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Useful Tools

<span>Michael Berg</span>
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At least one, and usually many, of these tools are used during every one of my projects.

This article is not going to cover every hammer, saw, drill, and screwdriver in my tool collection. Most people already have those common tools, and they generally work well. This article focuses on less common tools, precision tools, tools that I miss having when I’m in someone else’s workshop, and tools where I went through several iterations before I found my current favorite tools.

As an engineer and scientist, I prefer using the metric system. However, since I live in the United States, I also have to deal with SAE units. Therefore, my measuring devices must support both SAE and metric units whenever possible. It is annoyingly hard to find good measuring devices with both metric and SAE units, so I include all of these tools.

When available, I have provided links to the exact tools that I own. When my exact tool is no longer available, I have provided links to tools that are as similar as possible. I have also rounded the prices up since prices shift over time and taxes may apply.

Safety

Safety first! You only have two eyes and you only have two ears, protect them. You don’t want to lose your sight, hearing, or any body parts. You don’t want to spend your evening at a hospital having metal, wood, or plastic slivers removed from your eyes.

Safety Glasses

Hearing Protection

Dust Masks

Hand Tools

Knives

Hobby and utility knifes with replaceable blades are indispensable for cutting various thin materials including paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, foil, and foam.

Screw Drivers

These precision screwdrivers are so useful for working with small screws that they have earned a permanent position in several of my work areas.

Pliers and Cutters

Tweezers

Precision ESD-safe tweezers are required for working with electronic components; however, they are also indispensable for working with tiny screws, pins, springs, threads, and other small items.

Most of the ESD-safe tweezers listed on Amazon are cheap knock-offs where the tips don’t even properly align. Order from a reputable electronic parts supplier when possible.

Good non-ESD tweezers with a sharp point are useful for multiple tasks, including pulling slivers.

Wire Strippers

I don’t like the standard scissor-style wire strippers. Scissor-style wire strippers don’t work well for thin wires, and you end up with too much variation in the length of insulation stripped.

While they cost more, the following precision wire strippers work reliably, take up less space, and have an adjustable stop so that you can repeatedly strip the same length of insulation.

Optical Magnification

Measuring Distance

Calipers

Don’t buy digital calipers. All digital calipers that I’ve seen use a friction wheel pressed against smooth material, instead of a meshing metal gear and rack. This friction wheel easily slips, resulting in inaccurate measurements. In addition to this, the button cell battery is always dead when you need it.

For most projects you will want a good dial caliper, with both metric and SAE units, that has a covered stainless steel gear and rack. However, very dusty environments (like around metal- or wood-working lathes) can destroy dial calipers if debris gets into the gearing. For these harsh environments or messy projects, a simple Vernier caliper is handy to have around.

Compasses

The compasses that you find in school and office supply stores are useless. These cheap compasses don’t hold their position, are fragile, and aren’t large enough for many home projects.

The following lockable drafting compasses don’t have any of those shortcomings.

Feeler Gauges

Micrometers

Rulers and Tape Measures

Rigid metal rulers, with both metric and SAE units, are useful as both rulers and straight-edges.

Retractable tape measures, with both metric and SAE units, are used for larger projects.

Soft sewing/tailor tape measures, with both metric and SAE units, are useful for measuring around objects and along curved surfaces.

Measuring Mass

Scales

Small, portable scales are ideal for weighing small mechanical parts, electronic components, coins, and other items. The mode button on the following two digital scales switches the display between the units of mass supported by each scale. I usually use the 1 kg capacity scale, since 0.1 g precision is usually sufficient, and the larger 1 kg capacity is useful in a wider range of applications.

Reference Masses

A set of reference masses is useful to periodically test or calibrate scales.

Measuring Electromagnetic Values

This section focuses on tools that see frequent use around the house. For tools specific to electronics projects or radio frequency (RF) projects, see my articles on building a budget electronics laboratory or building a budget rf laboratory.

Multimeters and Watt Meters

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

On Debian-derived Linux systems, install this CAD software with the following command.

apt install freecad openscad openscad-mcad leocad
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