Whats your Work-Bench/lab look like? Post some pictures of your Lab.

[dr_p]

No. I don't get it, is that a joke about me being messy?

[raymohi]

This is my working space

That looks like my desk when I start working on a project.

[FenderBender]

No. I don't get it, is that a joke about me being messy?

It's a Jim Williams reference. I'm not insulting you.

[Ed.Kloonk]

No. I don't get it, is that a joke about me being messy?

It's a Jim Williams reference. I'm not insulting you.

You're not the only one. A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.

Actually, I was planning on cleaning up my place today. Looking at some of the workbenches, I might settle for removing just the 'dead soldiers' on the bench. 

[george graves]

A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.

LOL  - but in all honesty - I think different people work in different ways.  But if that was true, I'm only partially sick.

[TerraHertz]

Here's mine: http://everist.org/pics/workshop/20121129_workshop.htm

There are other areas too, but they are far too messy to show.
Space - it's never enough.

Till recently most of that electronics area was still wedged full of building materials. Now I'm finally starting to get it set up for its original purpose. Very satisfying.

[robrenz]

Here's mine: http://everist.org/pics/workshop/20121129_workshop.htm

There are other areas too, but they are far too messy to show.
Space - it's never enough.

Till recently most of that electronics area was still wedged full of building materials. Now I'm finally starting to get it set up for its original purpose. Very satisfying.

Very nice!

[ftransform]

I found that using twist ties (wrapped around like a snake, not twisted, 300 for 1$) on test leads and PSU connections works wonders for workplace organization. Takes 2 seconds and prevents a tumbleweed from growing on your bench. Very nice if you use 2+ power supplies and multimeter on a breadboard. I got frustrated when I realize my o-scope probes were under a mound of wires.

I feel that cleaning my bench up kind of improves my performance. I get distracted from what I am doing so when I come back to it I can often have a new insight into the problem. maybe its just add

[Achilles]

Here's mine: http://everist.org/pics/workshop/20121129_workshop.htm

There are other areas too, but they are far too messy to show.
Space - it's never enough.

Till recently most of that electronics area was still wedged full of building materials. Now I'm finally starting to get it set up for its original purpose. Very satisfying.

....I like that one! A lot of space and tools you could need.
Looks pretty mechanics/EE mixed there https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/icon_smile_thumbsup.gif
For mechanics I have a place nearby where my brother also stores and used the stuff for automotive repairs and so on. My Electronics stuff mostly is in my backpack and stored in boxes, as I don't have the space for a dedicated workshop hear at my room and work in the field mostly.

[Fluxed Matter]

Here's mine: http://everist.org/pics/workshop/20121129_workshop.htm

There are other areas too, but they are far too messy to show.
Space - it's never enough.

Till recently most of that electronics area was still wedged full of building materials. Now I'm finally starting to get it set up for its original purpose. Very satisfying.

Is that a vacuum chamber sitting in the middle of your workshop?

[TerraHertz]

Is that a vacuum chamber sitting in the middle of your workshop?

Yeah. Currently under construction. That whole cluster of gear in the middle of the room, and the rack with the incomplete home-made tiled panels at the top, is all one project. It has a long way to go yet before it even holds a vacuum. Plus there's all the other gear to integrate. HP-IB, sigh... Oh God, Octal numbers. Why didn't Hex occur to those guys?

The purpose is to potter around with plasma. Various intended experiments related to 'Electric Universe' stuff, testing some ideas for possible plasma art constructions, etc. Perhaps a little dabbling in Fusors too, why not?

[T4P]

That explains why i see a tesla coil 

[TerraHertz]

That explains why i see a tesla coil 

But you don't! The thing with the metal donut and rings is a regulated DC supply. Internally it drives the primary of a HV Litz-wound transformer with a HF sine wave, then the secondary HV is fed into that stack - which is a push-pull diode-capacitor ladder. Plus one big high voltage sensing resistor.
Once the HV AC at the base punched through a 1cm thick perspex mounting plate where it feeds through the metal case!

Final output can be varied from zero up to 200KV *DC*, at 1 mA load.  Breakdown distance in air is about 30 to 40 cm at 200KV. Just a bit less than the donut to base distance. And yes, it does survive arc-over. Makes a very loud bang and a fat blue, momentary arc.  Demonstrating with a cable earthed the the base, and attached to an electrode on the end of a loooong insulating rod is a lot of fun. Interesting transient effects too - for instance with the earth cable having a loop on the ground, the current pulse punched through the insulation on the wire at the loop. It wanted to go the shortest way 'home', screw all that inductance in a few inches of wire loop.

So far, no one been zapped by it, but I think there'd be a good chance of dying if it did get you.

As it is I do not power it up inside the workshop, only outside and in very controlled circumstances. For use inside I will be constructing a stand for it, with a spherical or cylindrical Faraday cage around it. For safety of humans and cats, and to avoid EMP-killing other equipment. Considering it will be a few feet from stuff with input circuits that die if exposed to more than +/- 2V, it's going to have to be a really good Faraday cage, and no arc-overs ever allowed.

A wish I had a really big short-circuit rated impulse capacitor rated to 200KV. Could make a kick-arse can crusher. Though I think the neighbors would complain about all their electronics dying from the EMP.

[T4P]

Not a tesla coil then ...  Could pass off as one though  Beautiful bits of kits though

[Fluxed Matter]

The purpose is to potter around with plasma. Various intended experiments related to 'Electric Universe' stuff, testing some ideas for possible plasma art constructions, etc. Perhaps a little dabbling in Fusors too, why not?

