These days, a set of assortment hand and power toolkit can be had for between $100-$200, one would think it makes no sense to buy each item separately. While there is no harm getting one of these kits if you have the extra cash to spare, you may want to be more selective in the quality and suitability of the tools you are going to personalize and use for all your future PCB-RE works without over-cluttering your work space and spending time searching for them.
As a minimum, I would recommend the following:
The wire stripper may seem like an odd addition to the manual tool set, but it does have a role to play in the PCB-RE process when required.
Two other hand tools I can think of that's good to add to the above list are a set of fine grain hand files and a small hammer or mallet. The hand files come in handy when you need to scrap off stubborn lacquer conformal coating from the tip of component pins to facilitate contact probing during continuity check. The hammer or mallet is used in conjunction with the flat-head screwdriver to loosen screws with tops that are rounded out.
One last versatile tool is the power drill set. The motorized drill can either be battery powered or cabled. Different sets of drill bits, screwdriver bits and nut drivers permit drilling or screw and bolt locking and loosening with ease.
