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

[george graves]

I tapped the internal power supply to switch an electronic valve I bought from ebay. That valve opens and closes the fume extractor line. When I use it as vacuum pick-up I connect the fume extractor line to the original hand actuated vacuum pick-up that came with the unit.

What kind of valve did you use?  I'm been looking for a cheap fast acting valve for a foot-petal actuated DIY SMD vacuum tool.

[con-f-use]

What kind of valve did you use?  I'm been looking for a cheap fast acting valve for a foot-petal actuated DIY SMD vacuum tool.

Honestly I have no idea, it's been a while. I'd have to unmount my station form under the shelf and open it to have a look. I bought the valve from ebay. Any number of solenoid valves should do the trick. Worst case you have to use a few standard components and some duct-tape to make it work.

[SeanB]

Just ask for a standard 3/2 pneumatic valve with direct action, as you will be using it with no pilot air to drive the spool otherwise. This will have an inlet, outlet and an exhaust port. Probably you will want a 5mm. 1/4 or 1/8 inlet and outlet, though a 3mm is also available ( and will be more expensive as these traditionally are used with a multiport manifold) and will do for low flow. Coil will be typically 12VDC/24VAC and 110VDC/220VAC at around 6-9VA for these.

[jpb]

Here is my (small) workbench in what-is-for-me a very tidy state - I'm testing my OCXO setup with a 1pps from a GPS module. (Yes, I know the mini-power supply on the top shelf should be better shielded or encased - it is work in progress).

[Christe4nM]

I like that big sturdy good old TTi PL-series power supply. We're still using those dual and the triple ones in the university labs. Hard to break, sturdy, and yes quite big and heavy. I considered the single output version of the newest PL series for my bench but went with an Agilent E3610A instead since it came with a free DMM.

How do you like your TTi PSU?

[staze]

Mine doubles as my and my wife's office desk... so things get put away fairly often. But here it is "now".

[MrAureliusR]

Man, I just went through all 8 pages of this thread and wow... just wow. Mine is still a work in progress, in the next few weeks there will be some MAJOR changes and major overhaul...

I don't know why but the sepia tone looked great for the close up of the breadboards I'm working on. (proto of a z80 single-board computer, and also the veroboard is for an LED cube, which is slowly coming along.)

Once the changes happen I'll upload the new pics for a before/after shot!

[EDIT: re-sized the pictures so they actually fit in the thread...]

[Ed.Kloonk]

Mine doubles as my and my wife's office desk... so things get put away fairly often. But here it is "now".

Why do you have a toilet seat hovering over your desk?

[BravoV]

Why do you have a toilet seat hovering over your desk?

LOL ... I didn't visualize that until you mentioned it !     

Btw, there is a roll of toilet paper hanging there as well that makes the whole scene complete.   

[Psi]

Those magnifier covers are actually quite important.

If your desk is near a window the lens will start a fire if the sun moves into the right spot in the sky and there's paper under the lens.

[ResR]

Well this is my little electronics corner. The old briefcase, that I used for making a "workbench", I had it since I was 15. Minus the soldering iron, it popped (in search for new one).

[Phaedrus]

Right now my workspace is shit. But we're setting up a new lab upstairs, and once that's done in a couple months... A big $20,000 ATE setup in a server rack, an actually organized workbench with a workstation and a couple monitors... Mmmmmm...

I'll have to remember this thread.

[steve30]

Mine doubles as my and my wife's office desk... so things get put away fairly often. But here it is "now".

Which one of you does the 'putting away'?

[baljemmett]

Why do you have a toilet seat hovering over your desk?

For when he needs to give a flying crap about something, obviously... 

[briandorey]

This is my small home workshop which is in the loft of our terrace home which i use with my brother on electronics and other projects.

The loft space is 4.1m long, 3.2m wide at its widest point and 2m high in the middle.


At one end of the room are storage trays covering the wall with hundreds of trays of resistors, capacitors, semiconductors, leds, fixing hardware and lots of other small parts.

Each side of the loft space has shelves which have more storage under each one with storage trays and boxes full of everything from computer parts to camping equipment.

One side has our Pick and Place machine with drill and milling bit drawer under the shelf and the other side has an N gauge model of the Swanage steam railway with a protective lid over to keep the dusk out and lots of odds and ends currently stored on top!

At the far end of the workshop is the main work bench which has small hand tools across the back wall on storage clips, a central work area with Metcal soldering irons and fume extraction system. The left side has all our main test equipment including a 60MHz 2Ch Oscilloscope, function generators, frequency counters, various multimeters and variable power supply. There is also a Shuttle PC which is used for development on PIC’s and Arduino.

Under this bench is our SMD oven in a sealed box with air vent which extracts the fumes outside and also a OKI air filter to use when soldering on the bench. Either side are more storage boxes with old projects and bits of wire and connectors.

Above this shelf is another storage shelf which has a hot air SMT rework station, rolls of tape, solder and heat shrink in different sizes.

Next to the access trap hatch / ladder is the CNC mill which is run using Mach 3 on an old Dell PC and small hobby lathe.

There is a 360 pano tour of the workshop on http://apexviews.co.uk/loft/

[Phaedrus]

Ours is a bit crowded at the moment, since we have one and a half tables and the rest is full of junk. But we're moving to the other building soon, putting all the test equipment in a rack, and we won't be bringing any of the crap the RMA guys were storing in the corner.

[senso]

Here is my corner(a room in the basement), still needs a lot of gear 

[Sigmoid]

As I live in a small studio apartment set up tatami room style, I'm currently using paper boxes... XD

Currently I'm trying to find (or design) appropriate furniture to set up a permanent lab, but I think I may have to build one myself... I think the ideal would be a low table with a removable or foldable box cover.

[jpb]

I like that big sturdy good old TTi PL-series power supply. We're still using those dual and the triple ones in the university labs. Hard to break, sturdy, and yes quite big and heavy. I considered the single output version of the newest PL series for my bench but went with an Agilent E3610A instead since it came with a free DMM.

How do you like your TTi PSU?

I like it very much. It was only £160 new from TTi via Test-and-Measurement (they sell superseded new stock at a discount with a 90(?) day warranty).

The meters/current limiting is accurate and higher resolution than a lot of supplies. I've not yet tried the various tracking options. It is quite big and heavy but at least it doesn't slide around and I think it is going to last.

[robrenz]

As I live in a small studio apartment set up tatami room style, I'm currently using paper boxes... XD

Currently I'm trying to find (or design) appropriate furniture to set up a permanent lab, but I think I may have to build one myself... I think the ideal would be a low table with a removable or foldable box cover.

You may want to take a look at my bench in this thread made from a inexpensive shelving unit with a folding table top. takes up very little space and has lots of room to store instruments and supplies.

[gbyleveldt]

I've been lurking for a while - this place has been full of wonderful tips on depleting your wallet real fast! Anyway, here's what my mancave looks like now.

[sync]

Hi

This is my electronics work bench after a little clean up. I rebuild it a few month ago, to get better access to all that gear.

[oakkar7]

Very impressive workbenches ...
Cheers all ...

Here is my workbench. It is made of teak. My country, MYANMAR is famous of teak. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teak

[M0BSW]

 This is it now , until a couple of boxes from Japan arrive

[TiN]

Current homelab setup.  Not shown but present CSA7404 (repair in progress  ) and TLA714+7AA4.
Don't even have proper soldering iron, most of time just do stuff at work lab.