Whats your Work-Bench/lab look like? Post some pictures of your Lab.

[Nominal Animal]

Do note that some lightweight Ikea stuff doesn't even have particle board in them, just a cardboard lattice; mostly, they're just air inside.  Not tabletops, though, but doors and small and lightweight but thick shelves and such.

Definitely some tabletops too.

Really?  Oh no...  I thought they hadn't gone that cheap yet, but now looking at e.g. the small Lack coffee tables, it is obvious.  Although the structure itself is good, it can't handle localized loads.  I guess you could use a sheet of something (Al? Glass?) to distribute the load, but otherwise dropping something like your soldering station corner first from four inches will go trough the outer laminate, and give you a nice hole.  Ikea does sell tempered glass tops, probably just for that reason.

Me, I love plain oiled (and beeswaxed) table tops.  If I ding it, a steam iron can fix small punch marks.  If I burn a mark, I can sand it off, and re-oil and wax it.  Can even make decorative insets, if I feel like it.

[Mr. Scram]

Really?  Oh no...  I thought they hadn't gone that cheap yet, but now looking at e.g. the small Lack coffee tables, it is obvious.  Although the structure itself is good, it can't handle localized loads.  I guess you could use a sheet of something (Al? Glass?) to distribute the load, but otherwise dropping something like your soldering station corner first from four inches will go trough the outer laminate, and give you a nice hole.  Ikea does sell tempered glass tops, probably just for that reason.

Me, I love plain oiled (and beeswaxed) table tops.  If I ding it, a steam iron can fix small punch marks.  If I burn a mark, I can sand it off, and re-oil and wax it.  Can even make decorative insets, if I feel like it.

I'm not sure they still make them but they had veritable desks made out of the honeycomb stuff too. The top layer was fairly resilient though real wood is obviously superior in every way.

[bd139]

Anything Ikea with a surface about more than 20mm thick is that honeycomb stuff. Kallax, Micke etc. It’s only strong to a point and then it fails catastrophically. Their office range is all “beaver puke” laminate stuff. It’s quite a hobby of mine smashing holes in it and seeing what’s inside 

My bench/desk is an Ikea Fredrik. Discontinued. That has particle board surfaces and strong frame. You can usually pick them up for virtually nothing here in the U.K.  mine cost £10 second hand! If the new stuff is like that it’ll be solid as a rock.

[nctnico]

The Ikea setup looks nice but I rather buy something more expensive and durable. The Ikea stuff starts to look bad after a short time of use. The quality is extremely poor.

[Mr. Scram]

The Ikea setup looks nice but I rather buy something more expensive and durable. The Ikea stuff starts to look bad after a short time of use. The quality is extremely poor.

It depends on what you buy. They always have a bottom of the range models that are ultra low cost and consequently not very lasting. The more expensive products are often built fairly decently as they have huge economy of scale and know when and how to engineer a product properly in the right places.

[CalMachine]

Here is the current state of my lab!   In the middle of refurbishing a few units.  Also, always monitoring  references and prototypes.

[MarkF]

Updated picture:
I just re-arranged my DIY bedroom workbence.
It didn't stay clean very long though.   

It's just 1x8 inch pine boards glued together. Top is 36x84 inches.
A little stain and poly with an anti-static mat.

I moved all my soldering to a little desk on the opposite wall.  Hakko FX-888D
I was getting little solder flecks over the workbence and onto my PCBs.

I really need to do something about the lighting yet.

[ascomm]

Here's my "lab".

[nctnico]

Here is the current state of my lab!   In the middle of refurbishing a few units.  Also, always monitoring  references and prototypes.

Nice and sturdy although I'd probably would have built it in a way less screw heads are visible. Especially in the work surface. I like the way you kept the space under the desk free. Did you fixate it to the wall to get some left/right rigidity?

[Yansi]

Here is the current state of my lab!   In the middle of refurbishing a few units.  Also, always monitoring  references and prototypes.

What kind of thing is that one with many green LEDs under the table?

[CalMachine]

Nice and sturdy although I'd probably would have built it in a way less screw heads are visible. Especially in the work surface. I like the way you kept the space under the desk free. Did you fixate it to the wall to get some left/right rigidity?

