"A poor craftsman blames his tools" or so the saying goes. Well I am a poor craftsman. I am generally fairly clumsy and my hands are shaky (probably a side-effect of some medication), but I need to repair stuff (no one is going to do it for me). I do a lot of guitar "maintenance" (if you want to call it that), and I feel like some better tools would offset my genera ineptitude. I mean the tools in the world won't magically make me more competent, but I think I'll have a somewhat easier time messing up whatever it is I am attempting to do. Everyone on this forum seems pretty handy so I figured I'd ask for some recommendations with respect tools. What are all y'all using to accomplish your various feats of technical wizardry?
I am looking for the following items:
Soldering iron/thing of some sort: I am awful at soldering. Just terrible. I am super clumsy too. I need to do some research about how to not be an idiot, obviously. I however feel like the cheap-o, unknown brand of soldering iron I have doesn't make my life easier. The Hakko FX-888D seems to be the one that most people recommend. It seems pretty hardcore for the amount of soldering that I do (not a whole lot), but I don't know. Are cordless soldering irons generally worthless (I am guessing the answer is probably "yes"). I feel like batteries have gotten fairly awesome and quite accessible in the last few years. I vape and my mod—the thing provides electricity to the coils so you can vaporize that delicious propylene glycol/vegetable glycerin liquid with that sweet, sweet nicotine in it—is powered by 18650s. They can generate quite a few watts and draw a surprising amount of current. Don't worry, I always make sure to buy authentic batteries that are rated for the amount of continuous current draw necessary for the application (LG HG2, which are rated for 20A continuous discharge). I also use a "regulated" mod. Some people use a "mech" mod, which is basically a metal tube that you stick the battery in. There is no controlling the voltage/wattage and the rate of discharge is determined by the battery's voltage and the resistance of the coil. Needless to say, these things can blow up if you do something wrong. I don't use these.
Drivers: Phillips, hex (metric and SAE): I had a set of these Wera Kraftform drivers that I quite liked. However, someone touched my stuff and lost the #0 Phillips and my life has been garbage since then. I need hex head drivers all the time for adjusting my guitars. I basically need every size from 1.5mm to 4mm. I might be OK with what I have. The Kahler tremolo uses SAE hex screws in a bunch of different sizes and it annoys me to no end. I think it uses .050", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32" (I always end up needing at least 2 or 3 sizes every time I touch the thing). Also, non-metric units confuse me.
Pliers (needle-nose, soft jaw?): I don't own enough pliers. Please recommend some non-garbage ones. Also, are soft jaw pliers a thing? I frequently need more grip/torque than my pathetic hands alone can apply, but the metal jaws of pliers will destroy whatever object I am trying to fix (but realistically I'll probably break it anyway). I was thinking about putting some medical tubing over top of regular needle nose pliers, but I think a non-corporeal/incorporeal (but still malicious) entity came into my home and absconded with all my pliers. I have a set of spark plug terminal pliers and they come in handy all the time. However, they are not ideally shaped for every task I encounter.
Calipers (or some other device for measuring small-ish stuff): I just don't have the tools to measure anything accurately. So give me your suggestions.
I usually buy stuff from Lee Valley Tools because I live in Canada and they sell some decent stuff, but I figured I should avail myself of this site's knowledgeable (and friendly!) userbase.
I'm not really a knowledgeable dude. However, if you do need some recommendations on knives and sharpening equipment feel to hit me up. Actually I might make a post about that anyways since everyone here seems pretty multifaceted and handy (someone might be interested in it). I don't know what forum to put it in. I am not even sure this is the right forum for this post.
I am looking for the following items:
Soldering iron/thing of some sort: I am awful at soldering. Just terrible. I am super clumsy too. I need to do some research about how to not be an idiot, obviously. I however feel like the cheap-o, unknown brand of soldering iron I have doesn't make my life easier. The Hakko FX-888D seems to be the one that most people recommend. It seems pretty hardcore for the amount of soldering that I do (not a whole lot), but I don't know. Are cordless soldering irons generally worthless (I am guessing the answer is probably "yes"). I feel like batteries have gotten fairly awesome and quite accessible in the last few years. I vape and my mod—the thing provides electricity to the coils so you can vaporize that delicious propylene glycol/vegetable glycerin liquid with that sweet, sweet nicotine in it—is powered by 18650s. They can generate quite a few watts and draw a surprising amount of current. Don't worry, I always make sure to buy authentic batteries that are rated for the amount of continuous current draw necessary for the application (LG HG2, which are rated for 20A continuous discharge). I also use a "regulated" mod. Some people use a "mech" mod, which is basically a metal tube that you stick the battery in. There is no controlling the voltage/wattage and the rate of discharge is determined by the battery's voltage and the resistance of the coil. Needless to say, these things can blow up if you do something wrong. I don't use these.
Drivers: Phillips, hex (metric and SAE): I had a set of these Wera Kraftform drivers that I quite liked. However, someone touched my stuff and lost the #0 Phillips and my life has been garbage since then. I need hex head drivers all the time for adjusting my guitars. I basically need every size from 1.5mm to 4mm. I might be OK with what I have. The Kahler tremolo uses SAE hex screws in a bunch of different sizes and it annoys me to no end. I think it uses .050", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32" (I always end up needing at least 2 or 3 sizes every time I touch the thing). Also, non-metric units confuse me.
Pliers (needle-nose, soft jaw?): I don't own enough pliers. Please recommend some non-garbage ones. Also, are soft jaw pliers a thing? I frequently need more grip/torque than my pathetic hands alone can apply, but the metal jaws of pliers will destroy whatever object I am trying to fix (but realistically I'll probably break it anyway). I was thinking about putting some medical tubing over top of regular needle nose pliers, but I think a non-corporeal/incorporeal (but still malicious) entity came into my home and absconded with all my pliers. I have a set of spark plug terminal pliers and they come in handy all the time. However, they are not ideally shaped for every task I encounter.
Calipers (or some other device for measuring small-ish stuff): I just don't have the tools to measure anything accurately. So give me your suggestions.
I usually buy stuff from Lee Valley Tools because I live in Canada and they sell some decent stuff, but I figured I should avail myself of this site's knowledgeable (and friendly!) userbase.
I'm not really a knowledgeable dude. However, if you do need some recommendations on knives and sharpening equipment feel to hit me up. Actually I might make a post about that anyways since everyone here seems pretty multifaceted and handy (someone might be interested in it). I don't know what forum to put it in. I am not even sure this is the right forum for this post.