Bench check (please share your setup)

I recently made a standing desk for my office/lab using a Seville Classics rolling workbench for a base, and a custom built surface on top of that. (would include a photo, but don’t have high enough status to do that yet)

As I have a number of projects going concurrently, it is handy to put stuff in drawers I’m not working on to keep workspace uncluttered.

Soldering: Metcal – love it
Scopes: Scope – Agilent MSO7104B – decent – I’ve had two channels on it go out though.
Power supply: BK Precision 9130, tripple output, really like it but fans are a little loud. BK Precision 1687 – lots of power and quiet most of the time.

  • Soldering
    Weller WMxxx (German, not US). Wouldn’t have anything else, and the hot tweezers are indispensable.
  • Low cost hot air pencil?
    Yes, some random Chinese one off Amazon, but it works fine.
  • Do you have any reflow equipment
    Electric skillet
  • DMMs
  • How many handheld DMMs? Which ones?
    Random assortment, including Smart Tweezers®, which are very handy.
  • Best resolution DMM on your bench?
    5 digits. The BK is great, the Rigol so-so. Also a Fluke from ebay I don’t use much.
  • Scopes
    Tek DPO2024B 200MHz, also just ordered a 500MHz 2-channel USB scope from Analog Arts, mostly for its phase meter, which I have need of.
    Also the DPO’s predecessor, a TDS2024 that doesn’t see much use anymore, and a LabNation SmartScope USB job that never gets used, but maybe someday when I’m traveling.
  • Do you feel your scope covers your needs sufficiently?
  • Yes
  • Power supply
  • Numerous DC supplies, but none programmable. All linear, even the 100A one :slight_smile:
  • I also have a programmable AC supply, iTech IT7321, which is really useful and recommended. Way better than a Variac.
  • Signal Generators
    Rigol DG1022A - Not extraordinary, but better than anything else at its price.
  • Spectrum Analyzers
    A couple of Rigol DSA815s
  • Misc
  • Joulescope!
  • DC - 1MHz Current Probe - Got this off AliExpress for $175 or so some years ago, and it’s a must-have.
  • Substitution Boxes - frowned on by ‘serious’ engineers, but I love 'em.
  • Pomona MiniGrabber clip leads. Can never have too many, accept no substitutes.

IMG_0667_600

Parts Storage

7 Likes

I detect a mad genius at work!! :crazy_face:

A few photos of my standing desk/workbench now that I have enough reputation to post photos :slight_smile:

Surface is just laminated 2x4’s:

1 Like

Not cleaned up :smile:

What is that gold annodized thing on your bench? Is it an ultrasonic welder?

@LukeBeno No, it is a DC motor with built in gearbox and encoder. It is used in a customer’s product for fluid dispensing – glue in electronics assembly is one application. I don’t have the full setup in my lab – just the pieces I need to do my work.

  • Soldering
    • Voltage controlled soldering iron?
      • Yes. Hako DASH (20 W), Hako FX-490 (battery powered)
    • Low cost hot air pencil?
      • No
    • Do you have any reflow equipment
      • No
  • DMMs
    • Fluke 74
    • Best resolution DMM on your bench?
      • N/A
  • Scopes
    • None.
    • What is the rated bandwidth of your most-used scope?
      • N/A
    • Do you feel your scope covers your needs sufficiently?
      • N/A
  • Power supply
    • Do you have a programmable bench power supply?
      • No. I have a little wall voltage regulator supply
    • How many outputs does it have?
      • N/A
  • Other Equipment
    • SparkFun Decade Resistor Box

Soldering

  • Temperature controlled soldering iron:

    • Hakko 926, purchased ~1991-1992 while in college. It was a big investment at the time for a college student, but I really wanted a nice iron.
  • Hot air tool:

  • Vacuum desoldering pump:

    • Anesty ZD-915 desoldering station. Clean the tool frequently - it’s prone to jamming if you aren’t careful or get sloppy with the cleaning. If you do manage to clog it up, you can carefully heat the chamber entry stem with a hot-air tool and salvage it.
  • Reflow equipment:

    • A toaster oven picked up at the Salvation Army store for under $10, paired with a thermocouple and multimeter that I picked up from Harbor Freight Tools for $20.

