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It is good to have a variac, though one can use a dim bulb tester or if in a pinch an outlet connected to a dimmer switch.
Anything post 1955 I will bring up on a variac (sometimes before testing the tubes) to see what I've got to work with. 1945-1955 is a gray area which depends on what I have, and how I feel. Pre WWII stuff tends to yield consistantly poor power up results that make it usually not worth a power up before changing the filters, though I've been surprised by some pre-war sets (radios only...my luck is not good enough for finding a prewar TV set that I can afford) that work fine with the original parts.
A soldering iron is also a must. One can pick up a decent starter unit for 20$ at any good hardware store.
I have ordered capacitors from Just Radios in Canada which were good quality, and there are many other options if you can't get what you need locally (which is likely).
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