A small drill press is essential for drilling holes for screws, switches, LED indicators, or connectors. While you might be able to do a passable job with a common electric hand drill, the chances of slipping, creating an off-axis hole, or accidentally making the hole too large because of tool vibrations are great.
If you want a clean, precise hole, use a drill press. That being said, a hand-held electric drill is an essential tool for the shop. When you just need to make a quick hole, drill out a rivet, or use it with a driver bit to drive in a screw, an electric hand-drill is handy to have around.
I recommend a battery-powered type like the one shown in Figure For doing precision drilling, a drill press is essential. The drill, be it hand-held or some type of drill press, is only a mechanism for spinning a tool. The working tool in a drill is the drill bit.
Sets of drill bits in various sizes are widely available, in a variety of cases and holders. These range from small kits, like the one shown in Figure , to large sets found in machine shops and industrial settings. Not all drills are created equal, and most of the low-cost drill bit sets contain bits that will not stand up to extended or heavy use. Some drill bits are intended for special-purpose applications, such as drilling the holes in a printed circuit board. Figure shows a selection of these types of drill bits.
Notice the color-coded plastic collars on the bit shanks. You can also find PCB drill bits listed as surplus items, mainly because the materials used to make PCBs tend to be hard on drill bits and they quickly get too dull to meet manufacturing standards. But, as always, caveat emptor.
You may end up with a collection of dull or broken drills that are essentially useless. Better to spend a bit more and get one of the imported sets of new bits. They might not be top quality, but with careful use, they will do the job. Note that small drills bits like those shown in Figure are useful for soft materials like plastic or wood, and of course they will make a hole in a PCB if they are sharp.
In general, these types of drill bits will not work well with hard metals, but they can be used with soft metals like lead, silver, and gold. Sometimes you really need a threaded hole, or maybe you want to make a special-purpose threaded shaft. Tapping is the process of cutting threads into an appropriately sized hole with a tool called a tap. A die is a tool for cutting threads into a blank rod to create a threaded shaft, and it is also sometimes used to repair damaged screw or bolt threads.
Figure shows an inexpensive tap and die kit. A tap and die kit is handy to have around, but it must be used with care to avoid damage to the tools. A small saw is useful for cutting things like tubing and sections of sheet materials. Figure shows a type of miniature hacksaw that is readily available at hardware and home improvement stores. These tools will accept a standard hacksaw blade, and they are useful for getting into tight places.
This allows it to make sharp turns without binding, but it also means that it easy to snap the blade if you apply too much force while cutting. However, you will find that there is often a need to cut plastic or metal tubing, aluminum extrusions, or small plastic or soft aluminum panels. For jobs like these, miniature tools are available, like the little table saw shown in Figure You could, with a little effort, build table extensions for it to handle larger items, but then you would be treading into the territory of full-size table saws.
For cutting tubing, extrusions, rods, or other long, thin items, a cut-off saw with a grinder blade is a handy tool. Also known as a chop saw , a cut-off saw will produce a nice, clean cut, without the roughness and jagged edges that can result when a hacksaw is used. Figure shows one of the various types of miniature cut-off saws that are available. Note that some of these types of tools will work only with a grinder wheel, not an actual saw blade.
The primary advantage of small saws like these is their convenience and ability to deal with small work pieces. Just keep in mind that, like any powered tool, these are not toys. Although they are miniature versions of the full-size tools found in metal and woodworking shops, they can still cut you badly.
Losing a finger with careless use is a distinct possibility, just as with their larger cousins. If you will be working with metal, there are some tools that you really should consider having in your toolbox.
Metal can be a frustrating material to deal with, and having the right tool for the job can make the difference between annoyance and satisfaction. When you are drilling or cutting a hole in sheet metal, the result often has sharp edges or little bits of leftover material called burrs. This most often happens when you attempt to make a hole without going through a series of step-up holes first see not available for drilling techniques , which is a common mistake of the impatient.
A deburring tool, as shown in Figure , is essentially a swivel blade set in a handle. It is used in a circular motion to trim the inside of a hole or cut-out, removing burrs and helping to smooth out the cut. These tools are inexpensive and readily available from a variety of sources.
Creating a starting point is a good idea when working with metal. The automatic punch, shown in Figure , is designed to take the place of a hand-held punch and ball-peen hammer. To use it, you simply push down until the internal spring-loaded mechanism releases, which causes the tip to create a small indentation in the material. The concept of step-up drilling was mentioned earlier and is discussed in not available , but there is a tool that makes the process easier which should not be surprising, since there seems to be a tool for every conceivable use.
This is called a step drill , and a typical step drill set is shown in Figure A step drill is best suited for soft materials, such as plastic, soft aluminum, or mild steel as found in electrical boxes. Step drills are often used by electricians to make conduit holes in electrical enclosures.
