These might become essential as time goes by...
19. Stand for soldering iron preferably with a holder to place a tip cleaning sponge .
20. If you want to spend more, preferable,its a temperature controlled iron.
21. Two sizes of wire cutters. Small one to snip leads from the board and larger one for cutting larger insulated wires.
22. Forceps. Small and big. The small ones come in various tip shapes. To hold small parts especially SMD parts.
23. Nose pliers. Small and big !
24. Small flat pliers with bent in tips are useful to pull out or place parts.
25. Power socket with tungsten lamp in series. Good to use with doubtful equipment or faulty amps. Lamp will light up if there is a short in the system or its drawing too much current and will not blow the mains fus eand usually keeps the equipment being tested safe also !
26. Rubber gloves to put on one hand if you are handling high voltages like tube amps. Could save your life if you accidentally touch live leads with both hands . Large SE amps can have around 1KV on them !
27. If you handle motors or other rotating parts they may have cir clips . You will need a circlip remover pliers.
28. Box cutter ( NT cutter !) . Both wide blade and narrow blade with a box of spare blades ( only about 40/- for 10 blades!)
29.Multimeter leads with crocodile clips at the end.
30. Long probes with a clip at the end for clipping meter leads to test points and keeps your hands free.
31. Pair of Y RCA connectors. With one RCA plug to 2 sockets and one with RCA socket to two RCA plugs. Also RCA extender sockets. Just a short stub with RCA sockets or plugs at either end. Very useful at times.
32. Make up your own RCA cables ( maybe XLR cables also ?).
33. BNC to RCA adapter. Often test equipment have BNC input sockets ( scopes too).
34. Also have BNC to 4mm banana socket. One live and a Ground terminal.
35. 230V isolation transformer . Maybe 500VA . Can isolate your test equipment from mains ground. Helps cut out ground loops and hum on testing.
Can also prevent mild shock coming from supplies of test equipment ( especially ones with smps supplies who use capacitor grounding inside)
36. Conductive table ( (thin aluminum sheet or foil ?) with an insulating top like a thin ( 0.5mm ?) melamine sheet. Metal sheet to be grounded .
37. Rubber soled shoes and insulated floor around the chair. Like a plywood sheet or thick PVC sheet etc.Chances of killing yourself with a shock to ground will be reduced!
38. Large and small scissors.
39. Scribing tool to make deep grooves on aluminum sheets to make small things ( mini heat sink ?) or even cutting large thin aluminum sheets.
40. TCE and IP cleaners. ( Trichloro Ethylene and iso propyl alcohol}. If you don't know what solvents you might need like say for diluting Araldite ?...Xylene !Others that could come in useful are Toluene, Acetone, Amyl acetate,and Benzene. Benzene is supposed to be a carcinogen . But if you take ordinary care nothing will happen. I've been using it , sometimes carelessly , for decades !Just don't go on a sniffing binge and always have good ventilation.
41. Small fire extinguisher if you have all that inflammable stuff ! I don't keep it in the same room !
42. Good table lamps to light up the work spot WELL .
43. A good illuminated magnifying table lamp is VERY useful.
44. Set of combination small vices ( clamps to the table) to hold small items you may be working on like a smallpcb etc. Like our God's gives you a pair of additional hands.
45. A large table vice is also useful at times.
46. A set of different size screws and other related hardware.
47. Araldite Rapid tube.
48. Instant glue tubes ( use only small ones , they don't last in an opened tube !)
49. PVC insulation tapes. Available usually in 5 colours !
50. Silicone coated insulating sleeves of suitable size ( that you might require ).
51. Hot air gun and heat shrink tubes.
52. Hot melt glue gun and glue sticks.
53. Labe DC power supply ( if required ) 0 to 30 V 2 Amps or 5 amps ! At least 2 to get +/- supplies .
54. An oscilloscope ? minimum 10 Mhz or better 20 Mhz. 100 Mhz if you plan to modify circuitry !
55. PC based Spectrum analyser and related measuring features. Like Audiotester, ARTA, Vertins etc. These are software based and need an internal or external sound card of good quality.
56. Signal generator ? at least up to a couple of Mhz. This would be your test signal source.
57. Minature drill like Dremel for drilling sub 2 mm holes.Drill bit for that.
A vertical stand for this if you require it.
58. A full set of drill bits up to 1/2 inch. Like 3, 3.5, 4,4.5, 5,6,7,8,9,10,12.5 mm ?
59. Socket driver kit.
60. Contact cleaner spray can. WD40 isn't suitable. Something like Deoxit or similar (specific) contact cleaner. Of course WD 40 is mandatory for other applications!
61. A dedicated work table to keep many of these things and avoid a divorce !
62. Depending on what you do, a set of calipers to measure small dimensions is useful. They are affordable nowadays .
63. Hole enlarging tapered drill. Manual or drill based.
64. Hole punch for thin metal sheets or PCB's if you work with tubes.
65. Small metal file set. Also a couple of large files like a smooth file and bastard file ( yes, that's the name for the rough file !) about 12 inches long or more. Invaluable at times.
66. A cheap test speaker. Which could blow if there is a failure and be easily replaceable ! Maybe with a series resistor of 8 or 10 ohms that will make it fool proof !
67. Tri square ( Stanley) , comes with spirit bubble also.
68. Cloth and paper (kitchen) wipes.
69. Solder sucker ( should have come earlier !)
70. Small can of light machine oil
71. Silicone oil ( lubricant)
72. Silicone grease
73. Molybdenum grease ( black in colour) ..?
and..........well this should keep you busy for a while !
