suggestion for Lab Workbench accessories  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ashkan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 05:39:44 am
content: Hi All, Hope everyone is safe.I start making a new workbench and was wondering if you can share your ideas on needed accessories. here is the photo:I am gonna use Anti-Static Bench Matting (https://www.mektronics.com.au/premium-anti-static-bench-matting-textured-900mm-x-10m-blue.html).Any suggestion on other accessories, like organiser box, lighting, etc. is really appreciated.Thanks

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 06:28:41 am
content: Shelves... more shelves... no no even more than that... yep even more.You slowly find how valuable shelf space near the bench is as you accumulator more components, tools, test gear etc... The shelves help keep all of that within reach and keep the valuable bench surface from getting used as storage area.My own preference for test gear is that its raised on a shelf about 30cm off the bench. This helps the cables coming out of the test gear from getting in the way of things (Things like scope probes can stick out pretty far) and makes sure that you can easily reach buttons on the gear without the thing you are working on in front of it getting in the way. Sure the low shelf makes the workbench area under it less useful, but area that far away from you tends to be mostly useful as temporary storage anyway. Its also a good spot to stick some power outlets and a LED strip under it for some added close up lighting that gets most of the light onto the workbench rather than lost to the rest of the room, helps mitigate shadows from that back direction too.In terms of lighting the best kind are adjustable LED lights that emit with a very focused narrow angle. These can hang from a shelf and project a very bright focused light right onto what you are working on from far away, not being in the way or needing to put a ton of power into lighting to make the whole room ridiculously bright. A similar narrow angle gooseneck style light in the back can also be useful when working down deep inside some project, so you can adjust the gooseneck to shine right deep down a tight spot you are working in and really get a ton of light there without some ridiculously bright 100W LED in your face.Also if you enjoy test gear you might want to plan an area 19 inches wide and 60cm deep off to the side of the workbench somewhere. Lots of cheap, old, but still very capable test gear selling on the used markets is that big.

author: ChristofferB
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 08:07:17 am
content: I'd go one step further with the 19" test gear and build (or mount) an actual full depth 19" rack at the end of one table if you think you'll ever get gear like that. Being able to rack gear like that has made my life lenghts easier.Another thing, your shelving looks nice but put in the last screw in the mounting brackets! Its free shelf stability

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 08:47:14 am
content: Adjustable spacingtest lead rack, e.g.https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/test-lead-racks/6684597/

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 10:11:52 am
content: Above bench shelves *MUST* be able to support a high load without sagging or tipping. I'd be concerned that those brackets don't have corner braces. If they start bending they'll dump all your expensive test gear onto you, the bench or floor!Seehttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/lab-storage-shelf-collapse-postmortem/

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 10:17:25 am
content: Instant impressions ... weak shelves, too shallow and lack adjustability distance between shelves, that spells trouble once stuffs starting to pile up.Also consider to use strong bracket such like this example, not just plain L bar.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2020, 11:44:15 pm
content: Those L brackets are going to fold down under any kind of weight. Been there, done that. See if you can find somewhere selling the dual row slotted shelf standards and folded steel brackets. In my opinion this is one of the best solutions for strength and adjustability.(click for bigger)

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2020, 07:03:08 am
content: Quote from: rdl on August 28, 2020, 11:44:15 pmWhat he saidI use the same sort of adjustable adjustable shelf rails in my lab and they are great. They are very convenient in making it easy to set up the shelves however you want and easily change them later on to suit the needs, easily add more shelves, they look nice, hold plenty of weight, can support pretty deep shelves (This is a requirement for test gear). The whole thing is also easy to install since you screw the rails and supports all separately and in the end just slot in the shelves.As long as you find ones that are made of nice thick metal they are impresibely strong. Just one of those shelf brackets will hold your body weight. Tho the rails do need to be screwed in all along the length to get the maximum weight carrying capability since just putting a screw in the ends will make them bend under heavy load.Tho i still have a dedicated thick shelf 20cm above the bench (supported by the bench) for holding test gear. There is quite a bit of large gear on it and some of it is very heavy so i thought id beef it up. Total overkill in the end but hey it works for me.

