SHTF Electronics Part 1 - Basic Tools (continued)

SHTF Electronics Basic Tools

PART ONE: Small Hand Tools (continued)

Now that I’ve covered pliers, I’ll go on to ‘screwdrivery’ things.

BTW, if you think I’ve missed any tools, or have a favorite in the categories I’m covering, please let me know, and I’ll include it in an update to this.

A good set of screwdrivers is essential for living our day-to-day lives. Just witness how many are stored in the “junk drawer” in your kitchen! If you’re at all serious about working on cars or guns, you already have a good set of screwdrivers, both flat-blade and cross-point. While most electronics items can be taken apart and reassembled with the smaller versions from your existing tool box, there are times when you’ll need what’s commonly called a Precision Screwdriver.  These tend to be more slender in comparison with the smallest ones you’ll find in your tool box, and the better ones have a handle with a rotating knob on top so that you can hold the top, while spinning the body.

Wiha makes excellent small screwdrivers, and I’ve been using them for years. They’re not cheap, but if you don’t lose or abuse them, you’ll have them for life.

Besides flat-blade and cross-point, you can also get them with hex, Torx, PoziDriv, and “ball driver” ends in standard and metric sizes.

Wiha has all their offerings here:

http://www.wihatools.com/

They make VERY nice tools.

 

A WORD ABOUT SCREW HEADS AND SCREW DRIVE TYPES

A while back I had an article about the different types of screw heads. Everybody is familiar with the type that takes a flat-blade screwdriver to turn (“Slotted”), and everybody has used cross-point (“Phillips head”) screws,  along with hex (“ALLEN head”), and Torx (“star”).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_drive

And for all the different types of Screw Head shapes, here’s the entry for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_screw#Screw_head_shapes

NUTDRIVERS

Nutdrivers are one of those great inventions that you won’t realize how handy they are until you’ve used them a few times. Then, when you don’t have a set handy, and have to dig out your ¼” drive socket set, and fumble around for some loose bits, you’ll wonder how you got along without them. This is especially true if you do a lot of radio work like I do.

I like the complete sets from Xcelite, as shown below.

I’ve been using a set like this since high-school, and if you buy a new set today, they look, feel, and even smell like the ones I’ve been using for 40+ years now. There’s something about the plastic handles that has a very “distinct” odor. When I bought a new set a few years ago and opened them up, I was right back in Mr. Shaw’s Electricity Shop class!

Get both the standard size, and the metric size, and you’ll be set for years.

 

BALL DRIVERS

I’m convinced that ball drivers are one of the better inventions in the tool world. If you’ve never used one, and then somebody loans you a set, you’ll be running out to buy them as soon as you return the loaned set.

Basically, they’re a hex driver with the end ground into a “ball” shape so that you don’t have to insert the tool straight into the screw you’re trying to turn, as shown in the picture below.

They work amazingly well for getting at socket head cap screws in odd positions where you don’t have a ‘straight shot’ at the top of the screw.

A few years ago I saw the regular L-shaped “Allen keys” with the ball end on both the long and short legs of the wrench, and it was one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments.

As usual, get both a standard set and metric set, and buy good ones. Cheap ball drivers will have the “ball” break off, leading to a stupefying amount of labor to get the busted ball out of the screw!

Bondhus makes nice sets, and you can get their catalog here:

http://www.bondhus.com/index.html

Tuning/Alignment Tools a.k.a “Tweakers” or “Diddle Sticks”

IF you do a lot of radio work, you’re going to need a set of “tuning tools”. These are plastic shafts with hex or screwdriver type ends. Some of them will have a small metal blade so that the plastic doesn’t get chewed up when you run across a stuck slug in a coil or a stuck variable capacitor. The reason they’re made out of plastic, is that if you sick a metal hex tool down into a coil slug, it will alter the inductance of the coil, making it impossible to tune.

The same goes for trying to adjust small “trimmer” capacitors. A metal tool held by your hand will add enough capacitance-to-ground to throw off the circuit, making it very difficult, or impossible, to tune properly.

