The tools on my bench
This is the gear I use to build the boards I design in PerfBoard. Nothing is listed here that is not in daily use on my own bench.
I am a hobbyist, and I still buy professional grade tools. Most of my builds are hobby projects, but the time a good tool saves is time I get to spend on the parts of the hobby I actually enjoy. There is less of that time every year, so making the most of it matters to me.
Pro grade tools also come with real warranties and real support, and something eventually goes wrong with everything. I never think twice about a tool failing me. Every tool on this page is a buy-once tool: I expect it to outlast me, I never need to upgrade it, and I have never regretted the purchase.
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Bench instruments
Siglent SPD3303X-E triple output power supply
Every project on my bench gets its power from this. Three channels means I can feed a 3.3 V microcontroller, a 5 V sensor rail, and a 12 V motor driver at the same time, which is exactly what rapid prototyping needs. The adjustable current limit is the part I would not give up: I can hand a fresh board a few milliamps on first power-up, and a short trips the limit instead of cooking a part.
View on AmazonSiglent SDS1104X-E 100 MHz oscilloscope
A multimeter tells you a pin sits at 3.3 V. The scope shows you the ringing, the glitch, and the clock that is running at half the speed you thought. I use it to debug signals, confirm rails are clean, and probe around a board when something is not doing what the schematic says. It opens up a world that is otherwise invisible, and with four channels I can watch a bus and its clock side by side.
View on AmazonNordic Semiconductor Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2)
This is how I measure current on power-constrained builds. It reads down into the microamps, a place no multimeter can see with this accuracy, and it plots the draw over time so a sleep bug shows up as a plateau instead of a guess. It once took a battery pack from a one month lifespan to over two years by exposing a microcontroller that never actually slept. It can also source power to the circuit, so I can start a recording, power the board on, and catch the current spike or voltage dip that only happens at boot.
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Soldering
Hakko FX-971 soldering station
The iron every board on this site gets soldered with. It is up to temperature in seconds and holds it through a long run of ground pins without drooping, and the tip and heater are one cartridge, so switching from a fine point for headers to a chisel for terminals is a single swap with no waiting. It sleeps as soon as the handle goes back in the holder, which is what makes tips last for years instead of months.
View on AmazonOmnifixo helping hands
Magnetic arms on a steel base that hold a perfboard, a wire, and a part at whatever angle I set, and they stay put. Spring-clip helping hands slip and scratch; these grip without marking anything and reposition with one hand while the other holds the iron.
View on OmnifixoWeller WSW SnPb L1 solder wire, 0.8 mm, 100 g
Leaded solder that flows the moment it touches a hot pad and leaves a bright joint you can read at a glance. The 0.8 mm wire is my default: on perfboard every joint is a pin in a hole, and this diameter feeds one joint of solder per touch on headers, terminals, and hookup wire. The same spool every time means every joint on the board looks like the last one.
View on AmazonWeller WSW SnPb L1 solder wire, 0.5 mm, 100 g
The same wire, thinner, for the joints where 0.8 mm is too much: a module with tightly spaced pins, or a hole a wire has to share with a component lead. Less solder per touch means less to bridge and nothing to wick back off afterward.
View on AmazonFlux syringe
A syringe puts a dot of flux exactly where I want it and nowhere else. Flux is what makes a joint wet out and settle instead of balling up on the pin, and it is what rescues a joint I have to rework. Keeping it off the rest of the board also means there is less to clean when the build is done.
View on AmazonPTFE (Teflon) tape
Solder does not stick to PTFE and it shrugs off iron temperatures. I use it to hold wires and components flat against the board while the first pins are soldered, and to mask neighboring pads I do not want to bridge. It peels off clean and leaves nothing behind.
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Hand tools
KNIPEX automatic wire stripper, 10 to 24 AWG
Consistent stripped ends are what make a perfboard build go fast. Insert the wire, squeeze, move on. It senses the gauge on its own, so there is no hunting for the right notch and no nicked conductors. Every exposed end comes out exactly as long as it needs to be and identical across the whole build, which is the difference between fiddling with wire and finishing the board.
View on AmazonKNIPEX 78 03 125 Electronics Super Knips
Just damn good wire snips. Flush, precise, and they stay sharp. I like them so much I bought two pairs, one for the bench and one for the drawer so I never have to look for them.
View on AmazonKNIPEX 92 64 43 precision tweezers
Just good tweezers. The grippy serrated tips hold onto slippery components, reach into tight spots between headers, and stop me fat-fingering a part into the wrong row. I also use them to put sharp, clean bends in wire so each run matches the bend points on the cut sheet. Two pairs of these as well.
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Prototyping and wire
Breadboards
Where every circuit starts. I prove the design on a breadboard first, then move it to perfboard once it works, so the only thing left to debug is the wiring.
View on AmazonBreadboard jumper wires
The other half of prototyping. A big assorted pack means I am never short of the length or color I need mid-build.
View on AmazonSolid core hookup wire kit
A must have for clean perfboarding. Solid core holds the bends you give it, so a run stays exactly where you routed it, and a spool of each color makes nets easy to trace on the finished board. This is what turns a working board into one that looks clean and professional.
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Plan the board before you cut a single wire.
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