One of the things that keeps people from getting into DIY electronics is the fear that they’ll need to buy a bunch of crap before they’ll be able to do anything. This is the case with most hobbies; if you want to start painting you’ll need an easel and all kinds of expensive brushes, if you want to work on car engines you’ll need one of those wheelie-tray things to lay on and about seven thousand types of wrenches. Shouldn’t the same be true of electronics work? Kinda, but it’s not as bad as you think. Lets take a look at the stuff you should have on hand, and see how much you’ll be spending to get rolling.

Most of the tools in an electronics DIYer’s toolkit are things to make his life easier, stuff he could live without but just doesn’t want to. If you’re just starting out, though, these are the basics; stuff you absolutely must have…[ed. list begins after the jump]

Basics

• Soldering Iron - $8
  What? A soldering iron is a handle and a metal pointy end that gets hot.
  Why? We use the hot end to melt solder onto wire connections to hold them in place, and sometimes to get weird-shaped burns all over our hands for us to try and explain to our friends. You can spend as much money as you want on a soldering iron, but a decent sub-$10 one will pretty much cover it. Besides the plug-in variety, there are “wireless” types that use butane and a flint to achieve basically a handheld torch with a metal tip. I like these, but they can be a hassle and a mess, and aren’t the best for beginners.Your Question: Can I use one of those cool ColdHeat things from the TV?
  No! Sweat merciful Spaghetti Monster, no.
• Solder - $3
  What? Solder is metal with a reasonably low melting point and high conductivity.
  Why? We use it to secure electrical connections. Say, if you need two wires to connect to each other, doing so with molten and quick-setting metal is so much cooler than tape. Even though it’s made into a spool, it’s sold by weight, not by length. 1.5oz is a good starting batch.Your Question: There are all kinds of crazy types, what kind should I get?
  Rosin-core is the best, multi-use type. Make sure you don’t get a lead-free one unless you know you need lead-free, and not one with “acid” in the name. [edit: I flipped the lead/no-lead rule.]
• Hookup wire – $5
  What? Hookup wire is just basic, shielded wire used to make electrical/data connections.
  Why? The power has to move somehow. Even if you aren’t using it right away, a spool of hookup wire is always good to have on hand. They typically sell them in red and black, but the color of shielding has no effect whatsoever on the wire. The best size to keep on hand is 22 or 26AWG (American Wire Gauge).Your Question: What’s with the number gauge things?
  The bigger the number, the thinner the wire. 22AWG is a nice mid-sized wire that’s big enough to handle and small enough to fit in compact applications.
• Electrical Tape - $2
  What? Electrical tape is an adhesive tape made out of PVC. Almost always black in color.
  Why? Electrical tape doesn’t conduct electricity, it doesn’t burn or melt outright, and it sticks nicely to metal. This makes it perfect for sealing up an electrical connection (after you’ve soldered two wires together, you should electrical-tape the connection so it doesn’t touch any other metal) or insulating a container. If you find an electronics workbench that doesn’t have any electrical tape on it, you’ve just found something that doesn’t exist. Seek mental help.Your Question: I can just use duct tape, right?
  Duct tape, or any other kind of tape besides electrical tape, may hold stuff together, but it’s not suited for electrical connections. It could catch fire, melt, provide resistance, or open a temporal wormhole and implode the universe.
  
  
• Digital Multimeter – $20
  What? It’s a powered digital device with two tethered leads that will display information about any circuit you expose it to, such as voltage, amperage, resistance, etc.
  Why? The feature you’ll use most is the voltage indicator. Most DIY stuff depends on making sure the right voltage is going through the circuit lest you fry an LED or start a fire, so you’ll want a multimeter to be certain you’ve got the voltage correctly. It’s also good for troubleshooting, testing your connections, even checking your batteries’ charges.Your Question: Come on, how about I just double-check my connections and make sure I do everything properly?
  Don’t live in denial. Yes, a multimeter may be the most expensive part of your toolkit, but it’s the the part most likely to prevent you from killing yourself.

Grand total: $38.

Less than $40 for everything you need? That’s less than your average rose gardening book, and then you’d still have to buy knee pads and fancy imported dirt. You can probably find a bundle at Radio Shack that sells all these things in a starter set for a lower price.

So there, you aren’t allowed to use that as an excuse not to get DIYing anymore.