If I may share part from a letter received from a SF Engineering Sgt. currently in Afghanistan:
We always ask in our letters if there is anything special they can use, because we can tend to pick all sorts of stuff up. So, our guys over there took us up on the offer.We don't need converters (Note: Referring to Step up/Step down power converters; 110/220). We do need tools, electric soldering kits, Allen key kits, Jewelers tool kits (screw drivers), pocket knives, Gerber/Leatherman tools, and any cordless tool you can think of. We have tools, but they get used so much and the re-supply system is a little slow. As for electronics, we can really use external hard drives with large capacity, laptop cooling stations, USB jump drives, and small wireless mice. You asked, so there you go.
If this letter is any indication, a "Fabrication Cell" would be a brilliant investment, as long as they included all the "small odds and ends" that you have to have to make operation of such a "Fabrication Cell" successful.
Btw, just for information, we have/are sending them the following materials (what we would consider the "odds and ends" type materials):
3.6 volt lithium-ion cordless drill (small, light, portable)
Dremel cordless Stylus tool with charger
About 400+ different Dremel accessories
Jeweler's screwdriver sets
USB 2.0 256Mb. & 512Mb flash drives
Tubes/spools of every type of solder on the market
Cordless (AA battery) soldering irons
Pin drills and number series drill bits
3/8" 45 degree right angle drill with regular drill bits
Full set of spade bits (wood boring drill bits)
Stacks of heat shrink tubing
Gerbers with accessory kits
Specialized screw assortments (optical, watch type parts)
Tweezers (actually, the best tweezers we found came as part of Chinese made dissection kits).
Cordless mouse (notebook)
Any suggestions on what else we could add would be appreciated.
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