Monitor Repair Bench

[atariforever2002]

Sorry if this has been covered already... I am looking to increase my skill set and I am wanting to set up my own CRT testing/repair bench. What all would you guys recommend getting for tools and diagnostic equipment?

[iankellogg]

I think this is a good list. I'm not sure how serious you want to go for this kind of stuff. The required items below are useful for more than just CRT repair. The things in the optional section can be expensive and limited use.

multimeter.
Good soldering iron.
Good desoldering equipment (ideally hakko fr300 or 808). You can use a solder pull-it and solder wick.
Good pair of wire cutters.
isolation transformer
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Everything Below this line is optional
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oscilloscope. (this is kindof optional, depends on your multimeter and understanding of eletronics)
High voltage probe of around 40KV.
crt Rejuvinator. B&K 490, sencore cr7000. etc...
variac (unless you don't want to work on japanese monitors)
sometimes you can find selectable transformers to take the place of the isolation transformer and variac combo. but it needs to be a true transformer and not an auto transformer.
ESR meter (or better yet, LCR meter, such as DER-EE 5000 $80 on ebay)
test pattern generator, or game with a CRT test patterns.
lots and lots of capacitors. and as many TV repair parts as you can reasonably stock. Things like HOTs, general transistors. Sync generator ICs, vreg ICs, POTS, color ICs, Output transistors.

[computerfixerguy]

I'm going to agree with John here and say I have also had good luck with the soldapullt, with the following qualification.

For through hole lead based soldering those things work just fine. You get into the more modern stuff with their lead free solder and surface mount components and de-soldering gets a bit more fiddly with that tool.