Cool Tools Bench Awards 2018

I am very impressed with your setup. Nicely done.

extremely well organized use of space.

Thank you, John. I really wanted to do it the right way, so I made sure the project was all firmly in mind before I did anything to avoid regrets. It's also simple, low-maintenance, and an intentional robust design in that it will support a lot more, for example, under-bench-mounted equipment, power supplies, another drawer, etc., if I decide I need more later. And we always need more later, right?

What amazes me these days is how much test equipment I've gotten rid of because, other than my meter, I use modules that interface with the laptop now instead. No more freq counter, oscillator generator, etc...all gone and lower electricity bill as well! Frankly, however, I wish I had better modules. I'm disabled and on a fixed income so...we do the best with that which we have to work with, I guess.

Funny, but I want to be able to replicate people in miniature with my 3D setup but I need to sit down and figure it all out when I get done with the other projects. Although I've got a solid electronic/computer/electromechanical background as well as a degree in multimedia art, I've never yet had the privilege to play with 3D. I'm pretty enthused and looking forward to it.

I live in Tucson, AZ.

Thanks again, John. Your kind words go a long way!

Hi Will,

That is a very well planned maker's space. Your years of experience are showing through all the nice amenities and hidden storage areas. I saw on TV the other day where they are scanning people and then producing miniature replicas of the person or family group. I suppose this is an extension of the technology that you were involved in. I really look forward to hearing more from you in the future. Are you located somewhere in the US?

John

OK, so its time to also show my bench.

I actually should call it ' work bench V3', since its my third one. The first I had when I was still in school. During university I basically stopped working on electronics-related stuff, and when I started again later on I just made some room on my regular computer table. But when my projects grew work got to complicated - anything I needed was too far away. So two years ago I renovated my study, and designed a new work space.

I took this photo while preparing some measurements for the RPi3B+ road test. The most important feature of this work bench is that anything I need is in arms length distance. So I can work whenever I want without needing to prepare the workspace. Soldering station, scope, DMM, power supply, tools and components are all directly reachable.

Since I had limited room, I build the bench by myself (using two table plates from IKEA) so it exactly fits the available space. One half is the part for my electronics projects, the other half is reserved for my computer.

I added a drawer underneath to hold all the hand tools and some DMMs, anything else is either in the shelf space above or the shelf to the right (not visible on the photos). Or its somewhere on the bench, its usually more messy...

But I'm a big fan of component boxes, they all a high packing density for most of the stuff. The only exception are semiconductors - I store them in anti-static bags in these yellow IKEA boxes, each bag labelled with whats inside. The boxes are then sorted by whats in there (e.g. anything power supply related, OpAmps, digital stuff or discretes such as diodes or transistors).

In case someone is wondering: the mug in the shelf read (in German): 'When dad cannot repair is, we are all screwed.' (and yes, it needs repair

The lights are lit for the cat when closed : ) but are controlled by the same switch that powers everything in that storage unit. I was wondering about using a microswitch, but in the end went with the simplest option (the lights are not very high power).

Hi Shabaz! My new lab - I love it - is in standby for some long time as I have moved recently to rhe Belgium for a kong tjme project .so, the new lab is the old lab as the new-new lab will be up by the first week of July. Anyway I have used led white lights in neon tubes form factor in Chinese bazaar for a couple of euros .

This will be the same solution I adopt here; there are "Accion" shops selling almost the same at the same price.

The idea of the leds inside of the drawers instead I will copy it, with an issue that can't be avoided, unfortunately: How is the light while the drawer is closed? Ahhhghhhh damn Schrodinger...  

Hi Enrico!

Your new lab looks really awesome. Sometimes it is possible to find low-cost LED lighting from Philips, Osram etc from ebay, and I used that for the shed actually. The drawers used some Osram modules. Since you're a photographer and you know about lighting, and it is really great seeing your lab come to life from the lighting perspective!

Hi Jon,

Hehe the last two projects I worked on were really just module-integration, so not much soldering going on . One was a toy robot arm connected to a Pi, which was a work project, and the other is a RF DDS generator home project which involves connecting up an mbed board to some existing RF boards. I'm hoping to take a few days off and sort out the shed..

The Hagen book is more theoretical, with less practical information compared to the other two. It briefly addresses a few topics not in the other books, like GPS and radar, but (since it was published in 2009) doesn't cover the recent mobile technologies. It's probably ideal for part of a uni course maybe.

The Bowick book is very practical, and worth every penny. It is a slim book and does miss out some major topics like mixers, but everything that it does cover is really well explained. It is ideal for a beginner, but is also useful as a practical reference. It is so useful I bought it twice (on Kindle and the paper copy).

The Sayre book I guess you're already familiar with, it too is a very nice practical book. A really good book is 'RF Circuit Design' by Richard Chi Hsi Li, what I like is that it covers some topics on PCB design for RF (the Sayre book only briefly addresses this) but that book is eye-wateringly expensive and I don't have a copy.

The Hobbit book is a classic as you say

Hi Rod,

Thanks! I was always short of mains sockets in the right place, but the IEC PDUs and about 3 mains strips around the room have finally solved that. Also in a few places there are C13 to UK mains socket adaptors, for the few bits of equipment (like radios) with non-C14 sockets.

It would definitely make it more appealing to visit IKEA if they had a workshop theme area! : )  They already have some cool ideas (like wireless charging in-desk) but tool storage ideas would be awesome, and I wish they had lighting techniques on display for intricate work.