Rebuilding my lab bench

[mindcrime]

Thought some of you might find this at least vaguely interesting (in a "tool porn" sense if nothing else).  I never had a proper electronics "lab bench" at home until (very) recently... for the longest time, my meager collection of tools, parts, and gear lived at the local hackerspace, and I had to drive there to work on anything.

But, lurking in the corner of my living room was a crappy old table with a particle board top that was sagging under the weight of a bunch of old books, magazines, and random computer parts.  As it happens, I had a little bit of extra money from my year end bonus, so a few weeks ago I cleared off that table, ordered a bunch of new kit, and started building an approximation of "the bench I always wanted" (within the constraints of space and money that I'm operating under).


The inital version of the bench, after most of my new gear arrived, and still using the crappy particle board top for the bench:



As you can see, this is not exactly the sturdiest setup in the world, and I was actually worried that it might collapse under the weight of my gear.  And there's an oscilloscope that hadn't been delivered yet when this was taken:



So the crappy old piece of particle board had to go, replaced by a series of 1x6 boards, screwed into place, and a layer of 3/4" sanded plywood screwed down into that:














Finally, I have a nice sturdy, smooth, flat surface to support my equipment!



The re-assembled bench, mostly complete:



This was supporting the whole lot before:



Finally, after adding some of the high-temp rubber ESD matting (those two independent mats have been jumpered together since this picture was taken).



My monster breadboard in use for some experiments with using shift registers with the Arduino:




The rest of the photo gallery is here if anybody wants to see: https://photos.app.goo.gl/v4Dy6WxGr1cVYXeR8


In terms of test equipment / tools, here's what's on the bench:

Rigol DP832A power supply
Rigol DS1104Z Plus oscilloscope
Rigol DG4162 waveform generator
Rigol DM3068 bench multimeter
Rigol DS1102E scope (my first scope, bought a couple of years ago). 
Hakko FX-951-66 soldering station
Leaton Digital Thermometer
Generic Chinese manufactured heat-gun
A small generic heat-gun

Not pictured due to space:  Aoyue 852A++ Digital SMD Hot Air Rework Station

On order, arriving Thursday:  HP 1660A Logic Analzyer

And if all goes well, sometime this year I hope to add a Rigol DL3021A programmable load.  And maybe a used HP spectrum analzyer... and a frequency counter.. and a few more multimeters... and.. well... anyway...

[med6753]

Nice set up. Good you built it sturdy for all the stuff you are going buy.

BTW...there is a thread in General Chat called "What does your bench look like" but you're a newb and you didn't know so you get a free pass.    

[mindcrime]

Nice set up. Good you built it sturdy for all the stuff you are going buy.

 

The day I started working on that, I had ZERO notion I would be buying a freaking HP 1660A a couple of days later, or that I'd find myself thinking seriously about buying an old HP spectrum analyzer soon as well.  But watching Dave's videos led me to the darkside of searching Ebay for equipment, and then finding this forum just exacerbated the problem situation.

BTW...there is a thread in General Chat called "What does your bench look like" but you're a newb and you didn't know so you get a free pass.

Dangit. I was trying to figure out the best place for this by the various forum titles and none seemed "just right".  I should have figured there would be a dedicated thread. Oh well, live and learn.   

[bitseeker]

That's OK. You can post new pics in the work bench thread after your next upgrade to accommodate all your soon-to-be-arriving boat anchors.

[mindcrime]

That's OK. You can post new pics in the work bench thread after your next upgrade

Good point. I started rearranging stuff last night to start making room for new stuff.  You can't see it in any of these pics, but there's a TV stand just off to the right of the frame, that's got my old 27" CRT television on it.. said TV not having been used in about 4 years, and I doubt it even powers up anymore. It was a hand-me-down when I got it 15 years ago.  Sooooooo... my plan is to bin that, move all the random books and DVD's that are piled up around it, and put a rack of some sort in that spot, to hold more gear.   

... to accommodate all your soon-to-be-arriving boat anchors.

Hey now, no need to be mean!   

[bitseeker]

Hehe, I forgot you're new here. Boat anchors can be a very good thing. Scan through some of the TEA thread's history and you'll see what I mean. We even have an icon to include in boat anchor posts to highlight them (and give due warning of incoming heavy metal).

[mindcrime]

Hehe, I forgot you're new here. Boat anchors can be a very good thing. Scan through some of the TEA thread's history and you'll see what I mean. We even have an icon to include in boat anchor posts to highlight them (and give due warning of incoming heavy metal).

LOL, I was just goofing around. I get what you mean by "boat anchor".  That older test gear can be great, but it be heavy as hell too. I feel bad for the UPS / Fedex guys who deliver this stuff to me, given that I live in a 3rd floor apartment.   

And I'll feel bad for my neighbors when an HP Spectrum Analyzer comes through their ceiling and beans somebody right on the noggin!   

[bitseeker]

Incoming!!!