Brave and bold electricians notwithstanding, I would suggest that a step drill be used with a drill press if possible, since it can potentially bind in the hole and twist the drill out of your hands. An electric drill can spin around and hit your hand before you can move it out of the way, and you could end up with a broken bone or two.
At the very least, you can get a nice bruise if a drill gets away from you. When buying a step drill, get the best one you can afford. Tweezers for electronics work come in a range of styles, as shown in Figure In addition to tweezers that operate like the ones found in a home medicine cabinet, there are also self-closing types, where you have to force the tips apart rather than force them together.
A decent soldering iron or a soldering station is absolutely essential for working with electronics. A soldering gun is typically used for connecting heavy gauge wires and copper tubing, not for working with components on a PCB. Better yet, throw it away, donate it, or convert it into a low-cost spot welder. Figure shows a low-cost temperature-controlled soldering iron. Companies such as Weller make excellent industrial-grade soldering stations with continuous temperature control and grounded tips to reduce possible damage from static discharge.
A variety of tip sizes and styles is available, ranging from something like a slot screwdriver to very fine points for surface-mount technology SMT work.
Figure shows a low-cost soldering station sold by Velleman, which includes the tool holder and a control unit to regulate the tip temperature. Working with surface-mount parts requires soldering tools that are capable of working with small parts and closely spaced leads. Soldering stations for surface-mount work can be rather pricey, particularly for the stations that also include a hot-air attachment. The good news is that a soldering station like the one shown in Figure will handle a lot of SMT tasks if used with a fine tip and the appropriate temperature.
In addition to the soldering iron with a fine-point tip, it also has a hot-air blower with a selection of nozzles. The hot air is used to desolder or rework a surface-mount part. The kit comes with the magnifying light shown. If you plan on working with surface-mounted components, and you value your eyesight, you should consider purchasing some type of magnifier or low-power microscope.
A true stereo microscope is best, but of course it is also more expensive than a simple single-objective type. Figure shows a low-cost stereo microscope. The types of cheap microscopes sold as toys for children are useless for electronics work, as are more high-end laboratory microscopes used in medical and biology work.
The image quality of toy microscopes is usually rather bad, and both types typically have too high a level of magnification to be usable. An industrial microscope for electronics work is designed to provide a decent level of magnification between 5X and 10X is typical, and some are adjustable while still maintaining a relatively wide field of view. You can find similar bargains on eBay or by checking out some of the optical surplus companies found online.
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Basic hand tools Electronics Technology 1. Types of Screwdrivers 3. It is a screwdriver that could take greater torque and could provide tighter fastenings. A soldering iron is composed of a heated metal tip and an insulated handle. For electrical work, wires are usually soldered to printed circuit boards, other wires, or small terminals.
A low-power iron Watts is suitable for this work. This will keep the soldering iron away from flammable materials. The stand often comes with a sponge used in cleaning the tip of the soldering iron. The addition of a center notch makes it easier to cut the insulation without cutting the wire.
Most files have a narrow, pointed tang at one end to which a handle can be fitted. Flat File is parallel in width and tapered in thickness; they are used for flat surfaces and edges.
Half Round File is tapered in width and thickness, coming to a point, and is narrower than a standard half round and used for filing Round File - is also called rat- tail file which is gradually tapered and used for many tasks that require a round tool, such as enlarging round holes or cutting a scalloped edge.
Some have pistol grips which keep the hacksaw firm and easy to grip. The small hand-held hacksaws consist of a metal arch with a handle that fits around a narrow, rigid blade.
The lens is usually mounted on a frame with a handle. Roger Bacon is the original inventor of the magnifying glass. A magnifying glass works by creating a magnified virtual image of an object behind the lens.
Some magnifying glasses are foldable with built-in light. Directions: On a separate piece of paper, classify the different kinds of hand tools according to their specification in Consumer Electronics Servicing. Hand Tools Specification 1. Disordering tool 2. Portable Electric Drill 3. Screwdriver 4. Magnifying Glass 5. Hack saw 6. Tools are divided up by type and are categorized by importance and possibly even quality.
Suggestions for other reputable distributors are appreicated. Nota Bene: this is a medium to high-end set of tools, cheaper ones may work just as well for beginners. The list is more meant to be a reference point for a laboratory used by multiple people on a day-to-day basis.
If you're just starting out, I have collected selected tools into 'kits' that you can buy complete from Electronics Express. Tools required for soldering. Of the three soldering irons available, only one is necessary, and then upgrade as desired.
This is a basis for how one may go about setting up an electronics workbench in a company or well-equipped home shop.
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