best tools for efficiency?

[Ronsonic]

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Say it again.

Ron

[casey]

automatic wire strippers are very useful indeed....   as well as pre-tinned wire...  having everything in it's own spot so you dont have to look around forever for one little part you saw last week.  having your electronics setup all of the time saves setup time....if you have the space.  have reference schematics such as 3pdt wiring schemes, opamp pinouts, transistor pinouts, etc saves alot of time looking for the information....

have all tools setup in a predetermined place.

drill press!!!!!

3rd hands is a necessity...

there's so much to all of this...

[Hiwatt25]

Okay, not to be the boy scout here but...what about safety glasses?  Yeah, I look like a major dork but it beats hot solder in the eye.  Having two eyes is a MAJOR time saver.

And when I'm etching boards, I gotta have Nitrile gloves.  For some reason, Latex just feels weird. 

[Thomas P.]

The best devices I have built to speed things up (and increase reproductionallity) are a etching-machine and a UV-lightening machine to make PCBs.
The lightening machine has a µC-based timer which turns the lights of after a given time - very cool. The etching machine is pretty basic heater-airpump kinda thing.

[Traintrack]

The best Chair possible, so I can walk after 5+ hours

[petemoore]

  Plastic clips.
  I havnet used 'em...yet.
  For that wire which may have potential which just got unsoldered, in the box...while you have it with the NNose pliers...a non conductive clip would be a good thing to put on it!

[calculating_infinity]

Nice pictorial of your jig tonefreak.  Makes me want to go out and make one today when I get home.  Looks simple enough!  Good stuff guys!

[boyersdad]

One of the biggest time savers for me is having temporary storage close at hand. I have several baby food jars, with the lids nailed to the underside of a shelf, so I can unscrew a bottle, stick the screws and nuts etc from the pedal(s) I'm working on in it, and screw it back onto the shelf, to avoid losing them, or getting them mixed up with other projects (as sometimes my workbench can contain 4-10 projects at once, lol).

[zjokka]

Another Leatherman user! Super tool! (what I carry EVERYWHERE!)
And why the hell I didn't think of it is beyond me... probably because for me that's a given.

+1. You could do the same cheaper tools, but having this around is constant bliss.

[birt]

a leatherman is a great tool. i didn't think of it at first because i always have one on my belt (as allmost every theater/backline/stage technician).

another very good tool is a soft nail file. i got a bunch of those key chain bendable flashy nail files for free and use them all the time for cleaning component leads, solder lugs on switches, jacks, pots.. everything.

[Short Circuit]

I made my own holder from those clamps you buy at the hardware store. They had them on sale so I bought a few, got a steel base out of the junk bin at work with a piece of round bar and put 'er all together.
It holds the boards pretty tight.

Mark