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  • Author Author: e14mindi
  • Date Created: 10 Mar 2020 5:51 PM Date Created
  • Last Updated Last Updated: 6 Oct 2021 10:18 PM
  • Views 9360 views
  • Likes 20 likes
  • Comments 164 comments
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Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020

image

 

Hello Community, and happy March to all of you!

 

Some of you might be thinking to yourselves - what is Cool Tools? Isn't that a bit familiar? And indeed it is. We ran a fun campaign nearly two years ago to talk about awesome tools as a sneaky way to get you all to show us your work benches (check out the original post here: Cool Tools Bench Awards 2018.) We originally thought about doing this annually, but last year we got caught up in an endless winter here in the Chicago offices that left us wanting anything but to think about the cold. However, now that we have experienced our first actual spring day, we have de-thawed, and we're excited to bring you the Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020!

 

What is the Kit Awards?

 

Previously, we asked the Community to share their work benches but now we're curious - if you could only have one kit for the rest of your life - let's call it your desert island kit - what would be in it? Is there a particular tool that has outlasted all others? Is there some indispensable piece of equipment that, if you were to lose it, would be cause for tearing out your hair (as if sorrow would be made less by baldness?)

 

In the comments below, we want you to tell us about your desert island kit - show us in pictures or video, go into as much detail as you want to tell us what would be in it and why. If you don't want to talk about an entire kit, pick out one of your Cool Tools and describe it under categories such as:

 

  • Oldest Friend (tool that you've had the longest)
  • The Most Reliable (the tool you use most often)
  • Weapons Rack (the tool that you'd proudly put on display if you had to)
  • Dream Tool (a tool that either you don't believe exists, or for whatever reason you've never purchased)
  • Or, make up your own category to talk about a tool that you think everyone should have in their kit!

 

What's in it for me?

 

We're giving everyone on the Community through the end of March to leave comments on this post for a chance to win some great tools from our revamped Multicomp Pro line (like the ones below) as well as from others by some of our great partners like Flir, Fluke, Knipex, Klein and others.

 

image

Buy Now

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Buy Now

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Buy Now

image

Buy Now

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Buy Now

 

 

Then, every Friday in April we'll be picking some winners from the comments below to win prizes. All you need to do is tell us about your desert island kit or one of your favorite tools. To make it even more fun, our Multicomp Pro team has agreed to put together a great prize pack to whoever comes up with what they think is the coolest of the Cool Tools Desert Island Kits! So have some fun with this and leave your comments below. You have all of March to get in your comments, so no need to beware the Ides.

 

We're so excited to see what you all come up with!

 

Want another way to get your hands on some of these Cool Tools? Check out out the RoadTests & Reviews space where rscasny will be launching RoadTests for some of these items. Apply for the first one here: Cool Tools 2020: USB Soldering Iron

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Top Comments

  • dougw
    dougw over 5 years ago +17
    It is surprisingly hard to pick a favorite tool, but it is a lot of fun recalling all the great tools and trying to compare them. I am first going to narrow it down to just 3 candidates and even that was…
  • genebren
    genebren over 5 years ago +13
    Tool Kit Over the past two years, I have built well over 250 boards from within my Office/shop. The vast majority of these boards were built for clients, but a fair number have been for my own projects…
  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago +12
    On reading the post, I looked over at my tool box and immediately thought, I can't live without my Romex Wire Stripper. That is what it was called some 30 years ago when I bought it. An Google search returns…
Parents
  • DaveLTX
    DaveLTX over 5 years ago

    Weapons Rack/Oldest Friend

    image

    I used to roll with 2x 936 clone stations and a very old Lodestar 8202 "lab power supply" back in 2012 or so, that melted its transformer primary so a few years back I got a adjustable switcher which turned out to actually work and not be dangerous and it didn't have bad ripple either.

     

    The only oldest friend here is my VC8145 DMM which worked better and longer than anyone at EEVblog would have ya believe.

    Ever since I switched from retrofitted 936s with 936 heaters and circuit boards I have bought a T12 station that uses hakko T12 tips which has been nothing short of amazing, I spent way less time being annoyed at my desoldering work not coming off and way more time actually soldering.

    I have went through several 858Ds like this is the 3rd one since 2012, this one has been really solid. The ones without atmel chips (samsung chips) would stop working entirely!

    Also I use UT61E even though I have a U1273AX mainly because the u1273ax's screen has since gone dark.

    It's been one hell of a journey for me from my humble beginning days and now I do a lot of analog engineering work for guitar pedals and amps as well as hifi. That VC8145 has seen through it all!

     

    I would say element14 has been instrumental in my journey from the early days of my hobby that i put all my time into.

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  • DaveLTX
    DaveLTX over 5 years ago

    Weapons Rack/Oldest Friend

    image

    I used to roll with 2x 936 clone stations and a very old Lodestar 8202 "lab power supply" back in 2012 or so, that melted its transformer primary so a few years back I got a adjustable switcher which turned out to actually work and not be dangerous and it didn't have bad ripple either.

     

    The only oldest friend here is my VC8145 DMM which worked better and longer than anyone at EEVblog would have ya believe.

    Ever since I switched from retrofitted 936s with 936 heaters and circuit boards I have bought a T12 station that uses hakko T12 tips which has been nothing short of amazing, I spent way less time being annoyed at my desoldering work not coming off and way more time actually soldering.

    I have went through several 858Ds like this is the 3rd one since 2012, this one has been really solid. The ones without atmel chips (samsung chips) would stop working entirely!

    Also I use UT61E even though I have a U1273AX mainly because the u1273ax's screen has since gone dark.

    It's been one hell of a journey for me from my humble beginning days and now I do a lot of analog engineering work for guitar pedals and amps as well as hifi. That VC8145 has seen through it all!

     

    I would say element14 has been instrumental in my journey from the early days of my hobby that i put all my time into.

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