Where to begin my journey into the world of DIY...

Diagonal/flush cutters make life nice.

 

Small pliers are always handy.

 

Its always nice to have a wire stripper handy too.

http://tangentsoft.net/audio/ <--check it out!

tweezers are useful as well.

 

I use the following for every build.

- solder

- soldering iron

- digital multimeter

- wire cutters

- wire strippers

- tweezers

- drill (for drilling holes and twisting wire)

- a bunch of various drill bits and a few different types of stepped drill bits

- paper for miscellaneous things, like templates, etc.

- isopropyl alcohol

- old toothbrush

Since you probably don't know what you use all that for

 

Multimeter for testing charges, multimeters can send current and pick it up. They can also test how much current is going through

 

Old or dedicated toothbrushes are really good for cleaning tiny crevaces.

 

Isopropyk Alcohol(Very similar to Rubbing Alcohol) gets rid of adhesive stick, cleans nicely, etc.

 

 

 

I recomend slowly building up an arsenal of cables and adhesive heat srink. You just have to expirement with different cables and find out which ones you like more and which ones you like less.

Don't even start on a cmoy. Soldering and DIY stuff is not hard at all, but you need to have a little experience. I made some radios, alarms, wind speed gauges, boxes and some fun stuff while I was 12-14.

 

Buy a breadboard and learn to create simple circuits, such as lightbulbs, LEDs and other stuff that you can imagine. Once you have the soldering technique and some knowledge of circuits, start on a cmoy.

 

I've built an M³ and a few cables on top of my experience at school, and in the end, soldering and reading is just that. "Harder" projects will usually just consist of more quantity than actual difficulty, so keep that in mind. There's not much stopping you from going straight to the B22 if you are dedicated enough.

 

Perfection should be your goal after you know what you need. Having to fix stuff after you've finished it is a real pain, so try to kill any mistakes as soon as they appear, keep checking every new joint and connection, compare everything to your schematic, and keep things neat and practical so you can see what's going on and adjust if necessary.

 

I had the luck of already owning a lot of good equipment that my father used when he first immigrated to Australia, so the starting expense was almost non existent for me. Because of this, I know pretty much nothing about equipment, but I've compared the soldering irons at school to the one at home, and it just feels better. If you want stuff to last, buy good ones straight away.

 

That's all the advice I have, take with a grain of salt from a 17 year old.

Just to add a grain of salt,   "'Harder' projects usually consist of more quantity than actual difficulty" is true, but only in a theoretical sense.  One mistake on a "harder" project increases the difficulty exponentially.  Combine that with the sizable investment required on more complicated projects and you have the recipe of a disaster for the relatively inexperienced.

 

• Start with the CMoy
• Build slowly, understand the concepts, learn the skills.

 

Edited by tomb - 12/6/10 at 7:35pm

Good advice so far!

But there's one piece of essential equipment not mentioned yet: glasses or safety goggles. I wear glasses, but I always get a few rosin splatters every time I use the iron. Haven't splashed solder for years, but it can happen. Clipping off leads sometimes sends bits of metal flying. So if you don't wear glasses, be sure to get some cheap goggles. And speaking of safety stuff, keep a fan running and a window open. You're going to get fumes. Same with washing your hands *every* time after handling parts/solder. You'll probably pick up some lead and don't want to accidentally ingest that.

The CMoy is a fine place to start. But before you even do that, get a cheap breadboard or to at Radio Shack and a bag of the cheapest parts. Then practice soldering those neatly onto the breadboard. It'll be awkward at first, but you'll get the hang of it and start making clean joints.

First step when you're learning to solder:

 

Get an old/broken/not used vcr or some other old piece of electronics, learn how to control your soldering iron by de-soldering components (resistors, caps, diodes...), and then get your soldering skills up by soldering those components back in.  It's way better to destroy a junk vcr than an IC you just paid for.

 

Also, you can find plenty of webpages on electronics, read up on what your basic components do, it will help you understand some basic differences like resistor wattage ratings, and how the wrong values can cause trouble.

 

And lastly, learn the resistor color code!

Good advice everyone! I can't stress this enough, getting the right tools is extremely important. You'd be wasting a lot of effort if you try to improve your skills using the wrong tools. I had to stop the project immediately because the solder gauge wire was a little too thick plus the soldering tip was too big. If I had continued, chaos would ensue. It was a lot easier to learn using the right tools. It would be helpful if members provided him the correct specs on these tools.

Oh another piece of advice I like to throw out, if you get a Weller, don't get an orange handled iron, they aren't temperature controlled and could over heat and destroy components.  Get one with a blue handle.

Good stuff!

Uncle Eric mentioned some important safety tips.

I would like to add that one must learn how to be safe

around electronic circuits when they are powered up

(and subsequently powered off. They can still hold a charge!)

First, one must learn how to use a meter correctly to test

various circuit parameters when powered up or off.

This knowledge is particularly critical as one moves up the DIY ladder

to more powerful devices that can contain 100's of volts.

Even anything that plugs into a wall can be supremely dangerous, if not lethal.

Here is a good read on DIY safety:

 

Link:  http://www.penguintutor.com/electronics/electrical-safety 

Edited by livewire - 12/7/10 at 11:21am