Carlitos’ Contraptions

I found a big potentiometer in McGill‘s garbage (universities’ garbage is pretty good). When I found it, it was very dirty and its body was badly bent. Fortunately, I managed to put it back together and now it is shiny and fully functional (as shiny and functional as a pot can be).

Some Specs:
It is a 400 Ohms potentiometer made out of an array of thin metal hexagons and a contact point that moves along them. The number of hexagons in between one end of the array and the moving contact is proportional to the potentiometer’s resistance. It is roughly 50 cm long and I bet it can handle lots of current.

I finally cleaned up my basement/workshop and put some order into my tools and materials. My main source for materials in general is the garbage as the faithful readers may already know. Too bad I was too late for the Hacked Gadgets Workbench Contest.

My new soldering space

I also got some new tools a while ago. Note the precision screw driver holder made out of a plastic jar cap and the screw driver stand made out of a piece of wood I found in the garbage.

I also got some new measuring tools that are extremely useful (and make me extremely happy).

Some of my electronics parts:

I came around many electronics stores selling brass sponges as soldering iron tip cleaners. I thought that using a brass sponge was a good idea but was not ready to pay between 5$ and 12$ for a sponge. Instead, I got two brass sponges at the groceries store for around 1.9$ and used an old metal cover from a jam jar to make my own. The result is a very useful soldering sponge.

If you are wondering what are the advantages with respect to the more conventional wet sponge, I can enumerate three:

1. It does not inflict such a great thermal shock on the iron tip. Thus, putting it trough less stress.
2. It does not produce fumes since the tip temperature doesn’t change as much and there is no water vapour.
3. It does not require water. Having water around electronics can sometimes be a bit of a hazard.

In this post, I will list and describe my tools. Other than showing off, this entry illustrates the many tools required in the upcoming projects.

Soldering Iron My Hakko 936 ESD Soldering Station is more than enough for soldering small electronics projects. I got it as a Christmas gift from my parents last year. Since then, I have learned how to solder (among other things).

The station allows to adjust the temperature (from 200°C to 480°C) in order to fit your current needs (i.e. very hot for large pieces of metal or just hot enough to melt the solder on small components).

Also the iron holder is very robust and reliable, unlike the more common (springy) ones.

Desoldering Pump There is nothing fancy about my good old desoldering pump.

The heat resistant nozzle is not so heat resistant (or I’m very bad at desoldering or both) and has become shorter with time. This is why I upgraded it with a piece of plastic from a wire terminal. The plastic is not heat resistant, but it is cheap and easy to replace.

Third Hand This is a very handy artefact for holding things steady in order to work on them. Of course, it is not an essential tool since it can be easily replaced by a little brother’s hand, especially for holding very hot metal while soldering. If you don’t have a little brother, a girlfriend’s hand will do. This device can be purchased in any electronics store for around 20$.

Wire Stripper What a beautiful name for a tool. This handy little device is essential for any electronics project. Even though it can be replaced by a knife, or even by your nails, it is much easier and clean to strip wire with a wire stripper. I got mine as a gift from my girlfriend.

Swiss Knife This is my very reliable Victorinox Cybertool 34 (you should be salivating right now). This trusty Swiss pocket knife follows me almost everywhere and allows me to do things à la MacGyver.

Breadboard A breadboard allows you to easyly and reliably set up circuits without soldering. Thus they are very handy for testing.

Multimeter A multimeter is indispensable in any electronics project. Mine comes from Radioshack and is somewhat reliable and accurate.

Power SupplyA variable regulated power supply is very handy when doing electronics projects. I got mine essentially from the garbage. I will post more details on it soon since it is one of my projects.

This is by no means a complete list of the tools you need. It simply gives an idea of the many tools required.