what's the shelf height on your bench

[danny_isr]

So I’m building my new lab, I bought an Ikea desk with a shelf attached to it.
But found quickly that the DP832 is way to heavy and long for this Ikea shelf (it's a nice setup if you don't want to drill holes in your wall).
No choice, I need to drill and attached a real shelf to the wall. But, before I do that
I want to know what is the ideal height for a shelf over the desk for equipment.
I want it to be high enough, so I can put maybe some storage below it, but not too high to make it
uncomfortable to work.
Dave shelf look exactly right, any idea what is the height? and what is the height of the second shelf above it ?

Thanks

[nctnico]

I always use adjustable shelving like these:
http://element-system.com/en/wall-shelves.html
That way you can re-adjust later without having to drill holes again.

[danny_isr]

yeah I thought about that, looks like I will be at homedepot this weekend 

I had no idea I will end up with this Rigol PSU when I bought this bench/shelfs.
seemed a great idea at the time 

[georges80]

Well, I'd say the ideal height is the height that has your primary test equipment that you look at a lot (scope etc) at a comfortable eye level and within easy reach. Shelf spacing to suit the equipment height you are working with.

After many years of working in small companies (that aren't daft enough to purchase those hyper expensive work 'benches') I've found the cheap 6' folding tables work really well. Put an antistatic mat on them and they are deep enough to have some reasonable shelf space for equipment and still give you about 18" of depth for work surface in front of the test equipment.

I've recently started to use the wire rack (cheap stuff with adjustable height every 1" for the racks). I have 2 shelves and put the power supply, electronic load, bench meter at the bottom. Then scope, DSA in the middle shelf. Top has ARB function gen another power supply and some small less often used equipment on the top. Other equipment and hand tools to the right (i.e. the bench is in a corner). That leaves about 2/3 of the bench free for a desktop PC and some often used component drawers.

I just put a sheet of cardboard on the racks as needed for any equipment that does not want to sit nice & flat. I like the rack since it's easy to fish cables and also get to the back of units as needed versus enclosed shelves. Easy to adjust and it's not tied into the wall.

Picture of my setup below.

cheers,
george.

[danny_isr]

yes you probably right, eye level for the scope makes sense.
nice setup.

[johnny_canuck]

I've always built my bench-tops at 29" from the floor (the usual table and desk height). The shelf is 12 1/2" above that. That puts everything on the shelf (scope, frequency counter etc.) nicely within my field of vision without having to crane my neck. I'm about 5' 10" tall and wear bi-focals.

Ken, VE3FIT

[danny_isr]

yes I forgot to mention, I have "the vision" problem as well. Having equipment far will make it a problem for me.
I am waiting for the Rigol 1054z, and from my understanding some of the fonts are really small. A shelf that relatively closer would help.
thanks for the measurements.

thanks Dan

[rdl]

Home Depot has the same type of adjustable shelf system as nctnico linked to in post #2. It's what I have. I recommend to get the double wide slotted type, they're a lot more sturdy than the single slot type.

Be sure you get the verticals screwed solidly into studs and don't skip any studs if you decide to buy the laminated shelfs they sell ("Rubbermaid" brand). If you have too much space between the supports those shelves will sag badly with very little weight.

[G0HZU]

I made my own shelves and they attach to the bench/desks in a similar way to the Ikea example. Only mine are much more solid in construction and can take much more weight.

I really didn't want to drill holes and fit wall shelves because experience has taught me that I reorganise my work area quite often and keeping the shelves with the worktop really helps here. Also, I can add a mini sub shelf for things like a little bench DMM or small PSU.  My woodworking skills are very limited but the shelves have proved to be very solid.

In my case the shelf height varies and I have split the height of the first shelf in two cases. This allows a large monitor on one side but a much lower sub shelf on the other.

A typical height for the first shelf is 35cm in my case.

[GreyWoolfe]

You would have been better off building a bench.  When I built mine, I added 4 vertical 2X4s with adjustable brackets.  I got the singles, should have spent the extra and got the double wide.  The most used stuff is eye level.  I have vision issues also.  I wasn't thinking much when I built my bench 34" deep with 12" shelves.  It does leave me plenty of room for working on company equipment, the extra depth is useful to keep the equipment away from the test equipment.  In retrospect, I probably could have gotten away with 30" table top.  I like that everything is movable, nothing bolted into the wall, so if I decided to rearrange the space, nothing comes off the walls.  Besides, the walls are for important stuff; certificates, ham radio plaques and cases for my die cast car collection

[jlmoon]

In my environment I have a 34 inch high work surface and 18 1/2 inches above that is my first equipment shelf. 2x4's.  I sit on a 25 inch high stool with back rest.  Perfect compromise for both sitting and standing up

[rdl]

One other thing, instead of attaching the shelves to the supports with screws I just put a couple of pea-sized blobs of hot glue on each support (on the top at the back and front), then just set the shelf down on it. With a little weight on the shelf it presses down onto the glue blob and "kind of" sticks. It's enough to keep it from sliding around but easy enough to pop it loose if you need to move for any reason.

