Tools of the trade
Talking of cutters, that’s the first tool you need. There are many types of cutters but the most useful sorts are sidecutters. Generally speaking, buy a small pair — the larger ones are OK for cutting thick wires but not for much else. In electronics most wires you want to cut are thin so, for most things, the smaller the cutters the better.
Photo 1.1 Side-cutters like these are essential tools — buy the best you can afford
You can expect to pay from £4 up to about £50 or so for a good quality pair, so look around and decide how much you want to spend.
Hint: If you buy a small pair of side-cutters (as recommended) don’t use them for cutting thick wires, or you’ll find they won’t last very long, and you’ll have wasted your money.
You can use side-cutters for stripping insulation from wires, too, if you’re careful. But a proper wire stripping tool makes the job much easier, and you won’t cut through the wires underneath the insulation (which side-cutters are prone to do) either. There are many different types of wire strippers ranging in price from around £3 to (wait for it!) over £100. Of course, if you don’t mind paying large dentist’s bills you can always use your teeth — but certainly don’t say I said so. You didn’t hear that from me, did you?
A small pair of pliers is useful for lightly gripping components and the like. Flat-nosed or, better still, snipe-nosed varieties are preferable, costing between about £4 to £50 or so. Like side-cutters, however, these are not meant for heavy-duty engineering work. Look after them and they’ll look after you.
Photo 1.2 Snipe-nosed pliers — ideal for electronics work and another essential tool
The last essential tool we’re going to look at now is a soldering iron. Soldering is the process used to connect electronic components together, in a good permanent joint. Although we don’t actually look at soldering at all here, a good soldering iron is still a useful tool to have. Soldering irons range in price from about £4 to (gulp!) about £150, but — fortunately — the price doesn’t necessarily reflect how useful they are in electronics. This is because irons used in electronics generally should be of pretty low power rating, because too much heat doesn’t make any better a joint where tiny electronic components are concerned, and you run the risk of damaging the components, too. Power rating will usually be specified on the iron or its packing and a useful iron will be around 15 watts (which may be marked 15 W).
Photo 1.3 Low wattage soldering iron intended for electronics
It’s possible to get soldering irons rated up to and over 100 watts, but these are of no use to you — stick with an iron with a power rating of no more than 25 watts. Because of this low power need, you should be able to pick up a good iron for around a tenner.
These are all the tools we are going to look at in this chapter (I’ve already spent lots of your money — you’Il need a breather to recover), but later on I’Il be giving details of other tools and equipment which will be extremely useful to you.
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