What should be included in a beginner toolkit for a teenage child doing small builder projects?
I have a teenage child. They're going to be doing "design and tech" at school, and they've shown an interest in light maker / builder projects.
I want to put together a small toolkit for them.
The difficulty I'm having is that when I look at precision screwdrivers I pick a Felco set for £80. For regular screwdrivers I pick either Felco, Wira, Wiha, or Sandvick Bahco. This is probably a bad idea - they're going to end up with a lot of very expensive kit that they will not appreciate yet.
The other thing I'm struggling with is knowing which bits of kit are essential and which are nice to have.
I'd be really grateful to hear your thoughts about this kit. I'm especially interested to hear discussion about balancing "good enough" with "avoid garbage" -- I do prefer to spend more on quality rather than buying cheap buying often.
Screwdrivers:
A handle and a set of bits to fit the handle - £10
A set of weird bits (security, hex, torx) to fit the handle £5
Screwdrivers - pz1, pz2, 4 flat head screw drivers in sensible sizes (still working this out) (probably stanley FatMax) - £30
Snips - they're getting my Bahco snips and my ancient lindstrom snips. I want to get them something they can destroy through misuse, so I'll buy something for around £15
Pliers - needlenose serrated pliers £10
Pliers - big pliers - they'll be getting my ancient RS pliers.
Wire strippers - I like the scissor type that have a range of holes. A nice pair is about £20.
Wrenches and spanners - I have three adjustable spanners in different sizes. I'm looking at micro-ratchets, so something like Kerr or felo (xs33) (but the felo is expensive!!) or Bahco 2058/S26 for £20
Soldering iron - I'm super tempted to just get Hakko's intro model for £100-£150. But I don't know whether I should go instead for some cheap thing like tenma. My own preference for me is strongly Weller - I used weller irons for decades and they were so solid and robust for what I was doing, but not a great choice for tinkering about. I'm struggling to understand the build quality of Tenma bought from a reputable company. I don't want my child fixing things in a mains powered box.
I need a tool box to put it all in.
I need some kind of cutting and filing tools - cheap set of files and a little handle.
I need some measuring equipment - I don't know whether to include a nice set of steel rules or a cheap digital calliper.
Alongside all this there will be a dremel multitool and some useful accessories for it.
And also safety equipment - dustmasks, eye protection (from a reputable supplier!!)
One philosophy I’ve heard here and on Reddit is “buy cheap stuff to start, then figure out what you use most and what breaks, then replace it with something higher quality”. I will say that given that they are a teenager, they may do stupid stuff with it and break it (I still do and I’m in my late 20s). I would look at what you’ve found wears out quickly and would benefit from a higher quality version.
Have you considered adding in an Xacto knife as well as something like a Leatherman or a Swiss Army Knife? I often end up coming back to those, even with more specialized tools (although I’m aware Britain and knives don’t tend to jibe well together, so I’m not sure if you’d be comfortable with that).
I would agree with this. Just do your shopping at a discount chinesium tool store to start with. The one exception I would make is for a soldering iron, but I would not spend as much as you are planning. Get one of those TS100 style ones; they’re very easy to use and more than capable for beginner projects. I hear the Pinecil is wonderful.
I’d get the digital calipers. Even the cheap ones are fairly accurate as long as you don’t get the bottom of the barrel stuff.
@mordae also mentioned calipers. What are they and why do I need one, and how come I haven't known I needed this this many decades on. :/ have I just been going about things the hard dumb way without realising there's a basic tool for it?
It’s a vaguely clamp-like tool used to gage measurements extremely accurately, usually within 1/100th of a mm or more. If you are making physical objects it’s really useful.
It blows my mind when I was a younger (and still kinda blow it now) that the non electronic version (such as the one pictured in the wikipedia page ) can measure stuff invisible to the eye with only a purely mechanical mean.
My calipers are my most used hand tool by some distance. But I make jewellery and I do machining stuff and other things which require sub mm accuracy. I'm not sure I'd say they were all that useful for someone starting out. A tape measure and a decent rule should be plenty.
