Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

Aluminum channel, great idea but i'm aiming for solid wood.

Yes, construction is important BUT trying to find a straight pine board is next to impossible. I'm looking at it in the light of the stabler the better because what i need is a pair of 90" beams supported for the first 26 inches then not at all. Thus allowing me to build what i want, IE heavy duty shelves above the work bench.

Besides the above points, who said i needed hardwood? It is more a matter of "What could look more impressive than a hardwood beam?". Personal preference really, but to use the pine which i have here i'd need to manufacture it from smaller boards which would work but i could also get a solid beam of whatever and some thinner boards to use as edge banding to match. Make it look better than a "whatever crap i got lying around" mentality.

EDIT; to ponder
I could get a beam of whatever looks pretty, pay to have it straight when i buy it and then finish it to reduce the ease of humidity changes.

[mnementh]

His store motto is "From my basement to yours: If you don't need it, I HAVE IT!!!" I wanna support him just for THAT! 

I am like that....  far too much for my own health.

There... fixed that for you. 

Excellent repair job there med6753, I have never thought about using IPA as a switch/contact cleaner before. Can you buy it already in a aerosol format or do you have transfer it into one of those squeezy bottles? 

Nope, bought a MG Chemicals 945mL 99.9% IPA bottle from Amazon and poured some into a standard cleaner spray bottle. It works great! 

I've been using IPA and Denatured Alcohol in a small spray bottle (depending on application) as my preferred contact cleaner since Ronald Reagan was just an old cowboy. For cleaning fascia and cabinetry, I'll switch between denatured alcohol and 50% rubbing alcohol; the combination of alcohol and water gets a lot of things alcohol alone won't, as some things are water-soluble but not alcohol-soluble.

On low frequency stuff, particularly pots, I find that food grade silicone spray like CRC# 03040 works magic. The carrier is alcohol, so while wet it has good cleansing properties; yet the dry film lubricant helps free up gummy shafts and make them turn smoothly again. You CAN use it on RF stuff, but it's a trial & error thing; old analog TV tuners loved the stuff back in the day, but it's almost impossible to get most rotary encoders to dry out enough that it doesn't screw them up.

24 hours on them with a full 4 hour run / stop 50% duty cycle. I’ve seen them pack in after a couple of days.

Usual failures in this cycle are the fan motor, primary filter caps, bridge rectifiers, random tants and the little wet tantalum cap near the bottom of the interface board.

Back in the day I used to sell recycled electronics; when CRT TVs, cd players, stereo receivers and VCRs were still worth the trouble of fixing.
Run it all day they I fix it, turn it off overnight. Run all day the next day while I'm working on stuff, turn it off over lunch so I can have some peace & quiet while I eat and take my power nap. Run til end of day. Anything that still worked next day went to the storefront.

Just wanted to pass on a smaller fleaBay find... this is apparently a fellow tinkerer who has hooked up with some local equipment scrappers to make some TEA money.

This fellow, member n2cbu has high ratings, lots of interesting stuff, and is not only willing to combine shipping, he has his storefront set up to automatically do so.  This parts list has $24.49 worth of shipping by individual part; essentially a very reasonable $3.50-ish/item minimum. That all combined down to a Net shipping cost of $4.24.

His store motto is "From my basement to yours: If you don't need it, I HAVE IT!!!" I wanna support him just for THAT! 

I bought 2 of the 100ohm 0.1% resistors and one 25-ct strip of the 5315ohm 0.1% resistors. I intend to put them all on a breadboard and make a ladder strip with double rows of 0.100" pins & jumpers so by putting in series or parallel I can make a very good, very cheap scalar resistance array that should have values pretty much in the middle of every range up to 500000 ohms.

Cheers,

mnem
*Pretty good at making bad decisions*

I bought a few items from him and actually posted about it before. My items unfortunately came with issues which should have been noticeable before shipping. He also tends to remove the serial stickers from devices, which I really don't like. The response to the issues was adequate though, and communication and packaging is good. It's certainly not a scammer and he does seem to care about providing a good service.

