Computer Assemblers/Technicians.....which toolkit did you purchase?

[mechBgon]

For working with PCs, I've got a nice German-made Wiha #2 Phillips screwdriver, a standard-blade Wiha for socket-type heatsink clips, and a 2AA MagLite flashlight.

I also have a very large collection of other tools from my 12-year career as a bicycle mechanic. But they don't usually come in handy when working on PCs

 

[Mday]

some things i have:

• AA battery powered screw driver, it's low powered
• 3.6V battery powered screw driver, it has a clutch
• precision screw driver set (i have 2)- slot, phillips, torx, hex
• hex nut sockets (english and metric)
• thing grabber (3 pronged dealie), i have 2, one plastic, one full metal (new), i use it to start small screws in tight situations, the mechanical hold is better than magnetic
• standard set of screw drivers (many #2 philips of various sizes)
• standard set of screw driver bits
• anti static bags (i have the ones with zip lock zippers, 2 sizes)
• flash light (standard, and LED for small areas)
• flex shaft for hex bits for nut driver or powered screw driver
• rachetting screw driver
• magnetic tip screw driver with 1/4 hex
• tweezers
• pliers
• wire cutter
• cable tester
• multimeter
• electrical tape
• heavy duty scissors (looks like pruning sheers)
• 3rd hand (helps with soldering)
• soldering iron and stuff
• partitioned plastic box for screws and stuff

some stuff i got for case mod specific dealies

• jigsaw
• drill
• cobalt bits
• hole saw
• finish sander
• spring clamps

 

[JohnPaul]

Man, when I went to college for my degree in computer science, I was issued a toolkit similar to the one posted, except much cheaper quality and much less tools. The thing that sucked was that I had no choice in the matter since it was paid for by the state, and they issued a certificate type thing to bring to the schools book store, which I had to buy my tools from if I wanted them paid for. I was charged $150 for a very cheaply made aluminum electronics toolkit case, and in it were very few electronic/computer tools, such as three chip pullers of varying sizes, needle nose pliers, a bread board, resistors, an elenco multimeter,philips and straight screwdrivers, a roll of solder and an iron. Had I known how cheap the tools in this kit were, and what was charged for it, I never would have even bothered. I would have tried to get them to let me purchase my own tools with their money. What a rippoff. I mean those tools were VERY CHEAP!!!

John-Paul

 

[loafbred]

Originally posted by: nick1985


you forgot a hooker

Well hey, if you want to go there, don't forget the crack pipe and a case pf PBR.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
I use a screwdriver w/ a magnetic head.

That's all I need.


There's no need to open HD's.

amish

Don't magnetic Screwdrivers risk corrupting/damaging, Hard Drives, BIOS chips, and a lotta other computer hardware???

I remember hearing that somewhere

 

[billyjak]

I have this one null Here
Plus a Toolbox with a floppy, CD. extra screws, ties, cable adapters, ribbons, fans,.Thermal paste, power supply tester, 51/4-31/2 adapters, sound cables, and much more.

The Basic Toolkit is a good start.

 

[trenchfoot]

to all of the above i would add (if not already there):

xenon or led headlamp. ( beats shining with one hand and manipulating tools/screws with the other, especially on-site at clients office/home where good lighting is usually never available)

small set of pc speakers (clients do not believe/understand meter readings, they like to actually hear something- or nothing)

spare power switches, various

p4 power adapter

nitrile gloves (to avoid getting body salts/oils where they don't ever belong)

a cd full of popular drivers and up-to-date firmware

re-usable plastic ties, or velcro straps (to get those nasty power/data cables out of the way w/out disconnecting them)

headband type magnifying loupe (at least 5x)

bore scope

usb thumbdrive (many pc's have no floppy anymore)

empty plastic containers (a few sizes) for keeping small parts on-site from getting lost

hand-held optical tachometer

stethoscope

and so much more....