Cheap calipers are pretty worthless, I suspect a set of Mitutoyos might blow the whole budget!
They are anbelievabky useful even for not really small things. I use them to measure bolts and drills (drilling bits) that I have lying around. I also use them if I need to do a mark on plastic (where to drill) - not the right usage for this tool, but it works.
It is very useful even when you are not actually working on precision stuff. You can do without it though.
EDIT: I have mechanical one, not digital.
It really depends on what you’re doing, but that’s why I recommend the cheap ones. The one I bought at harbor freight for something like $20 or so isn’t super accurate, but it’s dramatically better at getting accurate measurements than a ruler. It’s not too far off from the cost of a proper etched steel ruler, in any case.
My issue with the cheap ones isn't so much the accuracy (which isn't great, but certainly bearable) as the usability. I've used a few sets of cheapo calipers and they've all been hard to use. The display keeps bugging out or zeroing itself mid measurement, or the slides are too stiff or too loose. That could just be bad luck on my part, of course!
Yeah, I admit I have heard enough people trashing them that I can believe I just won the quality lottery.
I don't need sub-mm precision, so I have not yet bought digital. Still plenty good to measure pitches, diameters and part sizes.
Interesting..... A ruler for holes and for spans....huh....I guess precision on this tool is fairly important, and I've never had to make stuff where precision is required. Very cool, I'll keep an eye out for one in the stores, and keep an eye out for when it might be useful and I've previously eyeball'd or used a regular ruler :) thanks
For a soldiering iron, I would highly recommend the pinecil. It uses TS100 style tips, and is better than the TS100 and TS80 in every way I can think of. Including being cheaper. The only drawback is that getting mine from china took like 3 months, although that might have changed now.
Literally the only reason why I don’t own one is that they released it about a month after I bought my TS100.
I'll go against the grain for soldering iron reccomendations. I very much prefer the stations to plain pencils.
I bought this kit. For $50 includes a nice variety of other tools like the solder sucker, tweezers, and helping hands...all of which I find immensely useful.
Soldering stations are nice to have, but if you're not doing a lot of work with it they take up a lot of space that you'll probably want to use for other things and don't tend to pack up well. At work I very infrequently do some PCB rework and they have provided me a Hakko FX-888. It's a huge PITA to set it up and put it away. The newer style pencil irons give you all of the functionality but without the big heavy base, and there's only a relatively thin cable leading to a compact power supply. They don't have the big thermal mass for large joints but a student probably shouldn't be messing with things that would need that.
I hear Yihua is pretty well regarded for cheap stations though. I still want to buy one of their reworking stations with the hot air and vacuum desoldering capabilities. I just don't have the need or space for it.
This is an important point. I loved my Weller because it didn't even blink at 16 layer PCBs with hidden earthplanes and getting enough heat into the pads of large components. But you're right, my child won't be doing anything like that.
I've followed this advice for almost 20 years now.
When I need something I buy the cheapest one (within reason, skip the total crap). If I find out I'm actually using it so much that I hit the limits of the cheap tool, I'll upgrade to the best or second best available.
I'm still rocking a 19€ corded no-name impact drill I bought to get some holes through the concrete walls of my first apartment. It just won't break =)
For soldering I first bought a cheapo one, used it way too much and now I have a TS-100 (I'd get a Pinecil if I was upgrading today)
My hammer is a hand-me down my dad used to build my childhood home - it's also indestructible. There are fancier ones today, but I won't need a better one unless I get the hankering to build a house.
I have boh TS100 and Pinecil. Since I got Pinecil, I haven't used TS100 at all... They are basically the same as far as how you use them and how they work, but Pinecil being able ti run from powerbank or laptop charger makes everything much easier!
I recommend buying it even though you have TS100. They use the same tips, you'll be spending only those 30 bucks. Well, plus shipping...
