Work bench for electronics

What I use on all my wood construction projects are glued in threaded inserts and bolts.

| | | Wood Leg | | |---| |-| | |------------------------| ---| | | | || | | | | |-------------------| |-| | | | | | Threaded Insert | | | | | | | | |--------------------| | | | End | | | | Bolt | | | Cap | | | |--------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------------| |-| | | | | | | | |------------------------| ---| | | |---| |-| | | | |

The inside diameter of the hole is a tad larger than the outside diameter of the threaded insert and I run a cotton swap dipped in Gorilla Glue about 3/4's of the way in. The hole is deep enough so that when the bolt is inserted into the insert, it hex-head is below the wood line and the hole is wider at the end to fit a socket over the bolt to tighten it. Then I pop in a plastic end cap to cover the shiny bolt head.

One thing about those polyurethane resins like Gorilla Glue, the foam up and expand..a LOT. Great for void filling construction where you can't mate the surface real flat or close. Watch for any foaming every five minutes and wipe it off with mineral sprites as once it sets, its about as hard as epoxy. ... Dripped a few small dots on a Formica counter top and didn't notice it till days later. Did it "pop off" like epoxy? Nope...had to shave it ff with a razor blade.

Here's what I'm looking to resolve:

Note the dissimilar heights, ergonomic nightmares and general disorganization resulting in massive clutter and piles of crap. Note also that there are no lights on this side of the room. I can't distinguish resistor bands, so I have to measure each one if I forget what it is. Both of those desks are coming out and I'm going to create a sort of L-shaped deal with a 45 degree surface in the middle. I'm still convinced that I can build something cheaper than I can buy something, but we'll see.

As far as framing, I'm going to use my gf's dad's fish tank stands as templates. He uses screws and big carriage bolts and stuff. If he trusts them to hold 250 plus gallons of saltwater, rock and live creatures costing tens of thousands of dollars, they'll probably do ok with some $0.05 transistors and diodes.

I'm one of those Wal-mart boycotters, sorry. But we can still be friends! :-D

Nothing is cheaper than free:

But what I was meaning by that was actual PVC ductwork that vents to the outside. Maybe a little too fancy-pants, but I prefer to not breathe the solder fumes ;)

Now, if I may quote Puckdropper:

"Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we still enjoy using the old computers. Sometimes we want to see how far a particular system can go, other times we use a stock system to remind ourselves of what we once had. "

Regarding which part?

You need shelves.

Good Luck! Rich

How does one use that kind of link? I've got Mozilla Thunderbird - when I click on the link, nothing happens.

Ed

My newsreader, Agent, recognizes them. A newsgroup message includes a field called "Message-ID" which identifies it. A reader should be able to recognize the keyword "news:" before the message-ID itself as sufficient to know what the following text is supposed to be and to use it correctly.

My reader, upon my double-clicking it, first examines my own local system of downloaded newsgroup messages and, if it isn't found, goes online and figures things out from there, downloads the message, and places me right there.

Jon

Don't know about europe, I'm from Australia, where they also called "Safety Switches"

Dave :)

Since you're south of the equator, does a sine wave move in an upside down way? :D

South of the equator all waveforms (regardless of shape) always start negative going. Electrons flow is from positive to negative too. Don't they explain that in the Amercian text books? :-P

I can also confirm that the water around the drain pipe thing is complete myth.

Dave :)

It would be a terribly, terribly interesting experiment, if you had something like a very large sink or tub, and let it sit for maybe a week or so, undisturbed, and then you'd need a special plug, that wouldn't introduce any bias when it was pulled - maybe a flapper valve that opens from below?

Every time I've tried that, the water inlet has been biased, so it's not a valid experiment.

When I make a vortex in a liter-sized soda pop bottle, I can make it go either way. :-)

Thanks! Rich

It's not being south of the equator that's weird (you just need an inverter). It's being spot on the equator: this gives you a fully rectified sine wave. Now that's weird.

Sorry to deviate from physics south of the equator, but back to the issue of a workbench,...

I built my workbench about two months ago (after i threw out my kitchen table to make room). The route i chose was a 6ft. counter top (about $50) and then i built the frame using 4x4 posts for legs, 2X4 for bracing and carriage bolts to holt it together (easy to disassemble when i move out).

The workspace is adjusted for standing, but it's up to you to cut the posts to your desired height I left the back two posts 7 feet tall so that i could mount a wall mount tv stand for my computer monitor on one. (yes it's THAT solid) This helps free up desk space ( the cpu is under the desk) and puts it at a nice height for reading schematics, articles etc.

As for power, Power strips mounted on each front leg are nice. I went through the trouble of wiring 4 wall outlets into the splash guard of the counter. Not really essential, but it spaces the plugs out and looks nice. All the material for wiring it including enclosing it in the back was less than $20. I also plan on putting in a ground fault interupter and possibly a circuit breaker. (i've been know to have a few stupid mistakes of my own and my appartment has fuses)

I can't send pictures because i'm out of the country but when i return i plan on hanging a flourescent light from the two back posts, and a keyboard tray to free up that space on the bench top. You could also easily put shelves and peg-board on the back posts. and under it.

All told i have less than $200 in it, and it is very nice. More so than most prebuilt ones that i've incountered for anywhere near the price. It is large, and throwing out the kitchen table may seem extreme.. but i didn't use it and i live alone... so my crazy schemes can run unchecked. I hope this is helpfull and not two vague. Also please excuse any bad spelling and grammar.

-Drew snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com