GC Electronics makes good kits of these, and you can get them direct, through Amazon, and probably eBay. I’ve had mine for so long that I haven’t had to replace them, so I’m not up on where to buy them, other than my favorite little Hole-In-The-Wall electronics store. Radio Shack *used* to sell them, but I can’t find them on their website.

http://www.gcelectronics.com/

OTHER DRIVERS

Xcelite also makes a nifty set of hex drivers, and spline and Bristol  drivers (VERY handy for Hallicrafters and Collins Radio work!) that look like these:

The spline and Bristol driver sets looks identical, except the shaft of the bit is spline-shaped or Bristol-shaped, rather than hex.

Yes, you can use the hex drivers (“Allen Keys”) that look like the letter “L”, but these are far better for getting into tight spots, and have a much longer reach.

Again, get both the standard and metric sizes. Bristol is a world of it’s own!

Other Miscellaneous Tools

One tool which I came across is a specialty tool used to remove the circular knurled nuts that hold things like switches or phone jacks to panels.  You can get them in different sizes, so be sure you know what size you’ll need, or you’ll wind up with multiples of the same size, like I have.

Here’s what they look like, and this one is from Stewart-MacDonald Company, a place that sells tools for stringed instrument repair.

Screw and Nut Starters

The most common screw starters are the ones that have a “split blade” which wedges the blade into the slot on the screw, like below:

This one will do both slotted and cross-point screws. One tip I’ve used in the past has been to put a piece of double-sided tape on the end of my finger, and stick the nut/screw to it.

Heathkit and Knight-Kit used to include a nice little plastic tube that would hold small hex nuts while you inserted the screw from the other side. I had a pair of these, but lost them quite some time ago. In a pinch, you can use a length of heat shrinkable tubing that fits the nut, although that starts to get expensive if you have a lot of small hex nuts to install.

That’s it for this installment. Next time I’ll cover soldering and desoldering.

SHTF Electronics Part 1 - Basic Tools

SHTF Electronics Basic Tools

PART ONE: Small Hand Tools

After I wrote up the little “SHTF Radio” article for wirecutter, I started to think a little bit further, and started to think about how I could support other people who might have electronics problems after the SHTF. I started to think about what’s in my toolbox, and on my bench, sort of like the “What’s In YOUR Range Bag” articles that my fellow bloggers have posted.

Now, I’m sure most of you reading this already have quite an assortment of tools. People like us, whether we work on old cars, guns, airplanes, or just tinker around the house, have tools. Lots of tools. My wife used to say TOO MANY tools until she saw me pull some weird looking stuff out of one of my toll boxes, and fixed a problem on her car in 15 minutes that the dealer wanted all day and $450 to fix.

After that episode, whenever I say I’m buying another special tool for something, she just smiles.

A lot of the common tools most of you have are “kinda sorta” suitable for electronics use, but buying some specialized items will make your electronics hobby far more pleasurable, and will surprisingly come in handy for a lot of other things, too.

I’ll start with small hand tools first, and move on up to the more expensive, specialized stuff later.

As a general rule, I stay FAR away from “pre-packaged electronics technician’s tool kits” sold by companies like Jensen Tools and others. Over the years I’ve found their assortments to be lacking in variety, they include tools you’ll rarely (if ever) use, the quality questionable, and the prices outrageously high.

Build your own tool kit, one piece at a time, and buy only the highest quality tools you can afford.

When I mention a specific tool company, keep in mind that I get NO kickbacks, free tools, or other inducements. I’m just recommending tool companies that I’ve used, and own, tools from, and I’ve been doing this stuff for 50 years now. I know what works, what breaks, and what you can get away with!

Gee, where have we heard things like that before?

And BTW....sorry for the crappy formatting of the pictures, and their placement. This damn blogger interface won't let me size and place things where I want to!

Looks like I'll have to crack out the HTML books again, and start doing it that way.

I have a very nice Micro$oft Word document, but when I imported it, it dropped ALL the pictures.

Oh, well........

