You will need some tools to get started. If you have been fooling around with electronics for a little while you probably already have most everything. You can find links to tools on the store page.
First up you are going to need various hand tools like needle nose pilers and cutters. You don’t actually need strippers, but they make things so much easier. I think those were $7.50 in Harbor Freight. I like flush cutters more than side cutters.
I don’t use the pilers or screwdriver as much but they are needed. I have a couple of those cheap little sets with bits. You can find them at Walgreens and Hobby Lobby. That’s where I got mine. They are very handy for small stuff. Tweezers are very handy and nice to have but you can use a small needle nose pilers. I use the brush to clean the board with the Highest isopropyl alcohol you can get. It doesn’t hurt anything and evaporates quickly.
A multimeter is a must have and you can go as cheap or as expensive as you want. I think the one on the right was about $25.00 at Harbor Freight. The one on the left is an analog meter. I don’t know where I got it but I have had it for ages! It doesn’t get any use and I am not really familiar with how to use it so we will go over it somewhere on the site.
Elenco has a meter you can build as a kit. It’s listed on the store page. I am building it now. I got some not so great video of me working on it. If I can save the video or pull some good images from it I will post it here in the kit builds.
A soldering iron is another must have on any bench. The one in the image is mine. It was 52 bucks on Amazon. It has a soldering iron and a hot air rework station. I have only had it about a month and have no complaints! It’s listed on the store page.
Along with a soldering iron or rework station you will be needing some solder and flux. I have had that flux forever and that bigger solder. Same for the braid. That solder braid seems to go on and on and on! I didn’t include a solder pump in the image but they are good to have. Most irons nowadays come with solder a pump, braid, tips and nozzles. It just depends on what you buy. I use the 60/40 solder. The newer no lead solder isn’t that great. It takes too much heat to melt it.
The first image is called helping hands and the second one is a board holder. Both are very handy in your electronics hobby.
This is a breadboard and you will definitely need one. There will be some listed in the store page. This is 2 in this image. You can get a 3 pack for about 8 bucks. I just bought 2 packs. We will be discussing breadboards in more detail elsewhere.
You will be needing some power to run those breadboard projects we will be doing. You can use USB power or AA’s. You can use 9v or a wall wart on the right. I have had that for years. I do not remember where I got it. It takes the 110 output and turns it into DC 3v-6v-9v-12v by the selector switch on the front. I do not think it cost much. If I can find it on Amazon I will list it in the store page. There is also that Elenco power supply in the background that I just built. If I can find and salvage some of the video I will post it here. I lost some video somehow!