[Elecraft] Building the K2 - Buy Good Tools & Make it Fun

[WQ8Q]

Okay .. . . I've already built the K1-4 plus accessories, so I'm familiar
with the way Elecraft does things.  Now I've started on the K2 (I also got
the KPA100, KNB2 & KSB2) and I made a couple of changes in the way I work
since I built the K1.
I bought an Optivisor and now do EVERYthing with it on.  Don't know how I
built the K1 without it.  My trusty 30-year-old Weller soldering station
was, well, 30 years old, so I bought a new Hakko 936-12 Soldering station
and found a brand new 3M Static Protective Field Service Kit on eBay for
$10. Also new Xcelite nippers & such.  I've read on this list how some say
you CAN build with Brand X, etc.  My feeling is that I've spent $1100 on
this radio and accessories, which is more than I've spent for a ham radio at
one time in my life!  So I figured . . . might as well do it right and make
it easy on myself.  The cost of the new tools is minimal when you compare it
to the cost of the kit.
I'm one of the red/green colorblind folks, so every so often it's run to my
wife and ask her the color of something.  I check EVERY resistor with a
quality, recently calibrated desktop DMM.  I triple check all the caps . . .
when I sort them, I put each value in a coin envelope, and mark it.  When
one's due to be installed, I check it again when I take it out, double check
the location and check again before I solder.  I look at the printing on the
caps through the Optivisor AND through a magnifiying lamp. I might make some
screwups, but hopefully it won't be the wrong part.  I do the same with
inductors and transistors. I check the inductors with an Autek RF1, just to
make sure.  It usually is close enough that I know I have the right one.  It
might take a little extra time, but I hate unsoldering stuff.
I've got the control board and the front panel done . . . starting on the RF
board.
Have Fun!  That's the point.  I figure if I have even HALF as much fun as
Wayne and Eric seem to be having then I'm doing fine.
And I'm not in a hurry, even though the only radio I've got right now is the
K1.  Sold my Omni V to buy the K2.
73 de Rick, WQ8Q