If you are ordering it from their store, consider also their desk power supply. It has 4x USB-A (each capable of at least 2.1A, I don't have device that could test 3A they claim) and I believe 65W USB-C which is good enough for Pinecil and also for all the standard notebooks (non-gaming variants) and also Steam Deck.
Yea, my TS-100 is so old it only has the barrel jack for power. =)
Upgrading to a USB-C one would be handy just for the power bank use, currently I have to lug around a weird Chinese 12V PSU that happened to fit the plug and the cable isn't too stiff.
I have adapted Lidl (supermarket) power tools battery for use with TS100.
Whoa, never thought about that. Need to check out the local Lidl when the power tools are back in rotation.
That looks like a Parkside battery with a light attachment on top, and then you forked to a barrel connector from that?
There are also breakout boards you can find that have a USB connector and negotiates USB-PD for the higher power output. Just wire up a barrel jack to it and you’ve got a cable that will work with any USB battery or power supply.
It is Parkside battery with light + 2x USB attachment. I have just disassembled the attachment and drilled a hole for barrel jack.
I don't even own Parkside charger for this battery :-D I charge it through this jack with bench powersupply in CC/CV mode (21V/0,7A).
Do you know what they'll be doing or are interested in? Or are we trying to get a general list for just about anything without getting too specialized? I wouldn't include wiring tools and the like for someone doing mostly mechanical work such as a car or with a milling machine.
I would pair down the list, for example they likely don't need screwdrivers and a driver with all of the screwdriver bits. Especially considering the former can be much more expensive and higher end. A good handle and bit set can replace the added cost of dedicated drivers.
Add an Xacto knife and a hammer, something with a claw end if they're going to do woodworking, something with a pein (straight or ball) end if not.
Use best judgement on any tools you can physically touch before buying, you'll know what is good enough and what is too cheap. Otherwise buy low-to-mid level gear. Expensive stuff is great, but requires someone to know what they're doing to use and treat it properly. Very cheap stuff is going to be more frustrating than anything.
Agree on not expensive.
As a gremlin type child who grew up into a gremlin type adult....I would hate it if an adult constantly hovered and "oooh ..." and "careful...." me every ten seconds.
Show me your high end fantastic tool (even at a store) then hand me the $2 one you don't expect to see whole again.
So, just to be clear, I won't be doing that! I fully understand that if I give something to a child there's a good chance the thing is going to get destroyed.
My philosophy with buying tools is to buy the tools I need when I need them. Invariably when I get stuff without a specific use for it, it ends up not being used. So I would get them a nice toolbox and print up some "tool vouchers" to go in there. Then you can get them what they need when they need it.
Mind you there are basics, a screwdriver set is a good idea and a hammer might be handy (although personal preference comes in there, I like a lighter machinists hammer for day to day tappy-taps and have bigger and smaller ones for other jobs). Couple of good clamps are definitely going to be handy. Tape measure and a square?
I do tend to find that Screwfix sell nothing particularly bad, so hand or power tools from there are fairly low risk and can be good value for money. Buying weird Chinese brands from Amazon/etc is a real lottery.
Mechanical:
Electronics:
At least powers of 10 (10pF - 10uF, 1Ω - 1MΩ), better including 33s (33pF, 330pF, 3.3nF ...).
About 10 pieces of each, 25 pieces of 1kΩ and 10kΩ.
About 10 pieces of each, 5 PNPs.
Just sit with the kid and tinker in simulator, then build and measure for real.
Do you have sample....projects? Beginners tutorials for what one can do with the electronics? I don't have any of this stuff and I'm completely at a loss of what one even does with any of this.
And why a caliper? I'm looking for the most basic explanation as if I've never even seen a ruler before
I got one, solder free, very kid-friendly. My 6 year old did it with a tiny bit of help reading:
Theramin kit
That is so cool! Thanks :D
I assume this is to compliment and enable actual projects they might be doing at school and possibly as personal projects related to that. You can't really do much specific with just those basic parts, but you will inevitable reach for them when you are doing just about anything.
