“What is one of the most essential tools in an electrical engineers kit? Ill tell you one that you probably love and hate; the soldering iron. You dont have to be an EE to need one, you’ll need one even if you’re just a tinkerer who enjoys repairing stuff around the house. For basic applications, a standard soldering iron that you plug into the wall does the job, but for more sensitive work like repairing and building electronic circuits, you’ll need a soldering station. The temperature control is critical as to not burn the components, especially the integrated circuits. In addition, you may also need it to be powerful enough to maintain a certain temperature in case you find yourself a big ground plane that you want to solder to. As a student attending University far from home, I found that it was impractical to uninstall my soldering station from my workbench to bring it back and forth when I visit home. I decided that it was best to get a new one, or better yet, build a new one.”