 

[prometheusxls]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Judging from some of the responses here. I can see a few members here don't actually work on PC's as a job. I'll give a small list of my tools;


My Pro kit

VOM/DMM
Small (1") paintbrush (for cleaning things.)
Bottle of isopropyl. 70%
Box of KemWipes.
Small vice grips.
Nutdrivers.
Cables, all sorts.
Large and small jumpers.
Small mirror flexy-mounted on a stick.
Magnifying glass.
Box of formatted floppies & labels & pen.
Spare HD drives.
Spare CDwriter
Spare Floppy drives
Spare ATA cables
Spare PS/2 mice
USB/ps2 coverter.
Compressed AIR can.
PartitionMagic boot disk
Dos 6.22 boot disk
Drive Image boot disk
Crossover network cable
10/100 Cat5 cable max 30FT
CableTester
RS-232 Pin Extractor
Telephone Line Tester
DB-25 Gender Changers
Cheap ATA 66 controller
Parallel Port PCI adapter
AT Power Supply
AT to ATX PSU converter
ATX power supply
CD wallet
Extra Small and Big Jumpers
labelmaker
Basic Network LAN kit
Gender Changers
Heavy Duty grade 50FT Extention cord.
Spare SiMMs,DIMMS,EDO modules
Surge Supressor/Protector
Cordless Screwdriver
Cordless Dremel
Spare Cmos batteries
ISA Video card
Internal/External 56k Modem/with your own account
Bags of screws
Static Mat
Spare 800MB+ HD with Win95/98/NT drivers
Anti Virus Disk
USB&firewire card
4Port Net hub
ISA network card/modem
Win2k/XP resource book kit
Software Utilites CD(winzip,adobe acrobat,memtest,prime95 etc)
Mini PS2 keyboard.
Disk drive cleaning kits
2port KVM
AC outlet tester
wd40 spray
undelete 3.0 software
Micro/Flex ATX Pentium3 VIA system with ISA/PCI/AGP slot(fits inside a Duffle Bag.)
13inch Micron CRT monitor
Small headphones
Texas Instruments Voyage 200 calculator
Solder Rework kit.
Digital Measurement tool

I have more, but not much help to the thread. Sorry for the OT.

Thats a pretty decent list. It will cover just about every hardware problem that you would run into in a repair shop environment and for onsite service, as far as testing and repairing goes. You certainly don't need all those parts for workting on a home PC.

 

[prometheusxls]

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
I use a screwdriver w/ a magnetic head.

That's all I need.


There's no need to open HD's.

amish

Don't magnetic Screwdrivers risk corrupting/damaging, Hard Drives, BIOS chips, and a lotta other computer hardware???

I remember hearing that somewhere

Its possible. But not very likely. I don't think a store bought magnet head would do any damage, i know from experience. I dont know if you ever worked ina PC shop, but try puttign 20 PCs together in a day with out a magnetic tip and cordless powered screwdriver. Between the sorness in the arms and picking up dropeed screws... Its not fun and certainly worth the risk to hardware to get the uinits out the door faster.

 

[Remedy]

Thats a pretty decent list. It will cover just about every hardware problem that you would run into in a repair shop environment and for onsite service, as far as testing and repairing goes. You certainly don't need all those parts for workting on a home PC.

I don't work on my own pc only. I have to maintain over 20 propritary pc's as well. I would be very frustrated if I only had a "screwdriver" to work with. It's Not acceptable.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
I use a screwdriver w/ a magnetic head.

That's all I need.


There's no need to open HD's.

amish

Don't magnetic Screwdrivers risk corrupting/damaging, Hard Drives, BIOS chips, and a lotta other computer hardware???

I remember hearing that somewhere

Yes it's possible but very improbable.

Thorin

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: thorin

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
I use a screwdriver w/ a magnetic head.

That's all I need.


There's no need to open HD's.

amish

Don't magnetic Screwdrivers risk corrupting/damaging, Hard Drives, BIOS chips, and a lotta other computer hardware???