From the parts above, from the top of my head:
With extra parts:
As for the calipers, there are multiple answers in this thread already. It's almost impossible to measure diameter of round pieces, balls and holes without them precisely. Sure, for a bolt you can measure at the tip, but good luck doing the same with a self-tapping screw. Holes are tricky to measure with a ruler, with calipers you simply apply a little bit of pressure and wiggle until it can't open no more. Then there are electronic parts. It's nice to be able to effortlessly measure e.g. pin and hole pitches, distance from hole to a board edge and so on. It's also a great tool when you want to copy a part and e.g. 3D print it.
I have also forgotten, sand paper. 2-3 levels of roughness. I've always used it to smooth whatever I've made back when I was 10 yo. Everyone hates splinters.
A lot of these activities are probably very simple....but anything having to do with hardware is like wizardry for me.
Thank you for the reminder about LEDs and buzzers!
I just remembered I have this thing sitting on my shelf!! It's a kit with a bunch of..... capacitors and resisters and lights and such that do .... things. I forget why I got this and what it does. But seems like a safe and easy way to try the first two. The rest are reading like magic already but if you know they're doable at home I want to give it a go!
Take the kit and combine it with Paul Falstad's Circuit Simulator. It has a lot of the basic stuff. You can build an AM radio receiver for example. Though I personally prefer to have a microcontroller in the mix. I am a programmer at heart. :]
You have a sheet of metal. It has a circular hole in it. How big is the hole? You can, if you're careful, get a good enough read from a ruler. Or you can use a calliper. It's a small difference, but it does make like a bit easier.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zsnno1GAaFw
For the type of making my child is doing at the moment the accuracy is too much, but I'm thinking of just getting them used to handling different tools.
Oh ......... That does look pretty handy where a regular ruler doesn't quite do the job
Thanks :)
This is a great list - I have the Pico and we're doing bits and bobs with that, and a nice breadboard and various sensors. We're using CircuitPython and it's great. We moved up from BBC MicroBit, and that was pretty cool.
My electronics list is a bit more developed because that's my background. But even there I'm working to a twenty year old plan of working from a forty year old book: buying a power supply, a signal generator, an oscilloscope, a breadboard and jumper wire and components, and then working through The Art of Electronics Laboratory Manual. This is probably an unfun introduction for an early teen.
I've recently gotten into radio stuff and find it to be great fun.
PySDR explains a lot of concepts really well, RTL-SDL is cheap and widely available receiver and with NanoVNA you can build filter networks and tune antennas. Rest can be done with just a Pico, even more if you add some fast diodes and home made transformers and possibly a fast RF transistor. Preferably stay in ISM bands and avoid polluting the spectrum.
Get helping hands. They may not seem essential, but if you have less than 3 arms they're a must. You can buy cheap ones for jewellery making but they're pretty stiff and not so great for small electronics work. The ones made for electronics are better.
There are also pricier ones with a magnifying glass (fancy), but you'd probably be better off saving the money and getting a real microscope.
Avoid the first ones, buy a hydra-style with LED lighting from the get-go. But no need to rush, it's more fun to acquire it incrementally as the soldering gets tedious. Having dad hold the parts at first should be a lot of fun.
Helping hands is a great shout - they're the kind of thing I keep thinking "I must buy this" and then forget.
A bit like a probe thermometer for food. I spent years not having one, and as soon as I got it I use it all the time.
It really depends on what sort of project they want to work on. Electronics, mechanical, wearable, programming, etc. For electronics, bread boards are your friend, you don't need a soldering iron and can reuse them for different projects. Soldering and circuit boards are for after you are done getting it working on a breadboard and want a permanent installation. I've had project live for years on bread boards.
If it electronics, I'd go with a cheap screwdriver set that takes the 1/4" bits, bonus points if it is a ratcheting driver, a cheap set of micro-screwdrivers, some needle nose pliers, side snips, wire stripper, a decent multi-meter. That is pretty much all you need to get started.
