Are you thinking of getting started in DIY building, but don’t know where to start? What do I need to buy to get going? Here is a list of things that I ended up buying, along with the rationale behind the purchase decisions.

Many moons ago when I was an aspiring photographer, I got some advice from a professional photographer/teacher Vincent Versace about how to choose your camera when starting out. He said, “buy your last camera first.” The idea was that you should get tools that you can grow into, instead of buying something for a beginner that you will quickly outgrow, or will severely limit and frustrate you to use.

This idea of not just getting beginner tools, but something that will last and that you can grow into or grow with, has stuck with me. Not to mention the wastefulness of buying things that are too cheap, or disposable. We are making DIY synthesizers and electronics, by nature these are handmade, carefully crafted instruments, and not disposable. The tools we use should perhaps also reflect that same ethos.

Anyway, enough rambling! On with the list!

Entry-Level Requirements⌗

Soldering Station

This is your main tool for DIY work, and it’s worth spending slightly more for a good quality tool, if you’re able. You will need something that has interchangeable tips and a temperature setting. Something that has an iron holder keeps the hot part away from things that might burn. Like your fingers. At minimum you should have a sponge which you keep moist for wiping the tip in between components, but I have moved to the brass wire scrubber type cleaner, which I much prefer, as it doesn’t cool the tip down at all.

And about those tips, most soldering irons come with a general purpose conical tip but what really works well for soldering on PCBs is a bevel tip or a chisel tip.

- Aven Tools Soldering Station With LCD Display (Model No. 17405)

- brass wire sponge soldering tip cleaner

- bevel or chisel tips

Magnification

I realized pretty quickly after I started that I was going to need some kind of magnification to work on electronics. Given the age of my eyes, focusing on very small points for long periods was going to be difficult without some aid. And let’s be honest, it’s much easier to work when you can see everything clearly, so why make life hard for yourself?

There are several options here, but perhaps it would be best to learn from my experience. The first magnification item I bought was a magnifying glass affixed to a pair of alligator clips, a helping hands type thing. While the clips are useful for holding things, the magnifying part is a pain to use, it’s hard to get into the right position and is very small. Not worth it, in my experience. My current magnifying device is a head worn magnifier with a headband where the magnifying portion can flip up and down as needed, but even as I write this I’m researching magnifying lamps, the kind on an arm that attaches to your table.

The headworn kind has two advantages, first is that they stay with you as you move around. The second is that they let you look with both eyes, which means you can judge the distance as you’re soldering. The downside is that the focal distance is fixed, and I find that I must get my head down relatively close to the board in order for the magnified image to be in focus. This puts me much closer to the flux fumes, and I’d rather be further away and sitting upright with better posture (see - ‘being old’).

So the magnifying lamp style perhaps will help me get further away from the table, and hopefully will also make the area brighter so I can see better, as well as bigger. To be determined…

Basic Tools

- PCB Holder (helping hands or swivelling, or magnetic board with pins)

- needle nose pliers

- fine tweezers ( with a 45 degree bend)

- flush cutter

Solder Types

There is a lot of back and forth in the community about using solder with or without lead. I was prompted to use lead free solder at the request of my youngest daughter, so who was I to argue? Whichever solder you end up choosing, you’ll need to pay attention to the size/diameter of the wire. My everyday is 0.5mm thick, and for any SMD work I have a 0.3mm diameter spool as well.

- 0.5mm and 0.3mm diameter wire, 100g spool

- Weller WSW SAC M1 (T0051388299): Composition SN3.0 AG0.5 CU3.5%

For working with a lot of SMD parts, you may opt to use solder paste. I was recommended by another builder to try low-temp paste, which works well with a hot air rework station (see below).

- ChipQuik SMDLTLFP (Sn42/Bi57.6/Ag0.4 No-Clean T3 Solder Paste)

Silicone Soldering Mat

At some point you’re going to want to protect your work surface, especially if you don’t have a dedicated workbench and are using a folding table in the dining room. (I’m talking about me.) I started out by salvaging a square of cork board material we had lying around, perfectly fine. I eventually upgraded to this silicon mat once I saw someone on a livestream with something like this. Get the largest one you can, unless you’re working on a really small table for some reason. This one has numerous pits for parts and bits and bobs. Very useful for keeping things contained on your table.

- SainSmart Large Anti-Static Silicone Soldering Mat, Heat Resistant 50.8cm x 35.6cm (20" x 14")

Digital MultiMeter (DMM)

You can get something inexpensive, like an Astro AI or Klein Tools model. Buy to your budget. Look to the counts, the higher the number (6000, for example) gives you an idea of the degrees of accuracy the meter will show.

I ended up with a new multimeter after my original Canadian Tire purchase died after 20 years. I got the UNI-T UT61-E+, which is a solid midranger. UNI-T is a pretty big Chinese company. The cream of the crop is Fluke, and Brymen is a Taiwanese company, I hesitate to say knock-off, but they make a high quality multimeter as well.

Next level niceties⌗

Hot Air Rework Station

This is something that I didn’t spend a lot on, breaking my philosophy a little bit. I picked something that looked reasonable from amazon, under $100 CAD

Board/Flux Cleaning Tools

- Isopropyl Alcohol (99%)

- tech dry wipes

- art paintbrushes (natural hair)

Fume extractor

You should be soldering with the window cracked open at the very least, so that the fumes from the flux don’t linger in your work area. I don’t have a fume extractor yet, so I can’t make a recommendation.

Module Tester

I stumbled across the Mutable Instruments Module Tester PCB thru a recommendation on mastodon, and if you plan on making a lot of modules or building for others, this tool is invaluable, letting you easily test the functions of most any modules. MI no longer makes these but the board schematics are freely available. I bought my PCB along with a case from amazing synth in the UK. You can read my Build Notes here.

Oscilloscope

A useful tool but definitely can get expensive, and fast. In the spirit of DIY I bought a kit to assemble from JYETech, the Wave 2 which is a 2 channel digital scope. Pretty decent value, and it includes 2 probes as well. There are probably numerous old scopes on sale in your area, but unless you know what you are doing I wouldn’t recommend getting an old scope. Considering I didn’t even know how to use a scope I didn’t want to drop a ton of cash on it. Now that I’ve used this one for a while, if I ever need a nicer scope this can always serve as a backup. The model I have my eye on is the Rigol DS1054Z, so… you can check out my buymeacoffee if you want to pitch in, ha ha. Just kidding.