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Building a new lab, how high above the table should by shelves be?
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rdl:
My lowest shelf is about 8" deep. From there up all are 11", but spaced away from the wall a bit to allow for power cables. I just measured and the front edges of the 11" shelves are about 12.5" from the wall (32 cm). Everything fits fine except the frequency counter, had to fold its handle under to tilt it. Since you don't plan to buy any old "boat anchors", 30 cm should be okay. Here is an old picture of my setup (click for bigger).

macboy:
You will likely find 60 cm (24") is too shallow for the desk top. Previously, I had a 30" deep table, and replaced it with a custom built 36" (~90 cm) deep workbench. I like it better. If you have literally no equipment on the desk top (like rdl has in his photo) then a shallow desk works OK. But, if you have your soldering station, parts drawers, or anything else along the back wall, then consider making the desk deeper than 60 cm.  The depth of the equipment you use also plays into the work surface depth. I have many old instruments which can be as deep as 60 cm themselves. Obviously, a 60 cm desk depth with 60 cm deep shelves wouldn't work. On the other hand, if the equipment is shallow, then the shelves can be shallow (again referring to rdl's post as an example of that).

I have my first shelf top surface at 18" (~45 cm) above the work surface. This puts the equipment on that shelf directly in my line of sight when looking forward (I am tall). I have a second shelf above that, which is at a nice height to operate equipment while standing. The lower shelf is also at a reasonable height for standing operation. It is less practical to use the upper shelf while seated. Each shelf is tall enough for a 6U-tall stack of equipment (2 to 3 typical instruments or one large one). A third shelf above everything is for storage and has no equipment. Someday I'll clean up and take photos.
Refrigerator:

--- Quote from: macboy on January 27, 2020, 07:17:33 pm ---You will likely find 60 cm (24") is too shallow for the desk top. Previously, I had a 30" deep table, and replaced it with a custom built 36" (~90 cm) deep workbench. I like it better. If you have literally no equipment on the desk top (like rdl has in his photo) then a shallow desk works OK. But, if you have your soldering station, parts drawers, or anything else along the back wall, then consider making the desk deeper than 60 cm.  The depth of the equipment you use also plays into the work surface depth. I have many old instruments which can be as deep as 60 cm themselves. Obviously, a 60 cm desk depth with 60 cm deep shelves wouldn't work. On the other hand, if the equipment is shallow, then the shelves can be shallow (again referring to rdl's post as an example of that).

I have my first shelf top surface at 18" (~45 cm) above the work surface. This puts the equipment on that shelf directly in my line of sight when looking forward (I am tall). I have a second shelf above that, which is at a nice height to operate equipment while standing. The lower shelf is also at a reasonable height for standing operation. It is less practical to use the upper shelf while seated. Each shelf is tall enough for a 6U-tall stack of equipment (2 to 3 typical instruments or one large one). A third shelf above everything is for storage and has no equipment. Someday I'll clean up and take photos.

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My previous workbench was 60cm deep and it found it to be good enough. Adding equipment on it made it feel a little shallow but that's why i want to put my shelves at a comfortable height so that i could put my equipment on them to free up space.
Also the new bench will be long, spanning across two walls ( 3.2x1.8m "L" shape) along with two rows of shelves above it, one for equipment and other for storage.

I want to keep stuff off the floor, the room is in the basement and gets quite damp and down on the floor it's most humid.
Also critters like damp dark places and i don't want any bugs crawling around, especially if i'm writing code (ba-dum tssss).
Which is why i'll have a ventilation system set up, it will also be for fume extraction because soldering in a closed space gets quite stuffy.
DaJMasta:

--- Quote from: Refrigerator on January 27, 2020, 04:06:29 pm ---That and i can't currently think of a single piece of common equipment that wouldn't fit on a 30cm shelf, scopes are compact, so are PSU's and pretty much everything else these days  :-//

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Basically every full sized rack instrument isn't going to fit in that.  If you stick with buying modern, that's likely only particularly high end/RF stuff, but if you're looking back into even the early 2000s, there can be quite a bit of equipment that is deeper than 300mm - think 500mm or so for full length rack gear.  But, if you're not looking for that kind of equipment, it's a non-issue.  Most modern stuff is a bit smaller or is actually designed with bench space as a concern.
MarkF:
+1 on a deeper bench top.

My workbench is a DIY table 84" wide x 36" deep (90x200cm) in a small bedroom.
I have a low shelf for the monitor and high enough to slide the keyboard underneath.
The anti-static mat is 24" x 48".

A lot of equipment (power supplies and electronic loads for example) are 12" (30cm) deep plus you need a little more for the power cords. 
I think 40cm deep would be better.

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