Having worked with OEMs, I can tell you that a lot of stuff sold for scrap has the serials removed prior to sale to take the product out of the warranty loop. The MFR doesn't want to sell a product to a scrapper, then have it come back through the retail supply chain under warranty. I ran a lot of that as well when working with an e-cycling company in San Antonio; equipment that had been depreciated to zero value often had serials removed before we got it.

Of course, it's entirely possible this fellow augments his own supply chain with dumpster-diving. 

mnem
Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Specmaster]

Personally if it was my bench, regardless of what it was made out of, I'd definitely reduce the huge boat anchor loading on the top shelf. That in itself is either an accident waiting to happen when either stacking or removing any one of those boat anchors and also a possible hernia, slipped disc etc into the bargain lifting that kind of weight that height.

I would only be putting something like HP34401A's or similar up at that level, not just on the grounds of weight and personal safety on the times when you need to alter them around etc. but from a purely ergonomic view point. Also of course, things like that need to be at an easy to view level and your sitting at the bench they are not easy to view, they would and will as you get older become a point of severe aggravation, especially if you get a stiff neck from time to time.

[mnementh]

Aluminum channel, great idea but i'm aiming for solid wood.

Yes, construction is important BUT trying to find a straight pine board is next to impossible. I'm looking at it in the light of the stabler the better because what i need is a pair of 90" beams supported for the first 26 inches then not at all. Thus allowing me to build what i want, IE heavy duty shelves above the work bench.

Besides the above points, who said i needed hardwood? It is more a matter of "What could look more impressive than a hardwood beam?". Personal preference really, but to use the pine which i have here i'd need to manufacture it from smaller boards which would work but i could also get a solid beam of whatever and some thinner boards to use as edge banding to match. Make it look better than a "whatever crap i got lying around" mentality.

EDIT; to ponder
I could get a beam of whatever looks pretty, pay to have it straight when i buy it and then finish it to reduce the ease of humidity changes.

You can still buy 2x8s that are flat enough to make a tabletop and shelves at your local homeowner hell, for Ifni's sake. You just have to take a little time looking. Drop 3/8 masonite on top, or an acrylic floor thing for wheelie chairs and you're golden.

FFS, this a BENCH to WORK on... not the desk in the Oval Office. 


mnem
That reality check just bounced.

[neo]

Personally if it was my bench, regardless of what it was made out of, I'd definitely reduce the huge boat anchor loading on the top shelf. That in itself is either an accident waiting to happen when either stacking or removing any one of those boat anchors and also a possible hernia, slipped disc etc into the bargain lifting that kind of weight that height.

I would only be putting something like HP34401A's or similar up at that level, not just on the grounds of weight and personal safety on the times when you need to alter them around etc. but from a purely ergonomic view point. Also of course, things like that need to be at an easy to view level and your sitting at the bench they are not easy to view, they would and will as you get older become a point of severe aggravation, especially if you get a stiff neck from time to time.

I was actually thinking of having the beams be just shy of ceiling height so that for something like my tektronix 7704a i could make a mount to hold it at an angle facing down towards the workbench. Like Mr.Carlsons ceiling mounted scopes, for example. Besides that there is always the possibility of using the beams to give me a monitor mount or whatever else really. If all i was interested in was a shelf then i'd be fine with 60" posts.

As far as selection for the post go if the T.R. ratio is #1 as i suspected then my choices are
https://www.wood-database.com/mockernut-hickory/
https://www.wood-database.com/black-locust/
https://www.wood-database.com/yellow-birch/
https://www.wood-database.com/slash-pine/
of which the top two are my favorites, who knows what i'll get. All depends on availability

[neo]

Aluminum channel, great idea but i'm aiming for solid wood.