[Neganur]

My lab bench is one of those Galant/Bekant workstation desks and I placed an IVAR shelf system on top of the desk arrangement (120 cm high, 30 cm shelves, the desk itself is err 90 cm high I think)
Most bench instruments are too long for 30 cm shelves (it seems Dave's are 45 cm, juuust enough) so I place most of them into the corner shelf element of the IVAR system (56x56x30 cm) which unfortunately is a little too narrow to hold 19" rack sized panels (they have to hide behind the frame) but the depth is quite alright. Things like the HP 3478A or an HP 8648 sig gen fit nicely.
The advantage is, nothing is attached to the wall and most of the elements can be moved to a different height. The upper and mid sections are permanently attached with screws for structural integrity.

For more bulky stuff like system power supplies, which I don't need all the time, I wanted a scope cart kind of thing and found a kitchen cart to be ideal. It is very sturdy and has wheels to easily move it near the desk.

Might have a photo of an early stage of the desk somewhere still

EDIT: attached photos

[danny_isr]

Well I did not build it myself because of lake of time.
This table actually works well in this room, and was relatively cheap.
Just got the esd mats today.

[rdl]

That'll work. It looks a lot like what I had before I took them down and switched to the adjustable type.

[LaurentR]

I use a free-standing wireshelf-like setup except use use plain shelves. You get the inch-adjustability of the wireshelves and solid shelves at the same time. I strapped mine to the wall for safety. The shelves/posts I use are InterMetro. Great quality:
http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10008150&N=&Ntt=solid+shelves

Because of the depth of the DP832, I ended up putting all my bench equipment on the side and use the back wall for a PC monitor and various tools/bins.

[Psi]

My equipment shelving starts at the desk height itself, but my desk is very deep.

Desk is 750mm from ground
The shelves have 200mm spacing.

[danny_isr]

Got today two shelfs (15" 3/4 deep).
Not sure if i like it yet, i mean the table itself is only 23.5" deep. I had to move the table away from the wall a bit to have more room.
This PSU is just too deep  i'm considering getting smaller shelf, but i am not sure it will help much. The PSU and my bench combo isn't ideal.

Distance between the shelfs is 32cm, and i like the fact i can adjust them.

[Corporate666]

My desk is 34" high - but I am quite tall so I like it that way.

I bought a workbench from Global Industrial.   I LOVE it.  Adjustable height, 3 feet deep, 8 feet long, and strong (can hold a few thousand pounds)

http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/work-benches/systems/adjustable-height/96-x-36-production-workbench-birch-butcher-block-square-edge-blue

I added in a couple of shelves and an 8 foot long power strip on the back with 16 outlets.  I love the bench so much I got another one for home.  Not cheap, but very good.

I have my shelves 22 inches above the desk - I have dual 27" LCD flat panels, and this just allows the monitors to be at a good height and the shelves to just clear them.  It does mean I am sometimes looking at the scope screen slightly off-level when I am crunched over working on a PCB, but it's not too bad. 

Word to the wise - use strong shelving!  I bought wire shelving @ Home Depot but I added extra vertical risers (4 instead of 2) because otherwise, the test equipment is so heavy it bends the shelves.  Wire shelving is good because wires and cables can run down through them.

I also got an LED panel light - it's very thin, less than 1/2" thick.  I mounted it on drawer slides and mounted that on the underside of my equipment shelf - so I can slide it forward and back and get the light in exactly the right spot.


It's a pretty sweet setup, IMO.  Sturdy, lots of room, my actual work area is completely free of crap but everything is within easy reach.

[Vgkid]

^^^ Those look like the bencehs we have at school, they are rather heavy.

[jlmoon]

In my environment I have a 34 inch high work surface and 18 1/2 inches above that is my first equipment shelf. 2x4's.  I sit on a 25 inch high stool with back rest.  Perfect compromise for both sitting and standing up

These are images of my lab bench during construction.

[DanielS]

My work surface is at 36" and my first shelf above that is at 8" and 8" deep. All my shelves are on rails so I can rearrange them whenever I want/need. I'm thinking of shifting that 8" shelf up and put a 6" deep shelf under it for my scopes to claw back 2" of extra unobstructed workbench. My surface is only 24" deep, so reclaiming even a lowly 2" near it should make a fair difference until I rebuild.