding tasks these things are really sturdy provide an excellent grip and can even be mounted to your bench top for extra stability and when you're ready to graduate from the junior model panovice also sells a few different types of heads and bases which work well with larger and unusually shaped boards serious business heavy duty an inexpensive magnifier loop is a great tool for finding tiny bridges and various other hard to spot nasties hidden in your project but sometimes you'll want to take a closer look at your board while keeping both hands free for say soldering at that point you could simply place a positionable magnifying lens between you and your work but you'd be missing out on a perfectly good opportunity to wear something that looks like this in addition to the obvious geek chic status enhancement a magnifying visor is just plain convenient just remember to lift it up before answering the door or you might freak out the mailman you'll also want to keep a good multi-bit screwdriver set around a wide variety of sizes and bit types will ensure you're able to avoid nearly any warranty out there and start hacking away at a device's innards having all these tools ensures that my build process goes smoothly and that reminds me to keep your hand tools working smoothly remember to oil them now and again a drop or two of three in one oil on each joint works well for this ah much better thanks no problem man anytime what your tools don't talk to you you

Channel: Make:

Views: 631,763

Keywords: electronics, tools, diy, circuits, soldering, hand tools, hacking, making, list, gear, building, pliers, Make Magazine, Collin Cunningham

Id: Kv7Y8nAOoFE

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 04 2011