Essential Equipment: You gotta have these items for robotics.

1. Breadboard
2. Multimeter (shown is Radioshack catalog #22-809, but any will do)
3. Small screwdrivers (shown is a combo flat and philips model)
4. Hook-up wire
5. Hot glue gun (not absolutely necesssary but very handy and they are pretty cheap, so why not?)
6. Needle nose pliars
7. Wire strippers
8. Small wire cutters
9. Battery and holder
10. Desoldering tool (you can also use copper braid, but these tools are worth the money)
11. Jumer wire kit. You don't have to buy this (Radio Shack #276-173). You can make them yourself by pre-cutting and stripping some wire. But man does this save time. $5.
    
12. A good friend to console you when your circuit doesn't work the 1'st, 2'nd or 10'th time. (shown is Kipper, my personal favorite, not available at Radio Shack to my knowledge).

Nice to have equipment: These are items that you don't have to just absolutely have to get, but you will want them pretty quickly.

Soldering station - shown is a quality soldering iron made by Weller, model WTCPS. This should very seriously be considered in the list of essentials, and if you're going to get a soldering iron, get a good one. I got this one on ebay for $25.

Rotary tool: Shown is the Dremel, but cheaper copies are made. The tool shown is the cutting tool, which by far is what I use the most. This model came with a case and extra attachments. If you like organization like me, get one with a case. $60 or yea.

Power Supply: A battery clip (4AA size) will get you started but at some point you're going to get fed up with it and a benchtop power supply is going to be the answer. You don't have to buy one. There are many projects out there to build one yourself. A schematic for a really cheap and easy to build one can be seen by clicking here. It just uses a wall-wart (common AC power supply block) with an output of 7-12V and a 7805 5V power regulator. You can replace the 7805 with a 7808 (8V reg), or 7812 (12 regulator) easily.

The one shown here on my shelf has a variable supply with meters to show voltage and current levels. Handy to have. This one is an Elenco Model XP-580 (about $80 new, as always check ebay).

Organizer: Worth their weight in gold. You can get these at any hardware store for $10-15.

Way cool to have, but pricey: I personally cannot get along without these items, but it took a while before I got them just because of their price.

Oscilloscope: THE test equipment item. You can do so much more with an oscope than trying to get by with a multimeter. Debugging a troublesome circuit is made much easier with this. It is an advanced piece of equipment and definitely takes a LOT of practice to learn to use it. But man is it worth it.

Shown here is a Velleman PC oscilloscope, model PCS64i. I got this on sale for $300, normally it's $400. The PC based scopes are really handy because if you have a laptop, you have a very portable oscilloscope great for presentations or travelling debug guy stuff. I've included a sample plot that can easily be captured and pasted into a document. This module has a connector to plug into my PC's parallel port.

You can also buy a benchtop model again on ebay for about the same money that will have more features, but it will be heavy and take up space.

Drill Press: If you want to build a robot from scratch, you're gonna start drilling. And you'll save a lot of heartache if you drill accurately. If you want to build a really small robot or one that is precise looking, you have to have drill press. It's also a necessity if you want to make your own PCBs (printed circuit boards) to drill out component holes. These run about $100 for an inexpensive minimalist one. They go up from there. Sears or hardware places are a good source. Don't buy ebay on this or any heavy item. You'll lose all the savings on shipping costs.

Bench vise: I use aluminum a lot in my robots. It's very light and easy to work. You'll need a vise to hold it steady while you bend or cut it.

Other items: PCB etching tank - Used to hold chemicals for etching copper clad boards. Available new for $78.50 from Electronic Express (part number N03ETPCB) as a nice setup. This includes an agitating pump. You can make one yourself with plexiglass, silicon, and a fish tank pump. Check out this link for how to.