Work bench for electronics

A proper purpose designed bench is nice, but very hard to justify the cost for home use. Much better to build your own and spend the money on nice gear ;-) Keys things are getting the right height, having a static dissipative surface or mat, a connection point for an ESD strap, good lighting above and slightly in front (so you don't cast a shadow), a deep shelf at the back test gear, exhaust fan, and a whole row of power points.

Dave :)

"David L. Jones" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

If you're going to do any soldering, I also recommend making sure you have a solid surface to solder on. While a workbench of 2x4s may be easy to cheap, the first time a bead of hot solder drops through a gap you'll find out why I recommend the solid surface. (Plus it keeps screws and things on the table...)

Puckdropper

--
www.uncreativelabs.net

Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we

"Puckdropper"

** I found many years ago that covering the work bench top with carpet was a cool idea.

It prevents scratches to the items under repair, keeps all small parts from rolling about and is much nicer to work on than plywood or Pineboard.

May need replacing every 15 to 20 years.

........ Phil

You can also use them to measure performance of software. Ofcourse cache sizes and such may screw it up ;)

Noooooooooooo.........

A simple 2x4 wood frame with diagonal cross braces is fine. Buy a 3/4" sheet of AC grade plywood (has a smooth top side). Have them cut it down to 3x8 ft or 3x6 ft. That gives you a two foot wide working space after you place two sets of 1x4 ft. metal shelves in the back. Home Depot and Lowes have metal straps and corner pieces designed to build work benches. Look for the Simpson "Strong-Tie" rack and they usually have a booklet there for you to take that has ideas.

The plywood...Prime it and paint it with a latex paint. Paint both side to prevent warping! An ivory or light sky blue looks nice. My frames are painted forest green...although Mossy Oak® motif might kick the butch factor up a notch (that was my rodeo bull-riding boyfriends' suggestion). A 2x4 attached lengthwise with the 2" wide side up against the underside of the plywood at the middle and back prevents sagging.

First metal shelf can be 6 inches above the workbench and place your power supplies under it, then place your meters and scopes on top of that first shelf.

Personally, I don't like large and permanently placed static mats when working with bare printed circuit boards. Same for carpet. Rather use a strip of anti-static panel or carpet when you need it. BTW, some carpet can be worse than having no anti-static panel at all.

Lighting....an overhead two-bulb fluorescent garage work bench fixture mounted over the center or just towards the shelf gives even illumination with few shadows. Two of those swing-arm pantograph desk laps at both ends of the bench are nice.

Fluorescent bulbs...Go for the "full-spectrum" (a misused term) or the hottest color temperature bulbs. They are rated in Kelvin degrees.

5,000Kº to 7,000Kº really do look like true sunlight. Mine are advertised to have the some color of the artic sky. Lamps America (?) has a "full-spectrum" line that was the worst thing I ever bought. Looks like an arc welder and puts your teeth on edge. Or you can go with the 3,000Kº bulbs that looks like incandescent lamps.

Power strips...lots of them! A single circuit-breaker, surge-protected one at the rear or underside can feed five or six other regular strips. Put a strip at both ends of the bench for plugging in your test stuff.

I have a plastic box (one of the those behind-the-wall, stud mounted ones) with an electric light switch and ground-fault-protector mounted on side of bench for an emergency off switch.

Btw, thanks for the bulb recommendation. I was looking at a number of the different 'degrees' and wasn't sure what would be good or not. Full-spectrum, sure, but like you said "looks like an arc welder" sound horrible.

What a coincidence this thread is. I was just about to do the same (build my own desk). I was originally looking to at buying some "cheap white countertop" for the work surface, but after seeing how uncheap it was, I'm probably going to settle for the melamanine (sp?) panels, even if it means replacing them every few years. The rest framed in 2x4 with shop lights above and a row of high-dollar surge protected power strips. This desk will also accomodate 2 or more computers and take up

2 walls in the room, so it will be a monster. Modular, hopefully.

I've also got plans for soldering hoods and stuff too, but I don't know how realistic this all is.

Yes, an Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) is essential for any bench, could save your life one day.

