Electronic Repairing Tools

Tools For Electronics Repairing

This article introduces you to the tools used for the electronic troubleshooting.For the basic operation you will need simple and mostly used  tools while for the complex operations you will have to invest some special kind of tools.
Following are the tools used in electronics.

SOLDERING IRONS:

What is soldering iron?

A tool having metal tip at the end which gets hot up to 800 degree Fahrenheit or even more. You can also adjust the temperature of a good metal. The purpose of the metal tip is to transfer heat to the soldering wire so that it melt and solder joint is formed and the two individual components holds together. Soldering guns are also available but they are used when you have to work on a larger scale.

How to use a soldering irons?

Hold the soldering iron in your dominant hand and soldering wire in the other hand. Now touch the soldering iron and the solder wire at the place where you want to make a solder joint. Take a better idea from the diagram given below.

Safety measures:

Be sure to wear safety glasses, keep loose clothes, and not to touch your fingers with the metal.its better to put gloves in your hand.

SOLDER WIRE:
Solder wire is used to solder electronic components like ICs, capacitors, transistors,    etc.It is basically a metal alloy(Tin and Lead). Available in a range of thicknesses usually containing flux in the core. 0.5 mm is best for mobile repairs. Lead free solder is also available to avoid environmental effect.

SPONGES:

It is used for cleaning the tip of soldering iron.Basically a wet sponge removes any solder pieces from hot tip.It is very important to keep your soldering iron clean so a cleaning sponge is everything you need for the purpose. Make sure the metal tip is clean otherwise there will be a blockage of heat transfer.

SOLDERING IRON HOLDERS:

When you have to put the soldering iron aside, as the tip is red hot and may cause burning and for that purpose you need soldering iron holder. The holder is often form into a spiral with a lot of space to radiate the heat.

DESOLDERING WICK:
Or Desoldering braid is copper wire coated with flux.It is placed over soldered connection which is to be removed when heat is supplied by soldering iron then melted solder is attached to the braid.

HEAT GUNS:

Some times it becomes necessary to provide heat to solve the problem. then heat gun is used which generates a stream of hot air with a temperature ranging from 100-500 degree Celsius. one should be careful while using the heat gun as it may cause the damaging of the plastic material.

DC POWER SUPPLY:
Provides a range of regulated DC voltages and can be set according to the requirement.

FREEZE SPRAYS:
Freezing sprays are the cooling agents for cooling down the high temperatures.For the rapid cooling of circuit components different chemicals such as Freon are used.Some coolant may generate static charges of thousands of volts which may damage the circuit so be careful in this regard. So buy a brand that is specified as anti-static.

DENTAL MIRRORS:
Dental mirrors are used when you have to look into out-of-the-way places i.e when components are located under the belly of CRT.

SCREW DRIVERS:
For electronic troubleshooting a set of good screw drivers is required. Screws are made in different sizes and shapes and can be turned over by the help of  the screwdrivers of the corresponding sizes and shapes.Specified size of the screwdriver should be used. Power screwdrivers are also used for electronic troubleshooting.

LONG NOSE PLIERS:
Once the components are desoldered from the PCB then long nose pliers are used to pick them up.It is used for bending and cutting purpose.Their longer nose makes it easier to reach into cavities where cables are stuck i.e the components located under the neck of CRT are very difficult to remove without long nose pliers.

WIRE CUTTERS:
Wire cutters are used for cutting wires, wire ties and lead on large parts.

WIRE STRIPPERS:
When you have to make connections, the wire should be bare at the place of connection. In order to remove the plastic cover from the wire, wire strippers are used. You may say that this cover could be removed by the help of wire cutters but it will cause damage and fatigue in the wire which will reduce the wire conductivity.

MAGNIFYING LAMP:
Magnifying lamp not only provide light but also gives magnified view of the component under consideration.
So that you may read the information provided on the components i.e small resistor color codes, SMD resistor values or capacitor values etc.

SPRAY CLEANER:
Sometimes the dust accumulated on the circuit  components may effect the operation of the circuit.In order to remove the dust and to clean the circuit, spray cleaner is used. However if the problem still persists than you must have to replace the component.

CLEANING BRUSH:
You may use a cleaning brush or toothbrush for overcoming a bad connection problem in the PCB. Initially the fault may be detected. Simply run the cleaning brush over the circuit until you put the bad connection into working.

In addition to the above mentioned tools you may require some other tools like hammer, nail extractor or even drill machine for installation and dismantling work.However it depends on what type of job you are doing.