Electronics > Beginners
New shop / Lab, what to get?
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FriedMule:
I was thinking of this thread as a good spot to look if you need the opinion on what to get when buying or changing your lab

I only have a 8' X 3' or 1 meter by 2 meters table and are looking for the rest.

Do you know of something you have found wich you had got from the start, that you now consider a "best" solution?
Shelves (type, size), ESD-mat (layer, brand size), power strips, light (lux, color, size) and yes it all.
jpb:
It is tricky to give advice because every setup is different. The biggest constraint on my lab/study is space - I need it to be both a lab and a study (filing cabinets) and somewhere for my computer workstation and the whole room is under 2m x 3m also the walls aren't very good so I don't trust them to put up shelves. It has taken me 18months to sort out and I'm not quite there yet.

One thing I've found good is to get a tall steel work bench with shelf that goes above the table I use as a work bench and acts as a deep shelf with shelf above for all the kit. I had it custom made so it wasn't cheap but it wasn't too bad (around £560 I think) and it is very sturdy and exactly fits my space.

The other thing I'd say is you always need lots of power sockets - electronic instruments generally don't take much power but that you soon acquire a lot of them (bench multimeters, counters, oscilloscope, signal generator, function generator etc etc) so I'd plan for extra sockets and get good quality power strips such as are used for server racks. I have bought a lot of Olson ones off ebay - they are expensive new but cheap on ebay and they are very well constructed with 20 Amp wiring internally and made of metal rather than plastic.

I attach a couple of photos. Sorry for the mess, I'm still in the middle of sorting!
FriedMule:
I am so lucky that I have a fairly okay sized room and a brick wall to mound on.
Thanks for the tips, what do you else use for light, ESD and so on?
jpb:

--- Quote from: FriedMule on January 26, 2019, 12:44:47 pm ---I am so lucky that I have a fairly okay sized room and a brick wall to mound on.
Thanks for the tips, what do you else use for light, ESD and so on?

--- End quote ---
For light there is quite a good central light in the room anyway and I have the magnifying desk lamp as shown in the photo.
For ESD I have a cheap (i.e. non-rubber) mat on my "shelf" (not really needed but it also helps protect the surface) and a more expensive rubber one on the table, both from digikey.
I have ordered a ESD floor mat as well as I have carpet on the floor and and ESD chair (over the top but I needed a chair anyway).

You only really need a bench mat though. Though it is a good idea to have some sort of cheap ESD safe mini-mat for soldering if you want to protect the more expensive bench mat.

I've also fitted an external GPS antenna which connects to a type-N socket on the wall for my reference and various experiments but that is because I'm trying to design and build a GPSDO.
FriedMule:
Thanks, I am thinking about the shelves, how deep do they have to bee and how high over the table is most comfortable?
Head high, shoulder high or?
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