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

[AF6LJ]

One of these days.. The SB-220 will have to make it back into its cabinet.

[Marvo]

Yeah...I know. Not good.

This is my den at home. I have another den at work which is even worse.

[AF6LJ]

My bench looks like that when something is being worked on.

[neo]

My workbench always looks like that, worse even because mine is stuffed full. 

[bd139]

One of these days.. The SB-220 will have to make it back into its cabinet.

You guys are so lucky. 400W miserable watts here on a full license. An SB220 would be wasted here

[AF6LJ]

One of these days.. The SB-220 will have to make it back into its cabinet.

You guys are so lucky. 400W miserable watts here on a full license. An SB220 would be wasted here

That really does suck, especially considering how bad propagation has been lately.
You could run an SB-220 over there; problem is the anodes need to show a little color from time to time to keep the vacuum good and high. The gettering material is on the anode in the 3-500Zs, and the graphite anode tubes need to show color more often than with the molybdenum anode type tubes. They will keep you warm in the winter though, not that we need that here in the southern end of the People's Republic of Kalifornia.

The amp is still apart for another reason. When I bought it, it had been modified for use on 160 meters, in a very sloppy way. I returned it to stock configuration and rebuilt the power supply changed the plate RF choke to a better one, and installed a step start circuit to soften the inrush current. There is more work to be done, have have been too busy with other projects to finish it. Vacuum relays need to be installed, a timing board for same, and the padding cap for the loading control is getting drifty and should be replaced. Right now it is working well and I have four projects I want to work on this year.
An Atlas 350
Motorola Micom 500E commercial HF radio
My Henry 3KA amplifier,
The LG Precision spectrum analyzer sitting above the Icom IC-756.
But wait there is more........
I have four or five (I lost count) projects I am working for other people.

Oh and........
If anybody can find me a manual for that LG 2720 spectrum analyzer that is not in Korean...
That would be great!

[AF6LJ]

My workbench always looks like that, worse even because mine is stuffed full. 

I am running out of space over here also.....

[bitseeker]

A new picture of the workbench and lab here.....

All kinds of nice goodies! I like.

[xmo]

It seems there are many here who are building or have built their own benches.  I have always built my own benches too.  Partly because I didn’t want to spend the cost of a commercial bench and partly because building your own lets you have the exact size and features that you want. 

In post #3187 JustSquareEnough showed a picture that had a drawer unit later identified as a Harbor Freight end cabinet for roller chest.

A couple of years ago I was shopping at a local tool store where they were having a closeout on Clarke tool chests.  They had two of the end cabinets similar to the Harbor Freight ones.   I really liked the blue color.  I immediately thought that these could serve as the pedestals on the ends of a new workbench.  For some time I had been thinking of building a new bench as a totally modern work area – a flexible bench not committed to any one type of work. 

Although at first I intend to do mostly audio related work here, the idea is that  test instruments and other equipment don’t ‘live’ on the bench but are stored elsewhere and placed on the bench in whatever configuration meets the needs of the current project.

The bench I built is about 9 feet long and 40 inches deep.  I would have preferred a little deeper but was limited by the door on the right of the bench.  The bench top is supported by a frame of 2x4’s that are attached to the drawer units and to the wall.  The top is comprised of three sheets of oriented strand board covered with oak and finished with several coats of Old Masters satin poly.

The work surface is an anti-static bench mat obtained from ebay seller canvu0-0.  They will make custom sizes to exactly fit your bench.  Electrical is provided by Wiremold outlet strips across the front of the bench and along the back edge of the top.  These have outlets at 6 inch centers.  All are supplied through GFCI.

The area under the bench is partially enclosed to serve as instrument storage.  The doors and the CPU cart are finished in enamel color matched to the drawer units by a local home center.

On the wall are two Infinity speakers that can be used to listen to equipment being tested.  Each of the four LCD monitors has two interfaces.  Between them, all the common standards are natively supported – VGA, DVI, HDMI, and displayport. The monitor on the far right displays an internet connected computer that lives on a CPU cart under the bench.  The monitors on the left can be connected to equipment being tested, can serve as displays for instruments that have no display (e.g. R&S UPL66), or they can mirror instrument displays for easier viewing.

The current configuration shown here is testing communication headsets used by public safety dispatchers.

[AF6LJ]

That is really nice.

[cdev]

@xmo

That is one of the nicest looking workbenches Ive seen here. Beautiful.

Also, i wanted to post a picture of these super handy anchors for people who live in earthquake country. These anchors are really great for protecting equipment from g-forces and gravity. I forget what I paid for them but they are super useful. Its a pro solution.

[JustSquareEnough]

@xmo , nice clean setup! I like that blue too.

[McBryce]

Looks like a rubber hammer is now compulsory for bench photos. Better get out and buy one before I post a picture of my latest setup!

McBryce.

[BU508A]

Looks like a rubber hammer is now compulsory for bench photos. Better get out and buy one before I post a picture of my latest setup!

I have one of these in my toolbox - if it is not lying around on my bench, threadening misbehaving gear. 

[Insatman]

Looks like a rubber hammer is now compulsory for bench photos. Better get out and buy one before I post a picture of my latest setup!

I have one of these in my toolbox - if it is not lying around on my bench, threadening misbehaving gear. 

Portable Wilmerizer

[tautech]

Looks like a rubber hammer is now compulsory for bench photos. Better get out and buy one before I post a picture of my latest setup!

I have one of these in my toolbox - if it is not lying around on my bench, threadening misbehaving gear. 

When something properly needs the 'bash' you need a hardwood maul with a three foot handle. 
From lumberjack times.....for driving steel felling wedges.

[BU508A]

Ah, yes. The right tools for the right job.     

[tautech]

Ah, yes. The right tools for the right job.     

A buddy says that when he needs one it's FBH time !

You can work on the abbreviation. 

[Mr. Scram]

A buddy says that when he needs one it's FBH time !

You can work on the abbreviation. 

Fudge Bratislava Helicopter!

[BU508A]

Scotty in Star Trek V:



Scene from 23:10 to 23:30  (mm:ss)

[cdev]

I was going to ask Sue if she had ever worked in the judiciary branch of government?

[AF6LJ]

I was going to ask Sue if she had ever worked in the judiciary branch of government?

Nope...
Not corrupt enough.

[Martin.M]

So I can ask Sue when restorating the Heathkit, that`s fine   
this is 313, 401, 610, + speaker

[AF6LJ]

So I can ask Sue when restorating the Heathkit, that`s fine   
this is 313, 401, 610, + speaker

I have done a fair amount of work on Heath sb-Series gear.
I can answer most questions.

[bd139]

Oh goody. Got one for you: is the SB-101 worth a go as a restoration project? I have a thing about old Heathkit stuff. I've owned a few of their VTVMs, counters (nixie), power supplies, RF gen etc over the years and currently have none of those things and I'm missing them, so it gives me an excuse to accumulate them again you see

I also like tubes

Edit: the transceiver I have been designing for the last 2 years or so and is currently on bits of copper clad all over the place in boxes, is actually based on the SB-101 but using FETs/BJTs instead of tubes.