Repair center kit
Ian Daniher took some notes on what equipment his fledgling repair shop needed; similar sets may be useful for other repair centers to assemble.
- Screw holders/sorters. 6 transparent containers; test tubes on a rack or cheap 7-day pill boxes have been used.
- Work surface. A clean, white, wide surface (to allow for individuals to see any parts that have fallen off, and to spread out the XO's components) or anti-static mat/wrist strap set. Watch repair people have aprons that attach to their workbenches, so tiny parts won't fall onto their laps.
- A small Phillips (tm) head screwdriver. Ideally, you want a screwdriver (a few of them) made specifically to fit these screws. There are subtle differences in sizes and shapes of cross-recess screw heads. In the USA, a good No. 1 Phillips driver seems to work well. Do not use a flat-bladed screwdriver or a worn Phillips (cross-recess) screwdriver.
- A buddy (or recorder). A non-text way of recording commentary if another individual is not present (tape recorder or laptop). Better: work in pairs, and have the second person document. If you have a digital camera, inside a laptop or cell phase, try it out. (Although the XO is relatively straightforward and not confusing to reassemble (except, perhaps, using the correct screws), watch repair people, when working on complicated watches, lay out the parts as they are removed in a line on the bench or inserted into foam. (They used to use pith.)
- Extra screws. Note that spare screws are available in the handle of each XO.
- Component storage. A rack of non-metallic bins/drawers to store components. If possible, try to use anti-static bins; some common plastics (such as polystyrene) are awful for developing and holding strong static charges (10s of kilovolts, sometimes!)
- Tweezers. Some of the screws are in tight places and tend to get wedged under stuff once you've loosened them. Jeweler's or assembly tweezers are far better than cosmetic tweezers.
- Antistatic bags and Printable shipping labels for shipping parts.
- Duct tape, because packing tape is often unwieldy and unsightly.
- Cushioning packing material -- Even crushed newspapers are better than nothing. Antistatic bubble pack and closed-cell polyethylene foam is very good. (Antistatic types of packing material are dyed pink, but be sure that it really is antistatic, not simply decorated.)
- Test Equipment
For now, a good-quality digital multimeter would be good to have. If you don't know how to use one, choose one with a good manual. If it has current (ampere, milliampere) ranges, learn how to use them -- they are almost like short circuits!
- Soldering equipment Only for those who know how to do modern electronic soldering!!! XOs use lead-free solder (See RoHS -- link needed). A good soldering station, which has a grounded tip, a small stock of tips, and a tip cleaner are a good start. Don't use a soldering iron that connects directly to AC power (mains), unless it has a third grounding wire, leakage (worse in 240-V countries) is too risky. Really, even this is a last resort, to be used only on things like the power cornnector. Real basics: Solder is quite different from an adhesive.
- Solder XOs use lead-free solder. A spool of maybe 500 grams is somewhat costly. Use only the best!
