What are the 10-most handy tools you use?

[Larry Wolken]

At 07:05 PM 12/2/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I want to make sure my bench is as well equipped as your benches are!
>Jeff KH2PZ / KH6 (still looking for a DX-60B xmtr)
>====================
Great question Jeff.

Beyond the obvious answers, a few things spring to mind.  One is some kind
of a capacitor checker that will test leakage/resistance.  Heath and Eico
and several others made cheap effective units that can be found in
restorable shape at a hamfest for $10-50.  I was fortunate to find the
grandaddy of them all made by Sprague called a Tel-Ohmike.  The only
difference is how robust it is and it's accuracy.  What this will give you
is the ability to check electrolytic caps for leakage and the disc/paper
caps for resistance.  Old caps will almost always read the right capacitance
value on any kind of a tester.  The critical part is what does the
dielectric do under real world voltages.  Again it can be a great time saver
for locating leaky bypass or coupling caps.

Another tool that comes to mind is a full set of Bristol wrenches.  I use
mine a lot.  A good quality solder sucker -- maybe $20 or so, the best small
screwdrivers you can find -- Wiha is a good brand, a good VTVM that is
restored and calibrated is just as accurate as a Fluke meter and is great
for peaking and alignment and has high impeadance for measuring grid bias
voltages without disturbing the circuit.

Another item that some may find a bit controversial is a Hickok or military
tube tester. I've heard a lot of the oldtimers say that tube substitution is
the only real way to troubleshoot, but I will still stand by a *well
calibrated* Hickok tube tester as one of the more valuable time and money
savers in my shop.  Be careful, there are many wannabees tube testers out
there.  The best bargain is a military TV-7.  These can be had for under
$100.  They have to be checked out and calibrated to be useful.

Don't even start a project without a can of de-oxit 5 on your bench.  Don't
know how it works but everyone of us agrees that is does and it will restore
life to the old moving contacts which are the life's blood of any boatanchor.

The rest is probably common sense but I'd love to see a tabulation of your
results to the query.  I'm sure some folks on the list have come up with
their own effective cheap homebrew testers or tools. I'd love to hear about
them.  Keep the group posted and have a ball with it.

regards
Larry Wolken
N3OJD
>

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