built new benches for the lab

[JustSquareEnough]

rearranged my home office to dedicate the back wall to lab benches.  ended up 13' long, 36" deep, 38" high.   next i need to get shelves on the wall and move the equipment over. I'll update the thread when I get the shelves up.

I put together a video as well while I was building it..

https://youtu.be/NZlF7atPLUc

website: http://justsquareenough.com/Projects/LabBenches

[awallin]

Nice work, I'll probably be doing something similar soon.

If you're planning on an electronics-lab style upper shelf, did you consider running e.g. 2"x2" vertical supports for the shelf along the back legs and also at the front of the shelf, i.e. somewhere mid-way along the depth of the table?
a bit like this one: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1406

or will you support the shelf just from the wall?

[JustSquareEnough]

thank you.  for the shelves just from the wall using shelf standards.

[Red Squirrel]

Nice, I've been wanting to do this for a while, but need to build a shed first so I can make room in the garage. 

[rdl]

Nice looking bench there. Using doors for the tops was a good idea.

I prefer wall mounted shelves, unless there is a really good reason to not do it, so that no equipment is permanently on the bench. One advantage is that the bench can easily be moved out away from the wall if needed to work on larger projects. Mount outlet strips on the wall also, not to the bench.

I use the dual rail wall standards with hook in brackets that you can get from Home Depot and other places. If mounted on studs they are very sturdy, but the shelves can easily be rearranged if you ever change your mind.

[JustSquareEnough]

Thank you. And agree on the shelves just hung the standards last night same type you are talking about pictures soon

[ChrisLX200]

You want to 'fill in' under the bench because any dropped small item immediately seeks out the furthest, darkest, most inaccessible place it can :-)

[GreyWoolfe]

You want to 'fill in' under the bench because any dropped small item immediately seeks out the furthest, darkest, most inaccessible place it can :-)

My 8' bench is free standing with attached risers for the shelves.  I also have a shelf on the bottom to hold the UPSs and stuff.  I ended up trimming the legs down and adding heavy duty metal casters because small stuff would inevitably go under the bottom shelf.  Funny thing, now that the bench is easily moved, stuff no longer goes under the shelf.

[JustSquareEnough]

I'm planning to leave it open for a while.  Gives me a place to shove stuff that needs a temporary home  (see pic) 

Also got a couple of shelves done today. 3/4" birch with birch edge banding installed.  ended up going with a shelf depth of 17"

[Red Squirrel]

Looking nice!  Looking forward to starting on mine, just have lot of other projects I need to do to get to the point where I can work on it.

I want to do some modular drawers too, this guy has a pretty neat design:



I would not bother with the concrete even for my garage work bench, but the drawer system is what I really like.  There's another video where he builds modular boxes that fit in too.   I would do that for all my components.  Not just limited to electronics, but even hardware stuff in the shop.  I would make them all interchangeable.   I'd probably put labels on all of them with digikey part # etc too.

[Berni]

Nice setup there. lots of room all around.

Tho i wouldn't put too much heavy gear on those shelves. I have the same sort of wall mounted shelving system and it didn't fill me with too much confidence to put a heap of weight on it as i could see some flex in it. But i already have the first shelf built in to the table and is plenty strong enough to handle me standing on it. Its a bit overkill in strength for what i have on it but better that than dropping my two pretty expensive scopes along with lots of other not so cheap gear.

The sort of gear that's on your shelf right now its probably plenty strong enough, but one inventively collects more gear overtime if you work a lot with electronics and that might add up to a lot of weight on it.

[rdl]

Those shelf standards with dual rows of slots can hold a huge amount of weight if you attach them with a few #12 screws solidly into wall studs. The shelf flexing depends on what they are actually made of and how far apart the standards are. I bought laminated MDF and they will sag if there's a fair amount of weight on them. I'd think 3/4" birch would be pretty good. In the past I've used aluminum angle stock or rectangular tubing to reinforce MDF and keep it from sagging.

[Berni]

Those shelf standards with dual rows of slots can hold a huge amount of weight if you attach them with a few #12 screws solidly into wall studs. The shelf flexing depends on what they are actually made of and how far apart the standards are. I bought laminated MDF and they will sag if there's a fair amount of weight on them. I'd think 3/4" birch would be pretty good. In the past I've used aluminum angle stock or rectangular tubing to reinforce MDF and keep it from sagging.