Yes, construction is important BUT trying to find a straight pine board is next to impossible. I'm looking at it in the light of the stabler the better because what i need is a pair of 90" beams supported for the first 26 inches then not at all. Thus allowing me to build what i want, IE heavy duty shelves above the work bench.

Besides the above points, who said i needed hardwood? It is more a matter of "What could look more impressive than a hardwood beam?". Personal preference really, but to use the pine which i have here i'd need to manufacture it from smaller boards which would work but i could also get a solid beam of whatever and some thinner boards to use as edge banding to match. Make it look better than a "whatever crap i got lying around" mentality.

EDIT; to ponder
I could get a beam of whatever looks pretty, pay to have it straight when i buy it and then finish it to reduce the ease of humidity changes.

You can still buy 2x8s that are flat enough to make a tabletop and shelves at your local homeowner hell, for Ifni's sake. You just have to take a little time looking. Drop 3/8 masonite on top, or an acrylic floor thing for wheelie chairs and you're golden.

FFS, this a BENCH to WORK on... not the desk in the Oval Office. 


mnem
That reality check just bounced.

The work surface is not an issue, i got that figured out with pine from homeowner hell. The issue is decent beams for the rear posts which are, shall we say, special use.

[Cerebus]

I've been using IPA and Denatured Alcohol in a small spray bottle (depending on application) as my preferred contact cleaner since Ronald Reagan was just an old cowboy. For cleaning fascia and cabinetry, I'll switch between denatured alcohol and 50% rubbing alcohol; the combination of alcohol and water gets a lot of things alcohol alone won't, as some things are water-soluble but not alcohol-soluble.

The optimum mixture, from a bug-killing perspective, of alcohol and water is 70% alcohol. Consequently my general purpose cleaning spray bottle has 70% isopropanol and 30% deionised water it in which means it does triple duty as sterilising solution, cleaning solution for things that are soluble in non-polar solvents, and things that are soluble in polar solvents. I also find that the lower water content makes it a better match to things that might be better handled without getting two wet such as painted-over wallpaper. Deionised water so that it won't leave a reside if left to dry by evaporation.

[Specmaster]

Personally if it was my bench, regardless of what it was made out of, I'd definitely reduce the huge boat anchor loading on the top shelf. That in itself is either an accident waiting to happen when either stacking or removing any one of those boat anchors and also a possible hernia, slipped disc etc into the bargain lifting that kind of weight that height.

I would only be putting something like HP34401A's or similar up at that level, not just on the grounds of weight and personal safety on the times when you need to alter them around etc. but from a purely ergonomic view point. Also of course, things like that need to be at an easy to view level and your sitting at the bench they are not easy to view, they would and will as you get older become a point of severe aggravation, especially if you get a stiff neck from time to time.

I was actually thinking of having the beams be just shy of ceiling height so that for something like my tektronix 7704a i could make a mount to hold it at an angle facing down towards the workbench. Like Mr.Carlsons ceiling mounted scopes, for example. Besides that there is always the possibility of using the beams to give me a monitor mount or whatever else really. If all i was interested in was a shelf then i'd be fine with 60" posts.

That's fine, but I was actually referring to bench that URI has and the massive boat anchors he has above his head, I have shelves above my bench but they are not used for holding anything TEA related so I don't have to keep looking up all the time, I keep things like models etc on them. As you can from this photo, my stuff is all within my field of vision and below the lower monitor shelf of my desk/bench where the storage bin and NAS drives can be seen, now resides my Tektronic TDS210 scope and my larger Fluke PM3390B is to my left besides me which does not get used as much these days unless its extra oomph.

