I would also ad a solder sucker.. you can get them for a few bucks- if you mess up, and you will, you'll kick yourself for not having one.
absolutely get a helping hand.. making cables is maddening without one. - also - put heat shrink tubing over the "teeth" of the gater clips so they dont scratch your precious connector casings.
other possible very helpful tools - all of which i use
nippers - to trim wires, or nip little bits of extra solder off of connections
wire strippers -
heat gun (for shrink tubing) you can get a lighter powered one that does the job nicely for around $30 - i have one of these
and like it just fine.
puddy epoxy - to me this is a huge one.. i use it to "stuff" the insides of my connectors.. obviously it makes them slightly less likely to be reusable, but it strengthens the strain releif by a bazillion.
safety goggles - its all fun and games until a piece of hot solder flys into your eye and damages your sight b/c you didnt buy a $5 pair of glasses
a little file or a piece of sandpaper.. even a nail file, for taking some excess of solder joints when the nippers aren't practical
masking tape - to hold things in place or keep various tubings/sleevings from unraveling while you are moving things around
buy a little glass jar, and stick a piece of steel wool (the kind that looks like angel hair spaghetti, not the really fine wool kind) and use this as your solder tip cleaner.. much better for your tips than a sponge
or just buy one of these ;-)
btw you can look at my photo album in my profile to see what i've made, and you're welcome to ask me more questions.
have fun!
Edited by Br777 - 1/5/12 at 7:58pm
