What's in an electronics hobbyist's toolbox?

[MATLABdude]

I've occasionally been asked by some of the students I've mentored or TA'd over the years, "What's in your toolbox? What do you recommend for someone who's just starting off to put in their toolbox?" I thought it might be fun / helpful to list some of your contents / essentials!

In my (electronics) toolbox (and piled on top/around it), I have:

multimeter (Meterman 37XR, purchased after a few lower-quality multimeters gave up)
bits of wire made into various probing bits for the above
nice multi-bit screwdriver (Megalok)
multi-bit mini-screwdriver set (think jeweller's tools)
allen key set on a handle (so you don't lose any)
several pairs of needle nose pliers (regular to really, really narrow)
several pairs of side cutters (in various stages of being chewed up)
Greenlee inductive probe
needle- and blunt-tipped tweezers
spring-loaded mini grabber thingamajig
fancy self-adjusting wire strippers (I had an employee discount)
breadboard + a small roll of 22 gauge solid-core wire
adjustable-temperature Weller soldering station, fine (lead) solder, and braid
hot glue gun
hot air gun
small box-cutter
pair of handy-hands


Plus some assorted components / odds-and-ends I haven't file away into the appropriate storage case.

[berkeman]

In addition to my toolbox, I also carry a Leatherman Wave on my belt all the time. So many times it's saved me a trip back to my toolbox when working on something in the lab or elsewhere.

[Bob S]

Besides the excellent above list, I still (surprise!) have my 50-year-old Simpson (model 260) multimeter. I have an old 1 KVA Variac mounted in a box. I also have a good collection of npns, n-channel fets, Hall effect sensors, LM324's, 741's etc. No digital stuff though.
Bob S

[waht]

A bundle of crocodile clips

A variable voltage power supply is a big plus. I still use one I built in high school which has four independent outputs controlled by LM317, LM337 (negative voltage). I can't count how many times I had to use all outputs at once.

DC load. It seems useless when you don't have it. I pulled a bunch of dale 1% tolerance power resistors from a junk 3 phase motor driver. I didn't know what to do with these, so just put them in a box, with switches, and with a current monitor. It turned out to be very handy, and many times, I use it in parallel with a multimeter.

[dlgoff]

Crimpers for spade lugs etc.
Crimpers for RJ connectors.
Wire ties
Shrink tubing
30ga wire wrap wire for repairing some circuit traces
soldering iron with solder (low and high temp)
solder sucker
wire nuts
misc. machine screws

[weitao]

I have some LEDs , Diodes , Transistors , capacitors and resistors . But don't have solar panel.