I wasn't super worried about screw heads showing on the work surface, because I knew static mats were going to cover a majority of the surface.  But when the time comes to get a new bench, I'll be go for a better looking design.  It was also more of a quick and dirty for cheap kind of build.  I had been using 2 plastic fold out party tables before xD  So this is a vastly significant improvement.  It is very sturdy by itself, without being fixed to the walls.

What kind of thing is that one with many green LEDs under the table?

That's a Datron 4911!  4 10V DC References along with all 4 averaged together on a 5th output.  Next to it are Fluke 10V References

[Yansi]

Interesting. Never seen that one.

[SeanB]

Beaver puke sounds nice, though here you get the knockoff, plastic laminate sheet stretched over a core that is corrugated card edgewise ( strong stuff if it was made from something good like aluminium core is in aircraft flooring) and 2 layers of recycled cardboard sheet as top and bottom, with some foam used where they have to put inserts in to hold them in place. The cupboards are thinner, making Masonite board look good, thin board with a veneer, glued together card, and just junk. Careful of the granite and marble tops as well, they are made from granite powder and epoxy, so can be poured as thin as the cardboard of the furniture.

[German_EE]

An easy test for work benches and desks, sit on it. If you feel it bending then it isn't stiff enough. I'm basing this test on a 80-100 Kg engineer as a fair substitute for a pile of test equipment.

[0culus]

I'm planning to get some benchpro benches for my lab. Having done the engineer body weight test on some we have in the lab at work, I'd say they pass with flying colors.

[Deboscope]

Yes what is that aerial toilet seat thingy?

[Deboscope]

That I would guess is a dryer...

[Deboscope]

Hi nice lab!

I noticed you also have a 1022 Rigol AWG.

I have that too, but it is not in this country now.
I am getting a new Hantek 4202C DSO with AWG incorporated.
Is that sufficient or would a stand alone AWG be more useful?

[CalMachine]

I'm planning to get some benchpro benches for my lab. Having done the engineer body weight test on some we have in the lab at work, I'd say they pass with flying colors.

Benchpro benches look legit.  I wouldn't mind getting one for the odd wall out in my lab without a bench xD

[Marck]

My work in progress.  At the moment its in the garage so
With the current weather here dust is a bit of a problem.  I would like a bigger 19inch rack because for now most of the toys live inside when not being used its a bit of a multi purpose area from mechanical to tinkering with some electrons and whatever geekery i can play with.   

The toy list
Fluke 177
Fluke 789
Rigol ds1052e
Cisco switch
Desktop in the rack
Anritsu freq counter
A couple of near field studio monitors and a sub under the bench for a few relaxing tunes.
a vice
Out of view is my laser
And a google home to do any thinking for me. 
I have a lcd panel to go on the wall behind the bench

Everything on the bench runs through an APC UPS with a stand alone RCD between the UPS and any bench mains supply. 

The bench is “Beaver Puke” laminate but was in poor condition when I bought it so i have wrapped all the surfaces in vinyl. 

On the wish list

1. The eldest to move out so i can bring the play pen into the house
2 An air conditioner so I can keep it sealed up a bit better to controll the dust.  With the summer heat its only possible to work in there at night. 
3. A 3D printer



 

[Gary350z]

Here is the current state of my lab!   In the middle of refurbishing a few units.  Also, always monitoring  references and prototypes.

I was scrolling down this page rather quickly and somehow I spotted this.


It's a Kontax KS90R Black Ross Low temperature difference Stirling Engine.

https://www.stirlingengine.co.uk/d.asp?product=KS90R_BLA_KIT

I have one of these, plus three other stirling engines.
This one will run on very little heat. It will run just sitting in your hand.

Here's one of mine.

[Deboscope]

This is mine so far::

[Nominal Animal]

This is mine so far::

Do you use velcro, glue, or magnets to get stuff stuck to a wall like that?

[maginnovision]

It's probably double sided tape. That stuff is fantastic.

[German_EE]

For really strong glue I suggest the crap from new born babies, sticks to anything and never comes off. The God-awful smell and the green color might put some users off though.