Ladyada's Electronics Toolkit

Starting out on your electronics adventure?
Want to wield the mighty soldering iron?
Tired of saying "I'd totally get into electronics if I only knew what tools to get..."?

Working with substandard equipment is a terrible way to learn electronics: a lot of frustration with too little success. The right tool set will keep you progressing without the stressing.

This toolbox contains carefully selected hand tools that will last you for many many years.

• Adjustable 60W Pen-Style Soldering Iron - 120VAC USA Plug - with temperature control in a cute lil' control box and indicator LED so you can go from standard to lead-free to silver solder. This soldering iron has an adjustable temperature range from 280ºC to 480ºC. For most lead-free soldering, try 400°C. For lead-based solder, 350°C will do. Adjust as necessary! The tip included is a nice general-purpose conical tip for all through-hole and larger-SMT work. But if you want to spice things up, grab any Hakko tip and swap it out once the iron has cooled down. Note that this iron is 120V ONLY, not for use in 220V countries. 
• Soldering stand - an anodized metal stand from ATTEN in Adafruit black with a sponge and double spring prevents your iron from "rolling away" or burning a hole in the table. Essential for your safety.
• Solder sucker - Strangely enough, that's the technical term for this desoldering vacuum tool. Useful in cleaning up mistakes; every electrical engineer has one of these on their desk.
• Adafruit Parts Pal - The ultimate companion for an entry-level maker learning electronics. This kit is your friend whenever you need to build up a project. It contains many of our most popular components and prototyping parts wrapped up in one parts pack, so you can open up and dig right in. Includes a Half-size solderless breadboard for prototyping your next project; these breadboards can snap together to expand. New premium design makes plugging and unplugging boards and headers a buttery-smooth operation, thanks to the upgraded spring clips.
• Fully Adjustable PCB Clamp Holder - Pro's Kit SN-390 - PCB holder and general purpose 360 degree mini-vise. I use mine every day; they are the best thing for holding your circuit board steady, and the soft jaws are not conductive so that you can do power tests simultaneously.
• Digital Multimeter - Model 9205B+ is a good all-around basic multimeter. Has a continuity tester, DC/AC voltage and current, resistance, transistor, and diode/LED test. Runs on a 9V battery.
• Diagonal cutters - the best diagonal cutters; these are comfortable to use and have strong nippers for perfect trimming of wires and leads. I've used my pair every day for years.
• Wire strippers - We've upgraded our basic 'adjustable' wire strippers to these multi-sized wire strippers. They include: 22-30 AWG strippers, wire cutters, 'plier' tips, and a wire loop. Ground blades for precision cutting. Spring return, comfy molded handles, and a closing-lock.