Buying pinball repair tools at DealExtreme

I've become a faw of DealExteme.com. This shop sells a lot of interesting tools, gadgets, parts, .. Most of their products are very cheap and they ship worldwide for free, .. I'm a regular customer myself as most of their parts and tools are of decent quality and usually cost less than half of what I pay at a local electronics store..
I noticed they have a lot of parts and tools available that can be of use when working on pinball machines, especially when soldering, so I've decided to make this list to help you.

Note when you buy parts in Belgium, you have to remember that border control may investigate your package and make you pay vat and possibly a customs fee on it. Normally imports under 22 euro are free of VAT. So if you order a lot of small parts, just split up your parcel (make a new order, shipping is free anyway) so you stay each time under this 22 euro value.

Soldering tools

• HanBao Desoldering Pump
  Desoldering pump, use it to suck away the molten solder.
• Aluminum Alloy Desoldering Pump
  Same type as above but in aluminum.
• Goot Desoldering Wick Remover (2.5mm x 1.5M)
  Use desoldering wick when desoldering, heated solder will flow onto this wick. Similar application as a desolder pump.
• Electronics DIY Gas Soldering Iron
  Gas soldering iron.. always handy to have, especially if you have to do reparations on locations. It's not always easy to plug in a soldering iron. This type of soldering iron can also be used for flamepolishing ramps.
• I don't link to electronic soldering irons. There are a few available in the professional tools category, but they're only useful soldering wires onto coils, .. not really for fine soldering on pcbs.
• 1M Black Heat Shrink Tubing - Five Size Pack (0.8/1.5/2.5/3.5/4.5mm)
  Heat shrink tubing.
• 1M Black Heat Shrink Tubing - Five Size Pack (6/7/8/9/10mm)
  More shrinktube. These thicker sizes are more useful when working on pinball machines. You put this over the wire (before you solder it ! and move it out of the way). Solder your wire, let it cool down. Then you slide the piece of shrinktube over the exposed solder and stripped wire, heat the shrinktube and it'll nicely shrink over the wire. Voila, your soldered part is now completely insulated and cannot short against something else.
• Temperature Tolerant Solder Tip Cleaning Pads (10-Pack)
  Keep your soldering iron clean.
• STARS Professional Thermal Compound with Injection Tube (10-Pack)
  This thermal compound is needed if for instance you replace bridge rectifiers that have a cooling element on top of them. 10-pack is useful so you can use one tube if you replace only one or two cooling elements.
• Professional Thermal Heat-Sink Compound with Injection Tube (30g)
  Large tube of thermal compound, for when you replace a lot of cooling elements..
• Static-Release Wrist Strap
  Protect your expensive pcbs against static discharge when handling them.
• LED Illuminated Cheaters Magnifier with 3 Magnifier Glasses (1.5X/2.5X/3.5X)
  Always useful when soldering or working with small components on pcbs.
• Percision Electronics Soldering Station with 5X-8X Magnifier
  Also useful when soldering on pcbs. Keeps the pcb in place so you have both hands free for soldering.
• LodeStar Anti-Static Tweezer (Tilted Pointy Tip)
  Anti-static tweezers, useful for positioning and holding components you're soldering.
• IC PLCC Chip Extractor (for 8~40pins)
  This extractor is very useful when you want to replace ICs or eproms on pcbs !
• 5-inch Electrical Cutter
  Very useful cutter, to cut legs of resistors, leds, .. to correct size when soldering.

Other tools

• Digital multimeter
  This looks like a good multimeter with all options needed when working on pinball machines.
  They have even more multimeters for sale.
• EISTAR Digital Logic Probe DTL/TTL Circuit Tester Pen (DC 18V Max)
  This logic probe is a required tool when you want to troubleshoot pcbs. All repair guides make use of this type of logic probe to measure if inputs/outputs of ICs are high or low. Very affordable price. A lot of people search for this type of logic probe - if there's one thing on the whole site I really recommend to get when you want to repair pcbs then this is it !
• Precision CR-V Imperial Standard Hex Key Screwdriver Set for Electronics DIY (9-Piece Set)
  Imperial standard hex set. You need these when you're in Europe and want to work on pinball machines as european sized hex sets are slightly different and damage hex screw heads !
• Advanced 9-Piece Set Lock Picks
  You need these when you want to learn how to pick locks (of your own pinball machines).

Modifications

• 12V LED Strip (30-LED 50cm White)
  This LED strip is very useful when modding pinball machines. Can be connected on top of the backbox to illuminate a topper, or at the back of the playfield to illuminate a backboard decal. Hook it up to the 12v testpoints in the backbox, you don't have to mess with extra resistors.
• Electrical Wire Testing Hooks (10-Pack)
  These hooks are very useful when testing pcbs (ie when you want to measure the signal on a specific IC pin or take power from a testpoint in a safe way.
• Alligator Clips - Medium (10-Pair)
  Alligator clips are useful when you're testing something (ie hooking up a modification) and want to make a temporary connection.
• 12V 54-LED RGB Light Strip (50cm)
  Similar to the white strip above but with colored leds. Haven't used it myself but I imagine you can make some cool modifications with it..
• DIY leds and tools
  Check this category for all types of leds, lasers, .. that you can add to your pinball machine to make your own modifications.