author: SparkyFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2020, 10:10:46 am
content: Quote from: ashkan on August 28, 2020, 05:39:44 amRetractable key holders make retractable multimeter leads.LED Spotlights over the workbench give a good worklight.I also happen to have my soldering station and desoldering station on an old monitor arm, so i can push it out of the way when not needed. And i can put a makeshift solder fume blowing fan under it with magnets.

author: RenThraysk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2020, 10:44:02 am
content: One of things have been considering is putting a photography LED light, a Viltrox L116T, on an arm.

author: ashkan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 30, 2020, 01:42:13 am
content: Thank you all.I think the obvious mistake here is the height of the first shelf. i will have issue to reach the buttons of equipment!I can not have the shelves on the wall. However, what rdl & Berni suggest seems to be a very good and flexible solution.The L brackets are pretty strong but what BravoV is suggesting is a good idea. I may change them.both spot light and something like what RenThraysk suggest is a must to have too.And definitely a cable organiserThank you all guys.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2020, 02:25:53 am
content: The shelf standards I used are less than an inch wide. They don't have to go on the wall. There's no reason you couldn't attach them to the front of your existing uprights in place of what you have now, and you'll be able to get supporting brackets suitable for the wood shelves you already have. Where I bought mine they had brackets in various sizes up to about 12" and they can handle shelves that several inches deeper.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2020, 07:02:27 am
content: Yep those rails can just as easily be screwed into those wooden supports behind your bench. I screwed mine into the wall because i had a nice solid brick wall behind it, so it can hold lots of weight and it saved me some work building supports. Makes the shelves rock solid with zero wobble, tho it does make them creek on occasion because the wood shelves grow/shrink slightly with seasonal humidity changes while the brick wall does not.That shelf is indeed too high for keeping equipment on it. Don't worry about making a shelf just above the bench, that bench looks like its 1m deep so don't worry too much about loosing some access to the back part of it. Also if it was meant to be an equipment shelf then it is rather narrow for the job. Sure it might fit the modern skinny scopes, but most other gear such as bench DMMs, lab PSUs, signal generators, frequency counters...etc are significantly deeper than that.For example these DMMs: HP 34401A is 35cm deep, Agilent 34461A is 30cm deep, Keithley 2015 is 35cm deepThe most compact bench PSU i have is the Agilent E3610A and its about the same size as a DMM while also being 30cm deep. The ever popular Rigol DP832 is 42cm deepFor this reason my own equipment shelf is 45cm deep. The vast majority of bench equipment (non rack mount) will fit on such a shelf with enough room for cables in the back, you can squeeze by with 30cm if you choose particularly short equipment, but anything less than that will only fit skinny scopes and soldering stations.As for the oldschool rachmount boatanchor kind of gear, don't bother trying to fit that on a shelf. Its just way too big and heavy for that. For that i would recommend buying an old used server rack and keeping the boatanchor test gear in there. Tho in Australia im guessing this sort of huge heavy gear is not so common due to US shipping. (It already costs a lot to ship to EU)

author: wizard69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2020, 07:15:57 pm
content: I have to agree with Ian here, it is the first thing I thought when looking at the attached picture.The depth of the shelves may also be a problem and the spacing above the bench and between the shelfs may also be an issue (hard to tell from a picture).Oh one more thing it might make a lot of sense to have space to place a large screen 4k display for your computing needs. Obviously that depends a bit upon your goals and approach to hardware but I'm thinking a work area here that is for repair, development and maybe a bit of Han radio.Quote from: Ian.M on August 28, 2020, 10:11:52 am

