Reddit reviews IRWIN VISE-GRIP Wire Stripping Tool / Wire Cutter, 7-Inch (2078317), Blue

I highly recommend the Hakko 936 soldering iron Hakko 888 soldering iron, which is still actually available. It's hard to fathom how a $100 soldering iron could be that much better than a $20 one, but once you start doing anything more serious than just sticking some wires together, it's worth it.

As for other tools,

• Standard needle nose, dikes, and pliers set
  
• Tweezers - Additionally plastic ones if you're going to do PCB etching.
  
• Dental Picks - for positioning surface mount parts and pushing wires into molten solder.
  
• Wire strippers - You'll often see people using the combo wire stripper / crimpers. They're not as nice as a real pair of strippers.
  
• +/-12V power supply for basic analog electronics, 5V for digital work
  
• Breadboard
  
• Solder sucker - Copper braid is useful for the same thing, but given the choice of the two, I prefer the sucker to undo soldered joints.
  
• 30x Jewelers Loupe - Mostly useful for surface mount work, but pretty much all soldering is easier when you're able to look at it.
  
  As for components, I've been buying them piece-meal for years, so other's will probably be able to yield you a better recommendation for kits than anything I can find just from a quick search. I do mostly digital work, so as far as passives, my main stock is:
  
  
• 0.1uF and 100uF capacitors, 25V
  
• 100, 330, 1k, 4.7k, 10k, 100k, 1M resistors
  
  If I need any other resistor for a specific project, I'll tend to just buy an extra 10 and keep them in labeled coin envelopes.
  
  Random other pieces:
  
  
• Precut Breadboard jumper wires
  
• 7805 - 1A 5V linear regulators
  
• 1N4007 diodes
  
• 1N4148 small signal diodes
  
• 3V linear regulators if you do low power work (MSP430, etc)
  
• An Arduino - If not for real projects, I use this a lot to hack together crude digital signal generators to test other chips.
  
• LEDs - I found a good deal on bright red ones, but any will do
  
• push buttons, power switches, DIP switches (4 in a tiny package that fits in breadboards)
  
• Copper clad perf board - To make through-hole projects permanent. Be careful because this also comes without the copper pads, which is just more of a pain in the ass to use.
  
• Copper Solder braid
  
  Edit: Fixed the soldering iron model.
  
  Disclaimer: I'm using my Amazon Associate links for all of these, which always feel a little amoral and a conflict of interest, but really, if my apartment were to go up in flames and I could afford it, I'd buy every link on this list right now. Does anyone have strong opinions one way or the other on using them?

Is the heavier gauge cable broken, split, or frayed anywhere along its length? Or just the ends? If it's just the ends, just clip the ends off and strip a fresh 1/2 inch.

You might be able to do this successfully with some good scissors, but a wire stripper would be much easier.

If you don't want to keep the other wire, 16 gauge is plenty thick for most situations, especially the short runs as pictured.

I need to buy a extension cable for my antenna for it to reach and I will take pictures when I install it. It was way simpler than I thought it would be to install. This is the first mod I have really ever done to my car.
My parts list so far is:

• Upper DIN dash mount
  
  
• JVC KD-X80BT Head Unit (Crutchfield gives you a free car specific harness with it)
  
  
  
• Wire connectors
  
  
• Flat gold plated right angle aux cable
  
  
  Tools:
  
  
• Hook Set
  
  
• Wire Stripper
  
  I am going to wait until Google I/O and see what the next gen Nexus will look like before I purchase the tablet.

Next time, order some butt connectors and a stripper/crimper. You need these tools anyway.