PLIERS

You need some GOOD QUALITY long nose, or ‘needle nose’ pliers, about 4-1/2 to 6” long. There are many different kinds (smooth jaw, chain nose, serrated jaw, end nipper, flat jaw, curved jaw, etc), and the Xcelite catalog has SEVEN PAGES of long nose pliers!

The same applies to side cutters. You NEED a good, sharp pair of them. If you do a lot of circuit board work, get a pair of flush cut pliers. They clip the leads off right at the solder joint, and don’t leave a sharp point of the cut off lead sticking up, just waiting to snag your hands as you maneuver the board around on the bench. The Xcelite catalog also has seven pages of side cutters.

For long nose pliers, I prefer the Xcelite ELN54 thin long nose model, and for more delicate work, I like their LN542 plier

                         

              ELN54                                                                                   LN542

Get the “Cushion Grip” handles if you can. Your hands will thank you!

For side cutters, I use the MS549J flush cut with a small head for restricted spaces, and the MS54J for general use. For cutting larger leads, I use the S54NS, which have a coil spring to force them back open.
 

 

 

                  




 MS549J                                                               MS54J

Keep in mind that these small pliers are NOT to be used for cutting, bending, or forming anything other than soft copper wire! I loaned a pair to a guy at a job site once who brought them back with a series of round dents in the jaws, complaining that they wouldn’t cut anything. After I calmed down a bit that he’d ruined my $20 pliers, I asked him what he was cutting, and he said “Wire, why?”. He showed me the “wire” he was trying to cut, and it was copper-plated STEEL wire for his MiG welder. The pliers looked like he’d tried to cut small screws with them, and they were completely useless for their intended purpose. If you want to install Cotter keys (“Split Pins”) in your car, use your big old honkin’ Craftsman pliers, NOT your rather delicate Xcelite electronics pliers!

You can download the entire Xcelite catalog at:

www.apexhandtools.com/PDFs/Xcelite%20Catalog%20550620.pdf

WIRE STRIPPERS

Please, don’t use your teeth to strip wire on a regular basis! When I was 10 years old or so, I was having my teeth cleaned, and the Dentist dug out a small piece of red plastic, and wondered out loud what I’d been “eating”. I looked at the piece, and told him it was from some small wire I had to strip, and his jaw about hit the floor.

Besides running the risk of a self-extraction of your incisors, remember what Mom always said…”You don’t know where that’s been!”, and keep your teeth for eating things.

While you can strip wire with your side cutters, it takes skill and experience to do so, and you’ll wind up cutting the end off a LOT of wire before you get the hang of it!

I have two different strippers, for different sizes of wire. They’re not with me now, but one pair will handle up to #10 wire, while the other pair goes down to #24. They overlap a few sizes, but nobody makes a single pair that covers all the wire sizes I work with, so I have two pair.

They look like this:

The pictured ones are made by Klein Tools, whose catalog you can download from here:

http://www.kleintools.com/content/tool-catalog

You can also use one of the “Automatic” wire strippers if you have the room to do so, and these are really nice if you’re stripping a lot of wires, like to make a wire harness. You’ve probably seen them, and they look like this:

These are made by Ideal Industries, and go by the name of “Stripmaster”. I’ve been using these since my high-school days in the 60’s, and if they’ve been around that long, they must have something going for them!

Ideal is another fine tool maker, and you can download their catalog here:

http://www.idealindustries.com/support/catalogs/

Snap Ring Pliers

You won’t need these very often when working with electronics, but when you do, you’ll need them. Get a small pair, with changeable tips, and you should be good to go. Most consumer electronics uses “E-rings” or “C- clips”, but occasionally you’ll find small snap rings used, especially in military equipment.

The dreaded “E-Ring” or “C-Clip”

I’ve never seen the two-piece clip in the center, but I’ll bet it’s fun to remove/install. Most of the ones you’ll find are similar to the two in the upper right of the picture. You can pop them off using a small flat blade screw driver, and snap them back on with some long nose pliers.

Be care, or they’ll go flying across the room, leading to their other name, a “Jesus clip”!

That’s it for this chapter. I’ll cover things like nut drivers, precision screwdrivers, hex keys, spline keys, ball drivers, and other “drivers” in the next chapter.