[bd139]

Looking good 

Just got the Heathkit AC voltmeter power supply finished of finally. Whole thing appears to work nicely now. Log amp works in it. Unfortunately it's got a big hole in the front panel where the old neon indicator was at the moment. Need a solution for that as I can't find any that are suitable. The usual supply of cheap ones has dried up.    .... D83s on the fix list again now until I find a suitable indicator 

Edit: Also have decided I'm on a major downsizing effort so I'm getting rid of a large amount of stuff still. I may actually get close to zero items. Plan is to get down to one PL supply, the DG1022Z, TDS210, FT-818, BM867S, Metcal and PC and that's it. I need to focus on some projects for a bit instead of collecting stuff that needs fixing. This is a temporary thing I assure you

[Cubdriver]

ballantine?  my old man drank their beer up until they stopped brewing the swill.

I want it, BUT...…….my hp counters might revolt.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ballantine-Laboratories-Digital-Frequency-Counter-Model-5700A/183383140011?hash=item2ab27ca6ab:g:dEUAAOSwcWpbdfqG

LOL - that's sorely tempting.     Must resist - I have too damned much stuff now!!

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Looking good 

Just got the Heathkit AC voltmeter power supply finished of finally. Whole thing appears to work nicely now. Log amp works in it. Unfortunately it's got a big hole in the front panel where the old neon indicator was at the moment. Need a solution for that as I can't find any that are suitable. The usual supply of cheap ones has dried up.    .... D83s on the fix list again now until I find a suitable indicator 

Edit: Also have decided I'm on a major downsizing effort so I'm getting rid of a large amount of stuff still. I may actually get close to zero items. Plan is to get down to one PL supply, the DG1022Z, TDS210, FT-818, BM867S, Metcal and PC and that's it. I need to focus on some projects for a bit instead of collecting stuff that needs fixing. This is a temporary thing I assure you

I can't believe what I've just read, really? Hmm lets wait and see 

[bd139]

I will still have a significant kit turnover, just less hanging around in the meantime ... still got to fund myself.

I actually also sat down last night and wrote a list of projects and worked out how much time I have to do them in and decided that I need to prioritise a bit which is what has kicked this off. You can't do everything, so do all the cool things first.

One of the things is I don't want to hang around in the IT industry any longer because, let's face, it sucks donkey balls even though the cash is ok. Thus project number one on the table is a marketable item with enough turnover to pay the bills and bring in some self-reliance.

[Specmaster]

This could be interesting, a company/product being formed eh.

[bd139]

Yeah it will result in that. Been pissing around with ideas for a while and it's about time I actually finished one. Can bring a software product to market, so why the hell not a hardware one

May have TEA related applications too 

[Specmaster]

Sounds like you have given this a lot of thought and if it means you can give up the day job because it sucks and still pay the bills then why the hell not be your own boss, go for it I say 

[mnementh]

Aluminum channel, great idea but i'm aiming for solid wood.

Yes, construction is important BUT trying to find a straight pine board is next to impossible. I'm looking at it in the light of the stabler the better because what i need is a pair of 90" beams supported for the first 26 inches then not at all. Thus allowing me to build what i want, IE heavy duty shelves above the work bench.

Besides the above points, who said i needed hardwood? It is more a matter of "What could look more impressive than a hardwood beam?". Personal preference really, but to use the pine which i have here i'd need to manufacture it from smaller boards which would work but i could also get a solid beam of whatever and some thinner boards to use as edge banding to match. Make it look better than a "whatever crap i got lying around" mentality.

EDIT; to ponder
I could get a beam of whatever looks pretty, pay to have it straight when i buy it and then finish it to reduce the ease of humidity changes.

You can still buy 2x8s that are flat enough to make a tabletop and shelves at your local homeowner hell, for Ifni's sake. You just have to take a little time looking. Drop 3/8 masonite on top, or an acrylic floor thing for wheelie chairs and you're golden.

FFS, this a BENCH to WORK on... not the desk in the Oval Office. 


mnem
That reality check just bounced.

The work surface is not an issue, i got that figured out with pine from homeowner hell. The issue is decent beams for the rear posts which are, shall we say, special use.

Are you serious?

