Cases, bags, dust covers for test equipment?

[mbcomer68]

First post, hope it's not immediate flame-bait 

I wish I had nice, clean, conditioned space for a home lab but I don't. My workbench is in a garage which is not ideal. The space is not used for cars at this point - instead it is tools, projects, and the like. Dust is a problem for me though.

Does anyone have a good source for things like dust covers, carrying / storage bags, etc for test equipment? I have a Rigol DHO 914, a Siglent bench power supply, an old function generator, etc. I am adding some shelving at my bench so that I can hopefully keep these out and off the bench surface, but I am worried about dust. Does anyone know of a good source for dust covers, bags, cases, etc for test equipment and such? Is this even a thing?

Thanks for the help!

[coromonadalix]

https://www.magnafabrics.com/collections/antistatic-static-dissipative-fabrics   

?


or you have the famous Static Guard spray ?

[Solder_Junkie]

For my Rigol scope and spectrum analyser, I use a "fishing" cool bag. It is padded and dark green in colour. To protect the screens and front panel from an accidental bump, I use a piece of closed cell packing foam placed in front of the front panel.

I'm sure you can find something similar for a fraction of the cost of a manufacturers version.

SJ

[David Hess]

You can make your own custom covers and bags easily enough with a sewing machine.

[KungFuJosh]

If you don't want to sew your own, check out digitaldeckcovers.com. You can measure your equipment, and they'll custom make whatever you need. My SDS2504XP has a cover from them, along with other equipment.

[points2]

First post, hope it's not immediate flame-bait 

don't worry... in this forum you always feel like a newbie  and any newbie likes to learn so this forum is "cool".

Regarding "dust cover", after many iterations, I think the best of the best (low cost & high efficiency) is to taylor-made a hat with bubble-wrap sewn with stapples.
Bubble-wrap film : 1.5m x 10m costs 15Eur in a DIY store close-by... stapples are very expensive of course...
The most tricky part is => to sew correctly the bubble-wrap with stapples, to fit : the size of the device & the weather condition into the "room"

No kidding => I use bubble-wrap to "cover" many stuff : easy to manipulate & clean...
pics upon request.

[stainless]

On something of a whim I bought https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086D6R92Y and found it to be almost a perfect fit for my Rigol DHO900 plus all of its cables and doodads. There are many (many!) others like it, search around for "travel electronics organizer".

Someone else recommended digitaldeckcovers.com, which I can also recommend: first got a stock one for my Prusa 3D printer, then custom ordered one that came quickly and was just a solidly constructed as the first.

[Stray Electron]

No kidding => I use bubble-wrap to "cover" many stuff : easy to manipulate & clean...
pics upon request.

    Yes, I'd like to see some pictures. Do you sew or glue it or what, to get the correct shape?  I never really considered making covers of bubble wrap but if there's a way to form it into the desired shape it should be useful.

   FYI I have a friend that has a factory cover for a Tektronix 576 made of translucent vinyl sheet.  I had no idea that Tektronix sold covers for any of their equipment but apparently they did.  I have a few HP made covers for some of their equipment. They're made of a tan fabric and have the HP logo embroidered on them.

   I wish that someone would come up with a reasonably priced rigid front cover for my oscilloscopes (most LeCroys) so that I could protect all of the knobs and jacks on the front. 

[DaneLaw]

I wish I had nice, clean, conditioned space for a home lab but I don't. My workbench is in a garage which is not ideal. The space is not used for cars at this point - instead it is tools, projects, and the like. Dust is a problem for me though.

Does anyone have a good source for things like dust covers, carrying / storage bags, etc for test equipment? I have a Rigol DHO 914, a Siglent bench power supply, an old function generator, etc. I am adding some shelving at my bench so that I can hopefully keep these out and off the bench surface, but I am worried about dust. Does anyone know of a good source for dust covers, bags, cases, etc for test equipment and such? Is this even a thing?

Thanks for the help!

I dont have a dedicated lab area either [90m2 inner city apartment] where most of it is dictated by a female dictator, so pretty much all my gear tends to be cased, so I can store it away and pull out the different test-gear when needed or Im in the mood to fiddle with something as its solely a hobby.
I went for casing/bags to store them when not in use.
Got some foam-bags intended for RC gear from China that were weirdly cheap, - clearance-sale as many of these casings were optimized for specific models that become obsolete, but a lot of them also used plug-foam so could be used with anything.

But even the ones with specific formfitted foam, easy to refit them.
ET5410 programmable sink load.

Prices were around 10 US or under incl. VAT & delivery (Banggood) for even big flight cases that had previously been way up in the 3 digits in price, but it is quite a few years back, some of these flightcases were foam-molded for certain DJI drones like Phantom, and China likely had low-shipping prices from old biased regulation, so even huge flightcases like below were sold for under 10 bucks, delivered from the china site Bangood.
I use them for anything that is somewhat sensitive to environments, as well as for sensitive items with optical alignement features, as I can strap them down inside.
but since you're in the USA, I would guess, there is a big local selection of different storage bags for items that are somewhat season/model-dependent.

It works fine as intended to protect it, but it certainly also bulks it up in size, with all that protective padding, so the female dictator here is    my clueless attempt to make it smaller & store it away with this  Chinese clearance-sale bag-approach, but it does feel good to have expensive sensitive items in its own protective bag for storage purpose...
but for dust & protection, these cheap foam/drone bags works well and I tend to store the software alongside it, as it can be a hurdle to find again down the line..

[David Hess]

I have been using the Nanuk 910 case which is the slimmest of their medium sized cases and large enough for a pair of handheld instruments.  Pelican does not have anything comparable except larger laptop cases which are much more expensive.

For larger instrument covers, I use my sewing machine.

[mwb1100]

I have been using the Nanuk 910 case

I like the fact that they offer a variety of colors!

[David Hess]

I have been using the Nanuk 910 case

I like the fact that they offer a variety of colors!

I always have trouble with the clasps which work differently from most cases, but they do seem secure.

[aeberbach]

Covers are a good start but there will still be a cover-shaped outline in the grime around your gear and all over your cables and anything you didn't cover. I'm planning on building a set of shelves that will hold all the stuff that I want clean above the workbench, it will have a door to protect all the gear. A door that lifts like an overhead kitchen cabinet could work but I am thinking of roll-top (aka tambour) to save space, if I can just find that router book that had plans for making a roll-top desk. Last time I saw it it did not look too hard with the right router bit and strips of timber.

(actually might just buy one - there are nice tambour cabinets for only about twice the price of the tambour router bits!)

(and the IKEA tambour cabinet costs less than the set of bits. If your test equipment will fit in 30cm depth this looks like the one: https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/tittebo-tambour-storage-f-small-appliances-black-80551903/)

[Max_UK]

I had a similar setup and ended up using padded laptop bags for my smaller tools and electronics. They offer decent protection from dust and accidental bumps. For larger equipment, I used fabric dust covers from an old sewing project—nothing fancy, but they did the job well.

[BILLPOD]

Good Morning Mbcomer68,  Welcome to the forum.   I too had a dusty condition, having two work benches in the same room.  I put up a floor to ceiling curtain in front of my electronics bench, which seems to work well.   Taking equipment out of cases and bags every time you want to tinker and putter at the bench, gets old fast and will cut down on the time you have to dedicate to your hobby.