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

[HighVoltage]

Still have the scrapped halon ones.

Me too, I have 3 or 4 empty halon extinguisher but can not get them filled.

[rx8pilot]

Halon was just as good at killing people as it was at saving property. Right? Seems nice that the priority is on saving people.

[Deathwish]

On the wall;
Electronics reference poster (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/beautifully-made-electronics-reference-poster/) and Lots of assorted probes, leads and adapters on the breaker box with magnetic hooks. I have some more leads and adapters on the wall just under the shelf in the next picture too (you can barely see it under the lower shelf).

Where did you get that poster from and how much was it ?

[mtdoc]

Still have the scrapped halon ones.

Me too, I have 3 or 4 empty halon extinguisher but can not get them filled.

I have a halon extinguisher i bought about a year ago. I believe they are still sold here in the US. There are several on Amazon.

[nidlaX]

plastic ammo cans

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Are those Plano brand? I just got one myself the other day, fantastic for storing tools!

[inteljoe]

No shame in what you got there. That is a nice bench! 

Thank you. It's very much a work in progress and is constantly changing as I organize, clean, buy new parts & equipment, and just generally evolve as a hobby.

Where did you get that poster from and how much was it ?

Check this link: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/beautifully-made-electronics-reference-poster

It was from a KickStarter type campaign on Indiegogo and I was one of the contributors. But I think he is now selling the posters and other stuff from his website, which you can find here @ http://josericafort.com/store/

It's a great poster and printed on quality heavy paper. I chose to buy a frame for mine. It goes well above any EE bench.

Are those Plano brand? I just got one myself the other day, fantastic for storing tools!

Yes they are. I've had them for a few years now and I've used them to hold lots of different things. They hold pretty well too. 

They were originally used for holding ammo (their intended purpose), but I've since consolidated my ammo into larger metal .50cal ammo cans. These Plano boxes are more along the line of, in terms of size, .30cal ammo cans.

[nctnico]

Those ammo cans look handy and they aren't very expensive either. Just wondering whether customs would raise some red flags since owning a gun without license is a big no-go over here.

[mairo]

That looks like a crammed bench.
What I notice in general is that people try to cram all their test equipment and PC(s) in a very small space. In most cases you don't need all the test equipment together. Most of my test equipment is stored on a shelve or a cabinet and I only put the equipment I need on my bench. This also makes it easy to have 2 or 3 work areas with seperate projects and their specific equipment needs.

It is definitely crammed, but I use all the pieces every day. Plus those PSU's, DC load, scope, etc. are VERY big and heavy. They are all GPIB connected. Moving the pieces around is a massive pain. All the extra gear is on a shelf - what you see is the minimum daily requirement. ...

+1
My bench is also crammed with gear, but is also the gear that I use during particular project. I also have some of those Chroma and Kikusui DC loads and power supplies and some of them are on purposely build racks but some on the bench, connected to PC, and they do weigh 25-40kg each, moving them is a BIG pain.

I guess the main problem is that when you have a workshop at home, you might be limited on available space, that's why you see so many examples of benches with mountains of gear on them. Even simple things like being able to access the bench at the back (accessing the rear panels of the instruments) is a problem as most probably the bench is next to a wall.

[skipjackrc4]

Even simple things like being able to access the bench at the back (accessing the rear panels of the instruments) is a problem as most probably the bench is next to a wall.

I agree.  I have a rather large bench that weighs over 1000 lbs (the bench itself is about 500 lbs), so sliding it out from the wall unassisted is impossible (at least for me).  If I need to get behind the bench, I lift it up with a car jack and slide furniture dollies under each of the legs.  I can then pull the bench out, though it still takes quite a bit of effort.  The whole process takes about 15 minutes, and maybe another 10 minutes to get it back in place after I'm done crawling around behind it. 

[rx8pilot]

I REALLY look forward to having access to the rear of the bench! Right now I am crammed into 10x15 foot space that is packed full. My pick and place machine is in my garage surrounded by rolling shelves with parts, shipping, etc. Hopefully, I am only a couple of months from gaining 400ft2 which will make it much more workable.

Can't wait to upload those pics......I feel like a sardine every day.

[fivefish]

For eqpt that have BNC jacks at the back, (like my 8903B), I made a patch panel and route some BNC patch cables to the rear of the equipment.



