Electronics > Beginners
My purchase list for my new lab -- budget $1000+, thoughts?
tooki:
--- Quote from: AnyNameWillDo on August 05, 2018, 12:30:38 am ---Should screwdrivers be ESD safe?
--- End quote ---
I’ve been little by little switching to ESD safe tools, simply because the difference in cost is so trivial.
As for brands: I like PB Swiss a lot, but of course, here in Switzerland they’re omnipresent and not crazy expensive. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Wiha. I don’t like the Wera grips (as someone else said, you either love them or hate them.) But I’ll be honest: my first set of precision screwdrivers was Craftsman from Sears, and I really like them. But I’ve been living out of the States for years and haven’t been to a Sears on any recent visit, so I have no clue whether they still sell them.
Not that I ever recommend shitty screwdrivers, but really avoid them for precision drivers, because a bad driver can chew up the screw head, making it difficult to extract later even with a good driver. Similarly, bad Phillips drivers do the same thing, so those are worth buying quality. (And consider later investing in PoziDriv 1 and 2 drivers, because a lot of “Phillips” screws are actually PoziDriv, and a Phillips driver in a PoziDriv screw is even more likely to chew up the screw head.)
FWIW, in the non-precision screwdrivers (precision = small + with rotating end cap thingie), I love that PB Swiss has color coded drivers, so that each type and size is a different color handle.
As for bit sets vs whole screwdrivers: I prefer whole screwdrivers. But buying a screwdriver for every single screw type you ever encounter is both costly and takes up space, so I use bits for rarely used sizes, but while screwdrivers for the ones I use all the time. For me, that’s Phillips 000-2 (precision on 000-0), PoziDriv 2, 2.0 And 2.5mm wide precision flathead, a 4mm wide flathead (not often used), precision Torx T6, T7,T8, and T9, and regular T10. (I’ve been trying to switch to more Torx so I’ll probably buy a Torx set for bigger ones sometime.) I have a decent quality Bosch set for normal bits and an eBay cheapie set of security bits.
For what it’s worth, I don’t much like bit sets for precision screws because bits always have a bit of slop (wiggle), and in precision screws, that slop can be annoyingly large compared to the screw hole itself!! There are other interchangeable systems that don’t wiggle, but swapping tips takes so long it’s annoying.
With big screws, bits work well, unless the screw hole is recessed and the bit holder won’t fit!
I’d start with top quality whole screwdrivers for the key sizes (Phillips 0-2) and go from there as needed.
AnyNameWillDo:
tooki: Arrived at a similar conclusion... from what I read, ESD can take place very silently and invisibly, damaging and even ruining components. Maybe it's overblown, maybe it's not (many say they go years without an ESD incident just by using common sense and touching something grounded before they begin), but I figured the cost difference was small enough. I ended up getting the ESD version of the Wihas for now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AN16QI/
Also picked up a magnetizer/demagnetizer, a desk lamp / task light, a small side fan, and a silicone work mat to protect the table from heat/solder.
rstofer:
If you are worried about ESD, you should have an ESD mat and wrist strap. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Bertech-Wrist-Strap-Grounding-Cord/dp/B071YLJ487
Now that it is common to have protective diodes on chip inputs, the ESD thing is less of an issue. I bought the mat when I assembled my new PC because I was using a high dollar Intel chip. The mat was cheap by comparison.
Over the years, I have had no ESD issues of any kind on any chips without taking any particular precautions. I have never destroyed a device. But I won't risk a high dollar chip...
My Hakko soldering iron is ESD safe and that's the only tool I worry about. I don't spend any time thinking about ESD handtools.
Yes, I think the issue is overblown and based on facts as they were in the '70s.
nanofrog:
Keep in mind even ESD compliant tools are only effective when there's a path to safety earth (i.e. operator is "strapped in"). ;)
AnyNameWillDo:
Might be a dumb question but if I am just sitting at my desk, hardwood floors, fiddling around with components on a table, how do I know if I am grounded or not? Do I need to wear a wrist-wrap connected to something else, e.g. the metal rack next to me? If the rack is just sitting on wood is it even considered grounded? Or do I have to touch something metal that's somehow connected to some other metal in the wall that eventually makes its way back to the grounding metal in the circuit breaker?
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