Fir or pine 2x8's will hold up a effing HOUSE... full of people, all their crap AND furniture.  They can damn well hold up a few hundred lbs of old test gear. If you're REALLY worried, screw two of them together for your uprights.  Quick, cheap, and strong. When you're done building, drown it all in urethane and write it off your bucket list. Get some perspective, man. Stop overthinking and start BUILDING. 

mnem
"Fire good, tree bad"... that's the level I'm operating on right now.

[med6753]

Aluminum channel, great idea but i'm aiming for solid wood.

Yes, construction is important BUT trying to find a straight pine board is next to impossible. I'm looking at it in the light of the stabler the better because what i need is a pair of 90" beams supported for the first 26 inches then not at all. Thus allowing me to build what i want, IE heavy duty shelves above the work bench.

Besides the above points, who said i needed hardwood? It is more a matter of "What could look more impressive than a hardwood beam?". Personal preference really, but to use the pine which i have here i'd need to manufacture it from smaller boards which would work but i could also get a solid beam of whatever and some thinner boards to use as edge banding to match. Make it look better than a "whatever crap i got lying around" mentality.

EDIT; to ponder
I could get a beam of whatever looks pretty, pay to have it straight when i buy it and then finish it to reduce the ease of humidity changes.

You can still buy 2x8s that are flat enough to make a tabletop and shelves at your local homeowner hell, for Ifni's sake. You just have to take a little time looking. Drop 3/8 masonite on top, or an acrylic floor thing for wheelie chairs and you're golden.

FFS, this a BENCH to WORK on... not the desk in the Oval Office. 


mnem
That reality check just bounced.

The work surface is not an issue, i got that figured out with pine from homeowner hell. The issue is decent beams for the rear posts which are, shall we say, special use.

Crappy #2 pine can make a decent work surface. This is my bench top built 20 years ago with the shit stuff. Lap joined and nailed to the plywood underlayment. Stained and then several coats of poly. It has held up to lots of abuse. If you look close you can see one seam has separated slightly but it's no big deal. I'm sure it's due more to my construction techniques more than anything else. So you should be OK with your choice.
   

[bd139]

I'd fuck up that pine in 30 seconds flat. My dining table has gashes and burn marks all over it

I've learned to work on cutting mats and cardboard cut out of boxes and use whatever surface is going.

[med6753]

I'd fuck up that pine in 30 seconds flat. My dining table has gashes and burn marks all over it

I've learned to work on cutting mats and cardboard cut out of boxes and use whatever surface is going.

Of course I have a mat over it to help protect the surface. 

[Specmaster]

My bench is just an old shitty MFI (before they went out of business) home desk with plastic veneer and its starting to show its age a bit with a few lumps and bumps appearing but I'm sure that it will last for quite a bit yet before I need to think replacing / repairing it.

[bd139]

Yeah same surface on mine. Ikea cheap shite. Have dinked some serious holes in it so far. Fortunately if you blob some araldite in them and leave it overnight it hides them pretty well 

[med6753]

Forgot to mention...my bench does not have "legs". It fully boxed on both sides and all the way across the back with 3/4 construction grade plywood bench top to floor. With cut outs for outlets, etc. It is plenty strong and ain't going no where. (And it's a bitch to move  )   

[nixiefreqq]

ballantine?  my old man drank their beer up until they stopped brewing the swill.

I want it, BUT...…….my hp counters might revolt.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ballantine-Laboratories-Digital-Frequency-Counter-Model-5700A/183383140011?hash=item2ab27ca6ab:g:dEUAAOSwcWpbdfqG

LOL - that's sorely tempting.     Must resist - I have too damned much stuff now!!

-Pat

you would be doing a good deed, and stop me jonesing for the damn ugly thing.

its got 9 (count 'em 9) digits.  none of my orange glowing hp units have 9.

come on man.....have pity.  buy it and stop me from going back to look again and again.

its making me itch all over!

