a beginners setup for electronic work?

[jasonbmerrill]

hello

as i posted in my thread here:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=276811

i am apparently going to do this replacement sooner than later. not only that, i think it would be beneficial to learn this "art" a bit more -- that is, being able to read schematics, replace stuff on PCB's, do good soldering jobs, wiring, etc...

i have ONLY a crappy soldering iron.

I suppose i will need:

a radioshack soldering iron for light-medium duty
a wire stripper
desoldering tool
different solders?
some wire for doing guitar wiring
snips to get the resistors off
different tips (pencil?)
maybe some common resistor types?



what else might i need?

i want budget stuff, i only plan on replacing my own stuff, what about an "Electronics for dummies" book or something?

thanks

 

[mshilarious]

I designed and built 1,000 microphones before I upgraded from the following:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=372-120

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=372-202

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103174

Add to that angle clippers, wire strippers from 12 - 28 gauge, electrician's pliers, small needlenose pliers, small screwdriver set, razor knife, a step drill bit or two, a set of twist bits, a hand drill (I use a drill press), and a couple of small files, one round one triangle, and that's pretty much still the kit I use.

DeOxit, Faderlube, and Flux Cleaner are pretty handy to have around as well . . .

I still use this because I can't find anything better (and believe me, I want something better):

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=360-670

My problem is I need to reorient my work very often, and my PCBs are extremely small, so the Panavise stuff just doesn't suit me well. I need the Alligator Clips of Doom, but nobody seems to make those. I chew through the Helping Hands in about two months, so I have to replace it constantly

What else . . . a punch is nice, along with a fretting hammer I got from Stew-Mac. Kinda clever for random electronic tasks, with the plastic face (it has brass on the other side). I love their fret cutters, much nicer than the cutters at the local hardware store. I cut all kinds of stuff with that.

Tin snips are great for cutting PCBs Actually, I see what I use is called "left cut aviation snips". Those are great!

I like the pickup wire from Allparts, it's good for lots of stuff. As for solder, I am strictly lead-free, so if I have to do leaded rework, I use my old iron for that (so as not to contaminate the production kit), but I'll still use lead-free solder. The only thing I use leaded solder for anymore is repairing organ pipes, because the temps required for lead-free solder will melt the pipe!

I would not buy a multi-value resistor pack, because you end up with lots of values you never use. I have standardized on these values for my own projects:

15
47
150
330
620
1500
3300
5600
10K
33K
100K
1M
10M

Nothing special about those, they just work for me. Those are the standard wattage, for something like power supplies I would buy special values just for that project.

Given that resistors in quantity of 200 are generally less than $0.05 each, I would just buy the value you need for whatever project in 200, and soon you'll have plenty of leftovers for a full range of values. Keep in mind that most resistor values in a schematic are not critical, so usually you can use something within 10% or even 20% with no big difference. And you can always series or parallel two resistors to get a lot of different values.

 

[jasonbmerrill]

i plan on spending around 100 bucks the next paycheck i get, prolly in 2 weeks or so...

this seems to fit the bill nicely.

thank you for your suggestions.

what is the benefit of lead free? Is there a health hazard? Im not going to be eating off of it or anything fumes?

 

[mshilarious]

i plan on spending around 100 bucks the next paycheck i get, prolly in 2 weeks or so...

this seems to fit the bill nicely.

thank you for your suggestions.

what is the benefit of lead free? Is there a health hazard? Im not going to be eating off of it or anything fumes?

It's required for European export. Other than that, the fumes are mostly organic from the flux, it's an irritant and maybe carcinogenic. That's why I go with no-clean, much less smoke that way, plus of course the no-clean benefit. But I imagine there might be some lead in the fumes of leaded solder.

Either way, silver solder (usually less than 4% silver) is much nicer for electronics work, just seems to flow better. I think most lead-free solders have some silver.

 

[antichef]

I've been using silver solder. It doesn't taste as good as lead solder, but it does work well for conductivity and stuff.

You'll probably want a multimeter. Since you're new like me, be sure to get an "autoranging digital" multimeter. I don't know what drives the cost on these, but some get really expensive. Mine was $30 or $40 at Fry's I think, and I think the brand is Extech. I'll check the model number when I get home. Some time ago, I bought a traditional (manual ranging) analog multimeter, and I never used it, because i couldn't understand how to operate it - I think I could probably do it now, but the other one is much more convenient and easy, I think.