I picked up a Magnifying Headband years ago when I built my K2. It has been extremely handy over the years, and practically a necessity when building kits.
Items I would say that are good to have in general are: Patience (don't rush, enjoy the build) A good set of screwdrivers (Craftsmen). A quality set of Nippy cutters. A Magnifying visor (I also have a lighted hand held magnifying glass for inspecting surface mount). Good Lighting. A good static mat. A pencil to check of the steps. Plastic divided boxes to organize the hardware. I also bring up the PDF file of the manual on my computer to zoom in on the photos. ________________________________ From: WILLIS COOKE via Elecraft <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> To: "Dauer, Edward" <eda...@law.du.edu>; "elecraft@mailman.qth.net" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2014 12:34 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Kit Wisdom (or experience, anyway) I would agree, but I prefer a bifocal magnifier head band with an external light. I have two, one with an extra magnifying loop.. You definitely need some kind of magnifier unless you are very young with great eyesight or have a pet hawk or eagle to help. Seeing eye dogs don't help much as they have great hearing which does not help unless you have power on and draw an arc. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ & Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart On Sunday, May 4, 2014 10:10 AM, "Dauer, Edward" <eda...@law.du.edu> wrote: One other tool I found essential - and I don¹t recall if anyone has mentioned this yet - is a hand-held magnifying glass with built-in illumination. There are at least two kinds of occasions when this could be important. One is those few places in which the soldered leads on a small board have to be nibbled down to avoid contact with an overlying metallic part (the instructions specify these points.) The glass helps greatly in assuring that the clearance actually exists. The other are the more numerous places in which the boards and other components are connected with multi-pin connector blocks, at least some of which could be (I think) connected with sideways displacement, or not fully inserted at all. I used the glass to inspect every one of them from every possible angle before going on. Once the whole assembly is complete it would be annoying at best to identify an error like that. In my experience (loaded K3, KPA500, KAT500, P3 and KX3) the only step I found really difficult was inserting the K3¹s sub receiver. Three hands with fingers 2 mm wide and eight inches long would have helped. I have but two, shorter and stubbier than that. What I found worked best was, after unsuccessful attempt number five, quit for the night and have a drink. Ted, KN1CBR ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to wrco...@yahoo.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to hlyin...@yahoo.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