Oh! I though you were making a process chamber to create your own ICs

[TerraHertz]

Oh! I though you were making a process chamber to create your own ICs

Hey, that's another good idea for a cover story!
Actually it was gifted to me by people who had built it to experiment with ion implantation. But only to produce pretty surface colors, not semiconductor junctions.

The result was the inside surface was a mess. In trying to clean it up I discovered that it's much harder to polish stainless steel than I'd expected. Especially inside a cylinder and when like an idiot you begin with far too coarse a grit.  Results were disappointing, but good enough I hope. I'll never be achieving very good vacuum in this chamber anyway, since it has rubber seals as opposed to copper seals. So the thing can't be baked out much.

[Martin.M]

Wow, Do not now what else to say, think I'm in love ith your lab 

thank you 

it`s more a domestic studio, to clean an old triple nickel is the work of a week, to repair him only some hours...

may be you can help me ! I have a little milli-Ohm-Meter from Philips NL and need some info and the application.
see http://www.wellenkino.de/philips1/
it may be rare, the serial No is 74. works correctly, but how to make the test wires? (= 4 wires teechnology)

About scopes: The old 585A there on the computer table is the No 15 made in Heerenveen, ser. = 700 015.
Now restorated, full working. A HiFi Fan will die when he see what I have plugged there... all 6dJ8 are swapped with nos CV2493 from Mullard.

Now I have a 535A on this table, a longer time restoration, there was missing parts. My second 535A ... 
Between Christmas and new year I have a highlight restoration here: 575 (Transistor Curve Tracer), R565 this is the greatfully 10MHz Dual Beam, and a second 555 (the triple Nickel scope, 1kW)

the christmas picture.


greetings
Martin

[PA4TIM]

If you have a dutch manual I can translate it. 3 options,
it is shielded 2 wire. The bnc outer shell must be connected to each other and to ground
3 wire, the bnc shells are connected and carry a guard voltage. So the one bnc sources and the other one senses. The cableshield guards the dut holder. But I think that is to modern for this meter. GR bridges use often 3 wire.
4 wire., the bnc shells could be connected but not always one sources current the other is sense.

Test: connect a currentmeter between source bnc center and the same bnc outer shell. If there is current you probably have a 4 wire source. If you apply a small current/voltage to the sense connector centre bnc and its outer shell and the meter reacts is will be 4 wires.
If not Connect the ampmeter between the centres of both bncs. if there is a current flow and the outer shells are at ground level the setup is shielded two wire. If the potential on the outershell of the sense bnc (and possible also the source) is equal to that of the centre source bnc it could be guarded three wire.
I think it will be shielded 2 wire.   

The 555 and 556 are great, in all ways, I have a 576 curvetracer
I have two 535A (one incomplete, the other stopped working), a 545B, 543B (both with the known HV transformer problem), a as new looking and working 547 with 14 different plugins, Also a 132 that I most times use for my 1S1, 1S2 or O plugin coupled to a 7603.

Next week I get a 99% working Fairchild 777, very rare scope, (and an old Philips GM scope an other 545B also with HV problem, but it was all or nothing. Those will be free to collect for someone who wants, I do not need them)  I can not find info about the 777

[Martin.M]

thank you 

No I have no papers from the Philips. See the link in my last posting for some pictures,
it works not with DC, there is a very small wave and a frequency selective Amplifier.
The both shildings must be seperate up to the test R. The left BNC is output, the right input.

I only want to know how the original test wires are made.

I have no S Plugin, so I have to trust my 7844 opt.78  for fast waves.

greetings
Martin

[PA4TIM]

I can not read the kabel. Icoma was the Industrial COmponents and MAterials department from Philips. Maybe you can find some more. There is a Dutch forum with some people that know a lot about old Philips stuff. Gloeidraad is it called.

[Martin.M]

Hartelijk dank voor de linkjes 

Martin

[slowtwitch]

Hello Folks, This is a great thread. I'm in awe looking at some of these workbenches that I have seen here. My problem was ... a too small workbench, actually, it wasn't that the table was to small....in reality,  I'm a slob and I needed more space for my stuff 

My main interest is learning about motor drives, such as ac and dc servo drives, as well as Vfd's. But, I'm also getting the bug to work on older radios and tube amps...we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, here is a couple shots of my just completed bench...



The areas with the cross members, under the table, are where the future drawer inserts will be installed.

It measures 16 feet long, with a 5 foot long "L" extension. It will really take some doing to keep it uncluttered.

and here is a shot of my test equipment. I bought the function generator and oscilloscope on Ebay really cheap. The power supplies and meters were acquired through out the many years of tinkering. It may not be the newest and greatest, but, it's all I need ....for now.



left to right.... HP 20 volt dc supply, SDI 50 volt dc supply, BK precision multimeter and function gen.  Gould 20mhz. scope. On top of it is my computer system, a Lenovo laptop. The clamp on meter on top of the table is an older Amprobe. My handheld meter is an older Sperry, but it works great. The stereo and time clock were headed for the dumpster, but, i gave them a new life 

Lastly, here is my what I like to work on.....



This is the back of my cnc lathe conversion.

and here is the front...

 

I do have a CNC mill, but, no recent picture of it. You may see a bit of it behind my newly built tool rack.



That's it for now. Hope to contribute more in the future.

take care

pete

[robrenz]

Welcome fellow machinist. nice looking shop.

[free_electron]

hmmm . i like the lcd wallmount idea.... gonna go look for something like that ...

[GK]

My wireless corner.