O’Reilly Radar contributing editor James Turner has a great round-up of essential maker tools in the current issue of IEEE Spectrum:

What are the tools every hands-on projecteer needs? To answer that question, we went right to DIYers themselves, specifically the exhibitors at last fall’s World Maker Faire NY event.

One tool everyone agreed on is a Multimeter. It’s surprising how much information you can glean from a simple resistance reading or by checking out the voltage drop across a series of LEDs…

DIY Essentials: Does your do-it-yourself workbench have everything you need?

(Great timing on James’ article! World Maker Faire New York 2011 is one month away!)