After a while, everyone's workbench starts to get cluttered with nests of cables, tools, and tiny components and more. Thankfully, there are a lot of products designed specifically for engineers and makers that help organize the loose parts and cables, and give your bench a tidy and professional appearance. Time spent searching for things will be cut down dramatically once everything has its own little compartment. Let's dive in!
Organizing Your Bench Giveaway
Prize
5 winners will each receive a Duratool storage cabinet, perfect for storing those tiny electronic components.
Questions:
In order to win, answer these questions:
- What are your most creative things that you've done to organize your bench? We'd like to hear successful ideas and not so successful ones (kind of like the toilet paper rolls in the pic above).
- Tell us what we've missed! There are a ton of great products for organizing your bench; what are your favorites?
Terms:
Post your answers as a comment below between 15th February 2022 and 20th March 2022.
Our favorite answers will be chosen by the element14 community team, and you will be shipped your prize (or local equivalent) free of charge.
Cable Management
Over the years, engineers and makers typically build large nests of cables. Without proper organization, this can make any kind of troubleshooting a nightmare. Walking barefoot or on your knees on cables gets a little annoying after a while.
Label Maker
The first step in organizing cables is labeling. It can be a pain to print a label when you just want to plug in and go, but it eliminates the time waste later when you need to trace each cable to figure where it goes.
Barcode Scanner
Many label makers can print barcodes. If you've got a lot of cables, a barcode scanner makes it one step easier to figure out what they are.
Wire Marker
If you have a bundle or a snake connecting instruments with multiple channels, wire markers are a great way to go.
Clip-in Cable Marker
Heat Shrinkable Wire Marker Sleeves
Brady Heat Shrinkable Wire Marker Sleeves
Cable Tie
Cable ties or zip ties are very handy; an inexpensive way to quickly bundle up unruly cables.
Cable Tie Tension Tool
Rather than doing it with your fingers, you can grab a cable tie tension tool. They cut and tighten in one press of the lever.
Twist Lock Cable Tie
Twist lock cable ties bundle your cables with a convenient twist. They're also reusable, though I guess zip ties are also reusable (as long as the new bundle is smaller than the last).
Multicomp Pro Twist Lock Cable Tie
Spiral Wrap
Spiral wraps make it easy to make a bundle out of a group of cables. This is something I've previously done using duct tape, which, of course, only <I>sounds</I> like a good idea.
Cable Reel Holder
Cable reels are easier to store and manage than coils lying on the floor. If you deal with a huge amount of cables, cable reels would make organization easier.
Multicomp Pro Cable Reel Holder
Cable Spool Rack
Most engineers and makers have to dig in their drawers to find the right cable spool; put them on a rack!
Jumper Assortment
Having a box that is divided into sections is so much easier than having all your jumpers in the same shoebox (along with loose resistors and capacitors).
Multicomp Pro Jumper Assortment
Component and Tool Storage
Speaking of resistors and capacitors, another source of of clutter is the large amount of tiny components lying around on every bench. Add surface mount components to that and we've got ourselves a serious problem!
Storage Cabinet
Every engineer or maker absolutely needs one (or twenty!) cabinet with several small compartments. This saves untold hours in reading resistors.
Duratool 30 Drawer Storage Cabinet
ESD Cabinet
For ESD sensitive components, an antistatic cabinet is required.
ESD Bags
With some of the more sensitive components, it might be worthwhile to have some ESD bags on hand.
Antistatic Foam
ICs should be plugged into foam for storage, because leads seem to magically bend themselves, even if they're by themselves in an empty drawer.
Portable Tool Case
Now onto our tools, because I've stepped on my pliers barefoot for the very last time! You've probably already got a cabinet for your tools, but a portable tool case is very handy for tools that you might need to carry around.