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2020, 08:58:27 pm
content: a firebrick in a tray (jewelers work surface) for small things that are best done with a torch, I recommend the hard firebrick, sold for around $4, with spray on liquid rubber covering 5/6 faces + rubber feet. Ceramic tile is too slippery to be useful, maybe teracotta.and, catalytic butane heater for teflon heat shrink (blows electricity out of the water), IMO blows a hot air system out of the water for small electronics applications. If I am doing a big box I work in the garage with a proper hot air gun, but still inadequate for teflon heat shrink.small precision machinists vise for dead bug work on bigger packages (i.e. doing a mounted to chassis to-220 with resistors and capacitors soldered on to it directly, i.e. voltage regulator). Feel like it has to be a good expenisve one though, using clips/panavise/etc for this suckssmall ESD mat cut out for soldering on, that you ground and put on top of your normal mat, so you can use good goopy flux without destroying a big expenisve ESD cover. You can put it on top of some kind of substrate, i.e. wood, with a small bezel, so it can be handled nicely (not floppy), like a micro picture framesmall wire rack for laying finished connectors on (think of the thing above your BBQ for heating bread), what its good for is if you do a coaxial connector that you solder the shield on. They will be hot when you are done, so you can lay the hot part on the wire rack and because of the geometry round things will get slightly wedged in there so they do not roll around and cause problems/injury, I mean to make a creative one with multiple wire spacing so it can handle SMA, BNC, and N-sized things. Needs to be a little heavy so it can resist the force of the cable laying on it (i.e. LMR400 cable). So you don't hang them off the side under a bookcleaning kit : organized kit with precut towels of various sizes and types, Q-tips, wooden sticks, etc. You can chop up some kitchen towels (I recommend a mixture of the premium shop absorbent towels and more abrasive cheap scrubby napkins). If you have a few sizes to choose from you can quickly choose the right size without having to tear corners of towels and make a mess. If its available you tend to use it rather then leaving small 'problems' for later in an attempt to economize on using a single towel. Very helpful if you are using glues, obviously pair with a small bottle of rubbing alcohol (i recommend you get a 250 ml bottle to refill from a big bottle of IPA)silicone mat : if you like to use the hot glue gun on the work benchsmall 'modular' work holder for pliers, I keep mine assorted as in an armory on a top shelf, but I will usually figure out what I need to use for a particular job and it comes down to only a few, so its useful to have a temporary holder for these thingsexacto tray, so you can lay a exacto blade in there safelysmall goose neck weighted lamp if you are working on something that ends up having annoying shadows (it should be well lit but you might find angles in a chassis that do not light well *battery powered obviously).typical lab bench : house with marble floor with no furniture in itanother one is a custom 'less safe' soldering iron tray, so you can lay down a soldering iron without aiming it into a hole every time, gets old with repeated work, but not have it lay on the ESD mat like people normally do when they get tiredI made this stuff so I don't know if they sell particular products for it, usually I find custom is more ergonomicblock of wood with a few holes in it for driver bits, a slot for a good machinists ruler (choose your favorite from the wiha storage box (you can't work from a bit box)small hand held battery powered vacuum cleaner (i.e. AA) for quick clean up of small wire cuttings (say you shave a ferrule), paired with some kind of quality tray for stripping wires over.Honestly though, I recommend a separate technician bench for as much of this as you can get away from the test equipment with. When it gets complicated/big enough, it starts to feel like having a kitchen inside of a garage.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2020, 06:40:37 pm
content: You don't need to (and I wouldn't) spend a lot of money. Prioritize spending on what you will use the most often and wait for bargains, repair, repurpose, diy rather than buying a bunch of cheap crap just to have it.Drawers for vertical or horizontal component, tool storage either in esd bags or plastic boxes stacked magazine style for easy removal. Drawers will need to be several inches deep with some clearance and on rollers if possible.The advantage of horizontal drawers is high density storage. Dual purpose and scalable plus you don't need a fleet of those wall hogging component plastic bins.Secondhand rack power distribution for your test equipment shelves. Managed is good so you can isolate power to the rear of test equipment without reaching in. Get to know someone who decommissions server racks.A vertical drawer at the end of the bench for lead and probe storage so your leads don't clutter up the place. A bench drawer or mini tool rack for commonly used small tools. If you have a lot of soldering cartridges and screwdrivers a small lazy susan is handy as well (a rotating circular stand).A reasonable sized flat screen display is quite handy smack in the middle of the bench. Generally though try to minimize bench equipment as space runs out fast and is better used as work space for projects rather than storage space. If you have a soldering station, hot air and magnification etc it's generally better to keep it to the side of the bench of your soldering hand so the cables are manageable.Make shelves more sturdy than they need to be.