Add a retractable scalpel to your list, good for cutting, picking, scraping and other things.

Edited By Richard Marks on 15/01/2018 22:22:27

I bought one of these the other day. One of the nice things is that additional jaws in any shape/size you want can be 3D-printed.

Observant Model Engineers might notice that the rest of it might make a suitable, short shop-project.

I bought a Wowstick electric screwdriver. It sits on the back of my desk and lends the whole room a air of class. Occasionally it's wafer thin, white LED switches on to show it is diligently keeping it's battery in peak condition. The decks are patently cleared for action, I know that one day I will find a use for it and it will be glorious

1 lb ball pein hammer, oxyacetylene cutting torch, electric stick welder , 1/4" punch, 7/16 and 1/2" combination wrenches, gas line antifreeze liquid are what tools I am mostly using these days – no, not making watches or gauge 1 live steam locomotives – repairing various gas/petrol powered snowblowers from the neighborhood. Lots of snow at times, and very cold this year here in Ontario Canada, so people are finding out the hard way what is weak/marginal/would have been a hell of a lot easier to fix in August in their snowblowers.

It's a balmy -8 deg C here tonight just FYI. Forgot to mention long johns in the mandatory tool section above.

A 52mm OE spanner, especially when the central heating pump connection starts to leak and not a single plumbing /tool shop in the town has one. "We can get one ordered for you, sir " !

I made one in the workshop while I was waiting.

Eleven, eleven useful things, Blue Tac.

Among our useful things are………

Edited By john carruthers on 16/01/2018 08:06:53

On soldering irons: I've used the Antex / Solon types in the past. When I started doing electronics as a job every bench had a Weller iron and it was a revelation. The big advantage is that you have lots of power to get the tip hot, but controlled so it doesn't overheat. This minimises the chances of a small tip getting chilled when you place it on the job and thus the chances of overheating the component. Maplins for one have quite reasonably priced TC irons and it's well worth having for electronics work, plus a few different tip sizes, and spare sponges. One bit of advice – when you buy the iron, buy several spare tips as they may not be available in future! Fortunately with mine it turned out that Weller tips work fine in it.

John Haine, yes, I too started with a Henley Solon. Still got one. Re: the Weller irons, they ARE an industry standard, but having used one professionally for many years I'm not sure why. The bits are hollow and soon burn through, and the base unit holds only a transformer which fails rather too often. I built my own half/full base unit for the Antex (1N4007 diode and switch) which works well. Nowadays I would use a lamp dimmer or motor control circuit to vary the temperature, roughly calibrated when completed.

Geoff

"Proper" thermostatically controlled irons by Pace, Weller etc (as used in industry) cost an arm and ten legs but there are some decent alternatives without having to go completely Wild East eg the Japanese Hakko which you can get from Maplin. You could probably get it cheaper through alternative channels although you may then be risking cloned fakes.

The whole point of the thermostatically controlled irons is to be able to get up to a precise temperature quickly and stay there, regardless of whether the iron is doing a lot of work or just sitting there. Nowadays most of them will turn off if they realise they are not being used. If you just have a dimmer or a fixed, low wattage iron, you are missing the trick.

The tips are iron coated to stop them dissolving in the solder. Eventually they wear through but that's not really the fault of the iron. They are consumables.

Murray

I'm using a Weller WX2 2 Iron soldering station (at work) and it's brilliant. 12 sec heat time for the 120W iron and a tad faster for the 65W. Auto shut down to adjustable standby temp and auto heat when you pick up the iron. Digital setting on the temperature. With the auto shut down the tips dont wear out. Admittedly we still use full fat solder as none of our stuff is ever sold commercially so the flux is a little less agressive. I really like it.

We also bought a LKPF CAD circuit board miller last year and thats a real joy to use after wet etch for all those years. The nice thing is you can do odd shaped circuit boards.

OK not the sort of thing you are going to find at home, the soldering station alone was around £800 and the mill somewhere north of 20K but you may be interested to hear what prototyping electronics workshops are up to.

regards Martin