Optical

  • Amscope stereo microscope 7X-90X with ring-light. The scope is essential for working with small parts and tiny solder joints.
  • Head-mounted swappable-lens magnifiers. Convenient for when I need only moderate magnification.
  • Seek Thermal Compact XR thermal imager – great for seeing things heating up

Manual pick-and-place

  • ezPick manual pick-and-place tool – really speeds up manual builds of prototypes, especially if I am doing multiple boards at once. It makes it easy to pick up and drop off SMD components from the tape to the board.

DMMs

  • Handheld DMMs
    • An EEVBlog 121GW 4-4/5 digit DMM which I like for the high-voltage diode measurement, which is great for LED strings. A little noisy for low-current work and slow for continuity checks. The Bluetooth feature has been handy a few times.
    • Three RadioShack 4.5 digit DMMs. Before the 121GW, these were my “precision” units.
    • Five 11-function multimeters from HFT, one of which I usually use for the toaster oven. I gang these from time to time to take high-current measurements (like an LED illuminator that I was testing that needed 80A). Very basic, and perhaps of dubious quality. But given how cheap they were, I don’t mind strapping them semi-permanently onto a project as needed. Temperature function is a nice plus.
    • Handful of “free” meters from HFT. Because they are so cheap, I don’t hesitate giving them away when the need arises.
    • A no-frills SparkFun DMM that was included in a sponsored giveaway at Supercon. It’s my favorite for everyday use right now, as it’s lightweight, has a nice LCD, fast for continuity checks and runs forever on battery.
  • Best resolution DMM on your bench?
    • I had a Keithly rack-mount that was great – but it’s aged out and no longer stable. It was nice when it was working, especially because it had a kelvin measurement mode.

Scopes

  • Rigol 1054Z 4 channel, with the “unlock” to get them to 100 MHz bandwidth. It’s ok for most of the routine things I need.
  • I used to have bigger “heavy chassis” equipment, but they were mostly getting in the way.

Power supply

Hand tools

  • Lots of random tools accumulated over decades, of course, but I want to give a few special shout-outs:
    • the iFixIt Pro toolkit – it’s one of those “changeable bits” tool kits, but with a nice collection of bits and a good carrying case. It feels nice.
    • Tin snips - great for cutting down PCBs.

hi @hedrickbt - how do you find the DSO Nano v3?

I am rebuilding my work bench at home using the very limited space left over! I have been hoping the CE AD2 deal comes back in ( Analog Discovery 2 (AD2) Bundle no longer available? ) but the downside there is the need for a PC for screen - for simplicity i am looking at a small portable scope to fill the void - so i can probe in-situ rather than moving back and forth between desks.

(If its possible, i will plan to have AD2 on my desk as well as i understand it’s more capable)

would be great to have a miniature logic analyze/DSO the size of the Nano… but i’ll take what i can get!

Another thing that really helps with lab organization are Sandusky Value Line 72" Welded Steel Storage Cabinet with 4 Shelves from Staples:

https://www.staples.com/Sandusky-Standard-Storage-Cabinet-Putty/product_449959

Very reasonably priced and plenty sturdy for electronics stuff. Also Staples delivers for free (or at least they used to).

I print labels for everything in the cabinet and make sure labels are facing out – makes it super easy to store and find lots of stuff. Got this idea from Bob Pease (can’t find the original article).

Here is what it looks like:

image

Thanks for sharing setups! Very interesting to see what tool ppl perfer! My home desk surves a dual purpose during Covid. Since I lecture Embedded Systems at an Oslo uni, I do streaming lectures from home (once or twice a week), so here’s my setup for a streaming day. I basically move ongoing projects off the desk, so this forces me to clean my desk often. I did a writeup on the streaming setup here.

Normally I’m consulting for customer projects and below is how my desk has been looking lately. Before the customer has a working machine I’ll usually make one of these prototypes containing all the electronics, actuators & sensors, bolted together with blue Makeblock beams. Most of my electronics gear is behind the prototype, but all the hand tools and cables I’ll need are on the back wall of the desk.

  • Soldering
    • Voltage controlled soldering iron?
      • Combined unit, a Yihua 853D that also has a hot air pencil. Not fancy, but the soldering iron is solid and I can also do basic reflow using the Hot Air pencil.
  • DMMs
    • Fluke 116
  • Scopes
    • Siglent SDS2104x
    • Jinhan JDS6052S (Handheld)
    • What is the rated bandwidth of your most-used scope?
      • 100Mhz
    • Do you feel your scope covers your needs sufficiently?
      • Currently, yes.
  • Power supply
    • Do you have a programmable bench power supply?
      • Welleman LABPS3005DN
    • How many outputs does it have?
      • 1, but I could totally use one more output
  • Other Equipment
    • ET5304 electronic load
    • Siglent SSA3021X Spectrum Analyzer
    • Eakins 37MP 1080p microscope

I also have an office at Oslo’s largest hackerspace where I have access to a host of great tools, but I currently primarily work from home due to restrictions. I’ll likely get a higher prcision desktop DMM soon, but the Fluke does the job well enough for now.

