Best tools question

[MaineFix]

What are the best tools in your opinion every shop should have on a tier list.
I would like to know what I'm missing and what I should invest in for making my life easier with repair jobs.

Also in there anything that has made your business more profitable but you wouldn't expect it to be a common tool around repair shops?

[momaka]

Re: Best tools question

A hammer, a mallet, a wrecking bar / crowbar, heavy-duty cheater pipe, an angle grinder, and a drill.
.
.
.
Oh wait, are we talking about computer repair here?

[stj]

Re: Best tools question

damn,
i only have a short-axe and an angle grinder and my SDS+ drill in the large toolbox

[shovenose]

Re: Best tools question

Various flavors of JB-Weld, such as MinuteWeld, HighHeat, etc. I've used it everything from laptop hinges to reinstalled a spark plug in a cylinder head with ruined threads.

[momaka]

Re: Best tools question

What are the best tools in your opinion every shop should have on a tier list.
I would like to know what I'm missing and what I should invest in for making my life easier with repair jobs.

Seeing as this thread didn't get much attention (and apologies to the O/P if my first comment above derailed the discussion a little)...

I think the "best tools" will depend a lot on what you're trying to do/fix... and the intentions of the joke in my first post above was clearly to point this out.

After all, the tools you'd need to repair cell phones and tablets could vary slightly compared to desktops & laptops... and more than slightly if running a TV repair shop, or appliance repair.

So stating what you're more focused on (or not) and what tools you already have could gives a better clue on what you may be "missing out" on. In particular, if there are any types of repairs that you struggle with or just have a harder time doing, posting about it here might receive a comment from someone else who's done the same before and found a better method and/or tools to do the same a little quicker.

As a general answer, I think anyone in the electronics repair field should have at least a cheap T12 soldering station and one or more reliable and well-made multimeters. Of course, those are the basics, which I'm sure everyone already has to some extent, so probably no need to mention it.

While I'm not a business and don't own a repair shop, I do have more tools centered around PSU repair. What I find particularly handy is a Kill-A-Watt meter, various "high-power" appliances and/or their heating elements in particular, lots of jumper/alligator test leads, and at least 5 multimeters. I use these when testing various PSUs. I also have an O-scope (but currently, it's in No-Op state... so that's another project.) Oh, and scrap boards - lots of scrap boards from TVs, monitors, and motherboards. With these, I can usually get a PSU up and fixed pretty quickly... or at least temporarily if I don't have an exact "ideal" replacement part.

[Topcat]

Re: Best tools question

One thing I've learned after 31 years in tech, you can't be a one-trick pony and make it....you need to know how to fix lots of things and have the tools to do it. Good tools are a lifetime investment. As to what tools are critical? I wouldn't even know where to begin that list!

Kind of a funny story.... I had a Mennonite customer bring me a "word processor", which is nothing but a PC housed in a wooden box... Calling it a 'word processor' and being made by their own people squares it with God I guess.....but anyway... The PSU went bad and it was some goofy unit I didn't have, and he needed it repaired quickly....so I modified the arrangement of the case to fit a different power supply and upgraded it to a SSD + dual boot with their own OS and Linux mint.... The modifications were performed with wood working tools....and the owner of the machine got a good chuckle when I told him that this was the first computer in my entire career that I fixed using wood screws....

Like I said, good tools are a lifetime investment!!

[momaka]

Re: Best tools question

One thing I've learned after 31 years in tech, you can't be a one-trick pony and make it....you need to know how to fix lots of things and have the tools to do it.

I think this really is the best way to sum it up, especially the electronics field... which seems to be entering almost anything you buy nowadays.

Like I said, good tools are a lifetime investment!!

My dad bought a bunch of power tools back in the early 2000's when doing some renovations around the house. At the time, we thought they were kind of expensive and really think we wouldn't use them much after. 20 years later, we're still using these (circular saw, nice corded hammer drill, and etc.) Cheap tools can get you by... but not always. And in some cases, they can make a job much longer or completely screw it up. But yeah, IDK where to begin with a list either. There are just so many fields and sub-fields you can go into.

[jiroy]

Re: Best tools question

Some of my Unexpendable tools :

1) - Tiny small retractable scissor , useful to open any kind of Capuccino and coffee packages , and sometimes useful to affirm continuity in some circuitry . This one is always in my pocket .

2) - 1 to 7 USB bridge with adapter . Very useful for multi purposes .

3) - Label 5 Swiss knife with Leds .

4) Floppy/Multiple Card reader for data recovery .

[ratdude747]

Re: Best tools question

Kind of a funny story.... I had a Mennonite customer bring me a "word processor", which is nothing but a PC housed in a wooden box... Calling it a 'word processor' and being made by their own people squares it with God I guess.....but anyway... The PSU went bad and it was some goofy unit I didn't have, and he needed it repaired quickly....so I modified the arrangement of the case to fit a different power supply and upgraded it to a SSD + dual boot with their own OS and Linux mint.... The modifications were performed with wood working tools....and the owner of the machine got a good chuckle when I told him that this was the first computer in my entire career that I fixed using wood screws...

For those playing at home: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=99897