I also have some equipment on a rolling rack where I need to patch XLR cables often. Plus, I also left some open space so I can reach in with my arms to unplug/plug jacks.

[bitseeker]

That is an excellent patch panel, fivefish. A good idea for all sorts of rear-panel connections. I assume that's a rack spacer/blank that you mounted the BNCs into.

[AF6LJ]

That is a good idea Fifefish.
Looks Good

[fivefish]

Yeah, just your standard 19" metal plate/panel/spacer, drilled holes, and mounted pass-through BNC jacks.

That's also a 4u height set of mounting rack, screwed/installed in a 1/2" thick plywood box.

[crispy_tofu]

Fantastic fivefish, neat and very elegant! 

[coppice]

Halon was just as good at killing people as it was at saving property. Right? Seems nice that the priority is on saving people.

It seems halon wasn't all that reliable at saving property. In the 80s the company I worked for changed insurers. One of the requirements from the new insurer was to rip out all the halon extinguishers in the computers rooms, and replace them with water sprinklers. The stated reason was the poor track record of halon systems activating properly in real fires. Lots of people thought that was a terrible idea, as the  machines would be damaged in the event of a fire. Thry seemed to ignore that there would be a fire, and stuff would be damaged anyway.

[rx8pilot]

I guess because Halon was so good a killing people, the trigger systems practically needed an order from the president of the United States to go off. I was a contractor on a job that was upgrading the halon control system (I had nothing to do with halon system, just there as an observer). The system required many triggers and then there was a substantial delay to allow all the people to escape first. I always though to myself  that it would take a full inferno to actually trigger the system, and then it was programmed to wait on top of that. Nuts.

[inteljoe]

Those ammo cans look handy and they aren't very expensive either. Just wondering whether customs would raise some red flags since owning a gun without license is a big no-go over here.

Yeah. I don't know that. That is unfortunately between you and your government.
But I don't see how a plastic container could be considered illegal.

 

[edavid]

I guess because Halon was so good a killing people...

Actually, it wasn't/isn't.  It causes "slight giddiness".

[rx8pilot]

I thought that it displaced oxygen fast enough to cause problems - like passing out while the fire rages around you. That is not an informed thought, just what I was guessing. Is that far off?

The technicians that I spoke with were quite serious about ensuring the room was clear before a deployment during an emergency.

[edavid]

I thought that it displaced oxygen fast enough to cause problems - like passing out while the fire rages around you. That is not an informed thought, just what I was guessing. Is that far off?

The whole reason to use Halon, instead of much cheaper CO2, is that it is effective at suppressing fires, in non-lethal concentrations.  Amazing stuff.

The technicians that I spoke with were quite serious about ensuring the room was clear before a deployment during an emergency.

It's better not to breathe it if you don't have to, and there's always the chance that someone miscalculated the system size.

[Cubdriver]

I was under the impression that the issue with Halon is that it's a chlorofluorocarbon (blamed for ozone depletion), and that it is in fact an excellent fire extinguishing substance with relatively low toxicity.

-Pat

[coppice]

I was under the impression that the issue with Halon is that it's a chlorofluorocarbon (blamed for ozone depletion), and that it is in fact an excellent fire extinguishing substance with relatively low toxicity.
-Pat

More than one Halon is used in fire extinguishers, and its hard to tell how toxic they are, because of conflicting information. For example, Halon 1301 (BTM) is said to be a very low toxicity substance in many places, yet its Wikipedia page says "Human exposure to Halon 1301 can be toxic, affecting the central nervous system and other bodily functions.". It certainly damages the ozone layer, so it is being displaced for that reason.

[Howardlong]

It's been a few years since I last spec'd out a comms room, but we were pushed to nitrogen instead of halon for the machine rooms I last put together. The point was that it was an oxygen displacer. Pp, there was a cat flap-like arrangement in the wall for the purpose. There was still a few seconds programmed in to get out, but you had to tell it you were inside to benefit from that, or maybe that was an override, it's been a few years. Apparently you'd definitely know about it when it went off.

[VK5RC]

Nitrogen could be quite nasty to humans as you can't detect the lack of oxygen until you pass out, CO2 is quite " nice" as you can detect it quite easily so you get out of there, I don't know about the halons.