[Elecraft] 1st Time Kit building

Tue Jul 23 18:45:01 2002

I got compartmented trays with lids on them.  Each one has 12 compartments of 2 x 4 x 2.  On the floor of each compartment there is a smooth ridge so getting nuts and 
washers out is easy.  They're clear so when the lid is closed you can find the right tray.  My K2 kit used four of these trays which I labelled with the labels on each bag.  As 
I was running through my inventory I just put all the parts in separate compartments.  So caps were easy to find by value and by type.  If the parts were visually dissimilar I 
doubled up in the compartments.  If the cat jumped on the workbench he just flipped the case over and since the lid seals quite nicely the cat is still living :)  At the end of 
each session I just snapped the lid shut and worked on CW or on my thesis.  

The comment about good tools is excellent.  The magnifying glass light mounted on my bench is invaluable now that my eyes have gotten old and decrepit (my arms are 
much too short now days).  A good soldering iron is a must.  I have the WTCPT from Weller that works quite well.  Good quality screw drivers, side cutters, needle nose, 
and a good Fluke VOM round things out.  I use your basic RS solder 'cause they're just a few blocks away.  I thought I would need to do some rework (how right I was!!!) 
and thought silver solder would be a pain to remove.  Most of my rework jobs (to put in mods of course ;^) took time because of desoldering and cleaning out excess 
solder.  If I could get a decent desoldering station that would have been much, much easier.

7/23/2002 1:57:00 PM, "Hagood, Larry" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>	Simon,
>	   I almost forgot the most important thing you should get when
>building any kit like this. 
>	Get a package of those small disposable bathroom cups to sort all
>the parts in and use a felt pen to write the discriptions or values on the
>outside of the cup. But always re check the value of the part even after you
>pull it out of it's respective cup.
>	   In my opinion I would rather build my next K2 using a hot poker
>pulled from the fireplace in leu of a soldering iron before I would build it
>without the little cups. hi hi.
>	-Larry AE6CP
>
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