[URI]

Personally if it was my bench, regardless of what it was made out of, I'd definitely reduce the huge boat anchor loading on the top shelf. That in itself is either an accident waiting to happen when either stacking or removing any one of those boat anchors and also a possible hernia, slipped disc etc into the bargain lifting that kind of weight that height.

I would only be putting something like HP34401A's or similar up at that level, not just on the grounds of weight and personal safety on the times when you need to alter them around etc. but from a purely ergonomic view point. Also of course, things like that need to be at an easy to view level and your sitting at the bench they are not easy to view, they would and will as you get older become a point of severe aggravation, especially if you get a stiff neck from time to time.

I was actually thinking of having the beams be just shy of ceiling height so that for something like my tektronix 7704a i could make a mount to hold it at an angle facing down towards the workbench. Like Mr.Carlsons ceiling mounted scopes, for example. Besides that there is always the possibility of using the beams to give me a monitor mount or whatever else really. If all i was interested in was a shelf then i'd be fine with 60" posts.

That's fine, but I was actually referring to bench that URI has and the massive boat anchors he has above his head, I have shelves above my bench but they are not used for holding anything TEA related so I don't have to keep looking up all the time, I keep things like models etc on them. As you can from this photo, my stuff is all within my field of vision and below the lower monitor shelf of my desk/bench where the storage bin and NAS drives can be seen, now resides my Tektronic TDS210 scope and my larger Fluke PM3390B is to my left besides me which does not get used as much these days unless its extra oomph.

I see your point, Specmaster, but I'm still young enough to lift my boat anchors up that top shelf.   
Plus I don't have enough space around my bench, so no problem on my side yet. So it grew to the ceiling. 

I also have a zone just in front of me sitting at my bench with instruments within the range of my arms:
My oscilloscope (Phillips PM 3065) resides directly on the tabletop, so do all my power supplies without GPIB and as exception from that rule (..GPIB) my 34401A.

Above that and under the top shelf I have two shelves where various instruments/tools reside that I use regularly;
Three weller solder stations, a desoldering station, DMMs (HP 3457A, Philips/Fluke PM2534 and PM2535), voltage/current calibrator Knick JS 3010 and my 4263A LCR meter -and used less regularly, but it's handy to have them within the range of my arms: power meters (432A, 437B) and signature analyzer.

All these devices (except the oscilloscope) have one feature in common: They're under ~30cm deep thus fit on the tabletop/shelves above. Boat anchors with 50cm-60cm wouldn't. 

Having my boat anchors (function Generator 3325B, level generator 3335A, voltmeters 3456A, counters PM 668X, system power supplies 6232B, 6643A, electronic load 6063B) up over my head is not ideal on one hand; On the other hand the back of those instruments is freely accessible for reconfiguration of cabling etc I found out more than once.   

Yes, Specmaster, I would arrange my bench differently if I had more space meaning: more square meters of free floor. I'd probably set my boat anchors up on tabletop level and slightly above like you.

Another aspect: E.g. you have a smaller function generator and counter (TTI) that fit on your shelf so you don't have my problems. 
I'll stick to my 3325B and PM668Xs because I like it very much thus I have to bear* the consequence..     

(*-double meaning    )

[neo]

Are you serious?

Fir or pine 2x8's will hold up a effing HOUSE... full of people, all their crap AND furniture.  They can damn well hold up a few hundred lbs of old test gear. If you're REALLY worried, screw two of them together for your uprights.  Quick, cheap, and strong. When you're done building, drown it all in urethane and write it off your bucket list. Get some perspective, man. Stop overthinking and start BUILDING. 

mnem
"Fire good, tree bad"... that's the level I'm operating on right now.

Wellllll..... i could do that, or close, but i'm right back to the damned things straightness. Though if i made 2 3x3s then made and added a 1x3 to each face i guess it could look alright maybe...

nope still like the idea of hickory!

Also, i AM building, the posts are the last and currently i'm still one step one get the boards for the frame cut out and flat.

FLAT! Dammit! FLAT!!!!