2 Likes

The inlayed monitor is a nice touch. Cool. I like the “quick draw” hot air clasp idea.

quick_draw

1 Like

everyone seems to have such neat benches, all lots of interesting stuff. mine looks like a bomb hit it and then a bunch of messy people looking for something they couldn’t find it passed through.

i did just start using the ikea cube type storage recently and that is helping, though there is basically no hope for me otherwise, switching from 2d working to 3d is basically all i have left.

my neighbours think we’re nuts.

Wow. I think that makeblock beam idea is what I’ve been searching for. Do you just buy them piece by piece, or could you recommend a starter kit?

1 Like

My bench is neat right now, but normally looks like a bomb exploded. It’s neat due to work for a client involving HV stuff, so no room for errors

My storage is reasonable sorted, but not perfect. I keep stuff I gathered 10 years ago, thinking I would need it some day. I got a lot of 600V 30mohm FETs that is super expensive from a former employment where they just threw it out. One day I will maybe make a super efficient offline SMPS and get to use them…

In 6 months I will be moving to a new house and will get a lab designed for my work. So instead of 6 square meters, I get 20 square meters, so I will be drawing up the perfect combination of PC work station, soldering and lab bench, CNC bench and storage

Mine would look terrible if it wasn’t for the lectures that force me to clean up. I could post a picture of the one at my office, as that’s quite messy :stuck_out_tongue:

@rclott I’ve bought most of my Makeblock parts many years ago when they had a working webshop with lots of parts. These days, they’ve reduced the scope of the product to only be kits for kids. It used to be more than 400 parts including pneumatics, chain drives and much more, but now you can only get those basic kits. Due to that, I don’t think I can recommend Makeblock any more? It used to be fantastic, but they didn’t quite understand that they were sitting on a gold mine. It’s the perfect solution for STE(A)M activities in schools.

Now I’d maybe just use 20x20 aluminium extrusions? It’s cheaper and currently has more parts. https://ooznest.co.uk has a good selection. They’re in the UK, but you can find the same parts at Misumi and other vendors.

1 Like

yeah i started off with good intentions and the things just spiraled people told me to plan out ahead of time and 3d model it up. it is good advice if you already have the gear or know what you’re going to get but mines just evolved over time. luckily my partner has been good at keeping me out of the house so i only infected one room outside the workshop, and the little summer room out back heh. but yeah looking around me its overwhelming chaos, i spent a couple of days cleaning up last week and you wouldn’t know :slight_smile:

i should share a picture of it as a cautionary tale.

My bench is never clean. I sometimes go on a cleaning bender but you would never know from looking at it! I am toying with the idea of putting my scope, power supply, lab PC/Monitor/KBD and tool set on swing arms so they can be moved in and out as needed. The idea is to lift them up and leave the bench space clear for the project at hand. They all take up too much space as it is

Here is my bench:

General equipment:
Amscope trinocular microscope
2 Pace ST50 Soldering irons
Hot air and wand board heater
I am working on my part placement tools and techniques with the vacuum pump on the bench as a gradual enhancement of my assembly capability.

DVMs: two 2.5 digit meters and a clamp-on ammeter DVM. All low-end models. They are sufficient for my needs.

Three variable power supplies, two with digital readouts. Including some home build supplies, 11 outputs.

Test equipment:
Rigol MSO1104 100 MHz mixed signal scope. --=meets all my needs
Rigol DSA832E 3GHz spectrum analyzer.
Nano-VNA 3 GHz model
WindFreaks USB 6 GHz signal source
Slowing growing collection of low-cost antennas for radiated measurements

The latest addition is the small DIY Faraday cage in the upper right. Significant workshop reorganization was required to make space for it. This necessitated the purchase of a rolling tool chest for storage.

My whole workshop is 8x9 feet with an adjacent 3-foot walkway to the garage. The walkway must be kept clear! I also have access to the garage for radiated signal measurements when my wife’s car is not in the garage.

Cleanup occurs when critical mess is reached. – That is a fuzzy combination of state of disarray, current project needs and my mental state at the time!

1 Like