Dave :)

The reason I said "full-spectrum" was misleading as there are so many lamp manufactures jumping on the "health benefits" of sunlight like lighting. "Full-spectrum" is a marketing term where as the temperature rating is definitive. As for that Lights America screw in lamp, it was BLUE and like a point source. Shadows were well defined. And literally blinding when it happened to pass within your field of vision.

The preformed Corian by DuPont countertops are expensive as all get out. The Formica panels are cost effective, but can generate more static electricity than a used car salesman wearing a polyester leisure suit. Something on the order of 900,000 megavolts. :)

Use lots of screws. Reminds me of when in college, a guy disassembled an old time wooden teachers desk - the 3 ton kind, to get it into his dorm room. I snuck in one night and glued all the joints together.

Walmart - small electric fan. $6

That sounds like a European Union term. For those of us in the U.S, they are called GFI - Ground Fault Interrupters. In Texas, we call them "that funny looking wall outlet with a button".

This is my setup:

Some notes from the picture:

(A) This is my top shelf that is placed directly against the wall (no gap where wayward parts might fall through) that holds boxes and parts and tools.

(B) This is my electronic instrument shelf. It is gapped from the wall, leaving a couple of inches room for cords and cables.

(C) This is my main workbench table top. In includes a couple of vises built into the table top over near the front on the right side in the picture.

(D) This is my shelf under the workbench area that holds less used stuff and things I might want to read when going to sleep in:

(E) My bed under the workbench. Note the pillow, blanket, and:

(F) Digikey catalog.

Well, that about sums it up. ;)

Jon

Your lab is somewhat too cluttered for my taste.

Plus those shelves might come crashing down on you while you are sleeping one day.

I was hoping for a bench like this :

>

Looks like its understocked to me :)

Actually, they are bolted into the studs in the wall, every 16," using welded angle iron bracing. I can put several people on them and they won't even warp a little. Solid as a rock.

And the price was _cheap_. The whole unit cost me about $150.

Jon

Hehe. It is _way_ understocked. I have some things in a nearby shelf (various in-circuit emulators, programmers, spectrophotometers, etc), though. (I only have two oscilloscopes [1 digital, 1 analog], a logic analyzer [built into one of the scopes -- the HP 54645D], 2 GPIB triple power supplies and one cheapy power supply, simple waveform generator, an HP 6 1/2 digit multimeter, portable Tek multimeter/counter, and misc smaller stuff.)

But cluttered it is.

Anyone want to contribute a good counter or especially a good curve tracer? ;)

Jon

How much did you pay for that bloody nice HP54645D?

Dave :) P.S. Yes I'm jealous! (I've got one at work, + a 6000 series, but at home??)

DecaturTxCowboy wrote in news:OK3hg.39640$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net:

*snip*

*trim*

Just a quick comment... I saw one kid in a shop class use "lots of screws" and he just destroyed the structure of the wood. Also remember that for every screw you put in to take the thing apart you've got to take it out. (For a table top, I'd probably use 6-8 screws.)

Puckdropper

--
www.uncreativelabs.net

Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we 

It was free. And it plays 'centipede,' too. ;)

I work out of my home as an embedded programmer. Electronics is one of several hobbies. And I am not at all good at it. But I try, at times. And I've been lucky, too, once or twice (I got the 6 1/2 digit HP multimeter when a business when bust and sold it to me for $50 and I got a Melles Griot 10mW HeNe laser from them, too, for $10 -- almost picked up a couple of 25mW tunable Argon lasers at the time, but they were asking $200 for each and I didn't want them that bad.)

Jon

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Here\'s mine:

news:ek2b8292q5vtok13vkprs0on2cc802fvuv@4ax.com

Shoot. Forgot to show my cart in my picture. ;)

Prices seem to have doubled or tripled since then. I see numbers between $464 and $758 for similar appearing benches, now. Plus 250 pounds of shipping, whatever that may be. But looks like the table top surface is either plastic or "butcher block" maple, not particle board.

Me, too. Wall-mounted, in my case. 7' long, from Home Base, I think.

Jon