If its mechanical work, start with a couple sets of adjustable spanners, hammer, pliers, 2 cheap screwdrivers that take 1/4" bits, ratchet set.
For hand tools, start off cheap and replace with better as necessary. My favorite pair of long nose pliers cost me $3, they work great. Honestly, I haven't really found much of a difference between "good" and "cheap" brands for most hand tools, sometimes the rubber grips on the cheap tools turn gooey after a couple years, but that's about all I've found, and by that point I know if it's worth it to replace the tool or just deal with it.
For cutting and drilling, I'd just let them use your tools under your supervision. If you don't have tools, well, I guess a cordless drill and cordless circular saw (you can get metal cut off blades for circular saws) and file to remove sharp edges.
Generally you would want screwdrivers (either fixed or some good one with chageable bits). I had many fixed shafts and recently got ratcheting one from Linus Tech Tips (lttstore.com) partly because I'm a fan and partly because I really wanted to try and use ratcheting multibit and I haven't touched fixed shaft ever since. Not true really, I had to go and fond one for really deep screws where multibit screwdriver is useless... For precision screwdrivers iFixit has you fixed.
Some pliers or tongs or whatever it's called in English is a must have too. This time I wouldn't go for some all-in-one but buy each type separately.
Tape measure and calliper is another thing everyone should have. As is angle (for making 90 degree lines), hammer, file etc.
For electronics work I would get Pinecil, which is USB-C (and barrel jack) programmable soldering iron. Nothing beats it in price/performance ratio IMHO. It may not be able to do what 100W iron can, but it works prefectly fine in most cases. Leaded solder is great as it works with lower temps, but you have to be cautious not to eat it or lick your fingers while working with it. You don't want lead in your body... Some small/precision side cutters and fume extractor are great too. Solder sucker and/or wick is a must have too.
Don't forget spanners and/or that ratcheting thing set.
You may also want some material to put thing together like nuts and bolts and washers and rivets etc. Speaking about this - power drill (either mains or battery powered) is a must, don't cheap out on this as this may easily be 10+ years (maybe for life) investment if you buy good one.
For cutting or grinding you may want angle grinder. For more precise work get a Dremel, wonderful thing to have! Heat gun is nice to have too. Maybe hot glue too :-)
And we can go on and on and on...
And if you run out of ideas, keep in mind that you have to store everything somehow too!
EDIT: Wow, bad spelling record in this one! I hope I fixed everything.
+1 for the pinecil. Its not going to last a lifetime or anything but its so small and handy while still being cheap... AND being able to power it off of just about any usb-c brick of power bank. As a hobbyist its the perfect soldering iron.
I'd recommend a rubber mallet. Mine is one of my most used tools. You can use them to tap things into place, apply percussive maintenance, or give something a good smack to break adhesive/corrosion. They're much, much softer than metal so they're less apt to scar the surface.
You can't go wrong with a Hakko soldering iron. Of all the tools to splurge on, I'd suggest the soldering iron be the one. A good, temperature controlled soldering iron is a night and day improvement over a cheap mains-powered iron. I've had my FX888 for something like 12 years now. They're ridiculously reliable irons and, if treated properly, will last basically forever.
EDIT: Get a can of Deoxit D5. Contact and switch corrosion is a common enough problem that keeping a can around is worth doing.
Lol, your “beginner” kit sounds like tools I’ve used for 20+ years.
I’ve never understood the fascination with super high end tools, especially hand tool. I usually just buy whatever’s on sale at Home Depot, and I’ve found that they’re usually at least 80% as good as the super high end boutique stuff everyone talks about for 1/4th the price. If my company was paying for it I’d buy high end snap on/Klein/wera stuff, but for myself? Nah. I’m getting whatever the cheapest thing is. Tools are a means to an end for me. They’re not the end unto themselves. If I paid more than I needed to for a tool to get a job done, then I didn’t really buy the right tool for the job in my opinion.