The actual shelves are 1m long solid birch planks so there is little give in them. There are two rails supporting each one nearish to the ends. But i did only use 2 screws per rail to attach it to the wall. The screws are plenty strong as they go in to a brick wall so i figured that 2 is all i need. I later noticed that if i pull down on the shelf hard enough that causes the rail to bow away from the wall in the middle. This might be where some of the give is coming from.

The weakest link is probably the metal fingers that grab on to the rail. There is a lot of force that wants to bend the finger outwards, they feel pretty strong but once that flat finger bends left or right that then translates the bending moment in to a twisting torque that will want to bend the finger in that direction even more, making for a runaway until it snaps(Similar to how a empty soda can is very strong only until it buckles in one spot). So that's why i'm cautious about putting a lot of weight on it, the actual shelf will give a warning in the form of bending and creeking, these fingers likely go from looking just fine to snapping off in less than a second when overloaded. I did use the cheapest they had at the local hardware store after all.

I probably should have bought 1 extra one to do a destructive test to see at what point it breaks and how, i did buy like 18 of them so a 19th one wouldn't hurt.

[nanofrog]

You want to 'fill in' under the bench because any dropped small item immediately seeks out the furthest, darkest, most inaccessible place it can :-)

My 8' bench is free standing with attached risers for the shelves.  I also have a shelf on the bottom to hold the UPSs and stuff.  I ended up trimming the legs down and adding heavy duty metal casters because small stuff would inevitably go under the bottom shelf.  Funny thing, now that the bench is easily moved, stuff no longer goes under the shelf.

Seriously though, I need to finish mine.   

[JustSquareEnough]

Yes, these double track standards are very strong when secured properly to a stud. I've used them in my woodshop for storing lumber which is collectively heavier than than any gear that will be stacked on here.

[GreyWoolfe]

Those shelf standards with dual rows of slots can hold a huge amount of weight if you attach them with a few #12 screws solidly into wall studs. The shelf flexing depends on what they are actually made of and how far apart the standards are. I bought laminated MDF and they will sag if there's a fair amount of weight on them. I'd think 3/4" birch would be pretty good. In the past I've used aluminum angle stock or rectangular tubing to reinforce MDF and keep it from sagging.

I went through the same thing with my shelves.  3/4" MDF for the table top but 1/2" MDF for the shelves.  The shelves are now 3/4" plywood, absolutely no sag anywhere.  That was a lesson learned.  The bench frame itself has several cross braces that the MDF sits on so there is no chance of sag there.  I use the single row shelf standards without issue but my shelves are 12" not 17" like JSE is using.  Retrospect would have me redo the shelving with something a bit deeper but not 17", that would leave me with 16" of table top workspace--not enough.  I just did some looking, I can get 14" brackets but they have to be ordered online.  That would mean another sheet of plywood.  Don't know if the return is worth the cost at this point.  I should have done that originally.  Not a big deal now.  The analog scopes sit on a home made scope cart next to the bench and the the heavy/big GW-Instek PSU sits on the bench top.  Everything else fits fine.

JSE, your bench framing is very nice.  I would love to have the tools you do, just a table saw and miter saw here.  Mine doesn't look near as nice as yours but since my office is MY space and no one really comes out here, function over form works.

[JustSquareEnough]

Thanks GreyWoolfe, I've been a hobbyist woodworker much longer than I've been a hobbyist of electronics.  after looking through the "show me your bench" thread about a 1000 times I came to the realization that if I want to have a mixture of newer and older gear I needed a deep bench and deep shelves no real way around it, which is why I went with the 36" doors for bench tops and 17" shelves.  the 17" I actually derived based on the depth of the tek 2225.

I'd say this is one area paralysis by analysis paid off for me

[JustSquareEnough]

I want to do some modular drawers too, this guy has a pretty neat design:

you might also check out  solutions below.  If you dont want to make all the bins you can buy them which mechanics / machinists have been using forever to organize their tool boxes.

https://youtu.be/TAChDhog2_I

or buy

http://www.schallercorporation.com/plastic-boxes/

[GreyWoolfe]

Thanks GreyWoolfe, I've been a hobbyist woodworker much longer than I've been a hobbyist of electronics.  after looking through the "show me your bench" thread about a 1000 times I came to the realization that if I want to have a mixture of newer and older gear I needed a deep bench and deep shelves no real way around it, which is why I went with the 36" doors for bench tops and 17" shelves.  the 17" I actually derived based on the depth of the tek 2225.

I'd say this is one area paralysis by analysis paid off for me

Luckily, I didn't get too bound up in looking at benches.  I would have never gotten anything built!  I just pondered and ruminated on what I would want and did rough drawings on paper until I was satisfied.