I remember hearing that somewhere

Yes it's possible but very improbable.

Thorin

Yup. I don't go leaving it lying around on the HD's or IC's in the case either.

I've built tons of PC's using it and never had a problem.

amish

 

[GoodRevrnd]

A real technician can build a whole computer out of nothing but zip ties.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: GoodRevrnd
A real technician can build a whole computer out of nothing but zip ties.

Hmmm I thought all "REAL" technicians hand built CardBoard Case(s)

Thorin

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
For working with PCs, I've got a nice German-made Wiha #2 Phillips screwdriver, a standard-blade Wiha for socket-type heatsink clips, and a 2AA MagLite flashlight.

I also have a very large collection of other tools from my 12-year career as a bicycle mechanic. But they don't usually come in handy when working on PCs

you know that ball-peen does..

 

[Cerb]

Decent needlenose pliers, Klein #2 phillips (God's screwdriver), misc. 1/4" and 1/8" flatheads forcarefully prying stuff (HSF clips, for example), and then just save up extra screws and jumpers from mobos and cases. A 3/16" cabinet screwdriver comes in handy a lot, too. I can't say enough about the Klein...works at all kinds of odd angles just fine, bites into screws that are near stripped, etc.

A cheap set of random heads is good, too, for when you have to deal with tamper-proof and torx screws.
I use a broken speaker to magnetize the screwdriver. Just enough to keep the screw held to it, and it loses it after a few days (or a few hours of working with it). Don't know about data corruption, as I try not to get near BIOS chips with it, nor rub all oveer the bottom of an HDD .

I've never used a wrist strap, nor has anyone I've known, even a professor I had last semester. Leaning on the case while working, and otherwise being vigilant typically does the job for ESD. I only know one person who's done anything that could possibly be related to ESD damage...he got pissed off at a friend and rubbed his stick of memory through his chest hair and killed it .

Openning up a HDD is a bad idea. CDROM drives of all kinds just need a straightened paperclip put through the little pinhole on the front.

Sorry about the fried board and all

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

Originally posted by: mechBgon
For working with PCs, I've got a nice German-made Wiha #2 Phillips screwdriver, a standard-blade Wiha for socket-type heatsink clips, and a 2AA MagLite flashlight.

I also have a very large collection of other tools from my 12-year career as a bicycle mechanic. But they don't usually come in handy when working on PCs

you know that ball-peen does..

You've been spying on me through my optical mouse, haven't you! :Q

Here's my 600-pound girlfriend and I... Garland Cycle, ca. 1999 And here's a shot of one of the drawers (note the "normal-sized" red toolbox in the background for a sense of scale, and please excuse the sawdust ). The black screwdrivers there are some of my Wihas. Needless to say, I'm popular with those co-workers who have either an ill PC or bicycle, LOL...

 

[drednox]

if you dont work as a professional, then by all means do the things you arent supposed to do, such as use cordless screwdrivers wherever they fit and whenever applicable (craftsman from sears is pretty cheap) and heavily magnetized screwdriver bits yes, i know ....


hehe

i do it all the time. life is meant to be enjoyed so enjoy it.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

Originally posted by: mechBgon
For working with PCs, I've got a nice German-made Wiha #2 Phillips screwdriver, a standard-blade Wiha for socket-type heatsink clips, and a 2AA MagLite flashlight.

I also have a very large collection of other tools from my 12-year career as a bicycle mechanic. But they don't usually come in handy when working on PCs

you know that ball-peen does..

You've been spying on me through my optical mouse, haven't you! :Q

Here's my 600-pound girlfriend and I... Garland Cycle, ca. 1999 And here's a shot of one of the drawers (note the "normal-sized" red toolbox in the background for a sense of scale, and please excuse the sawdust ). The black screwdrivers there are some of my Wihas. Needless to say, I'm popular with those co-workers who have either an ill PC or bicycle, LOL...

heh...they probably give you gift cards to Sears and such as well..