My Workshop
Layout
The room itself is a 9 foot by 7 foot first floor room at the front of the house, which I chose for the ample daytime sunlight. When we moved in, the room had a carpet that was both malodorous and unsightly. After peeling up the carpet, I was then confronted with a tattered turquoise linoleum, which was not really an improvement. I tried many things to remove it, most of which failed. I eventually just pulled and scraped up whatever I could, and used a belt sander on the rest. It was messy, dusty, smelly work, but under it all was hardwood. I can only guess why someone would have covered it with such a hideous covering. I myself just rolled out some non-adhesive grey vinyl floor protector after I was done.
My workbench started life as a heavy duty shelving unit that I bought at Lowes. I assembled it in a configuration that leaves room under the work surface and two surfaces at useful heights. I made several modifications to the stock design. My first iteration, which I used for several months, added several receptacles in the particle board work surface. This was somewhat convenient but used a lot of desk space. When we moved, I ended up basically starting over.
I replaced the original particle board work surface with a new one cut from a sheet of oriented strand board. OSB is uglier than particle board, but a lot stronger, so it makes a sturdy work surface. I then laminated it with a sheet of white Formica. The resulting surface is smooth, durable, and cleans up easily. I also secured a sheet of pre-drilled white pegboard to the back of my bench.
In addition to the fluorescent tubes I used last time, I also added some round fluorescent lamps that I got on special at Home Depot. I was not able to hide the wires inside the drop ceiling, as I was with all the outlet wiring, so I tacked the wires up with my cable tacker.
Under the bench, I attached a large PVC junction box, which I mounted two duplex receptacles and a 10A breaker switch to the front cover of. The whole bench runs through the breaker switch, which I felt was important given the sheer number of outlets. I may, at some point, pull another circuit into the room to run a high current power supply, if the need arises.
The most notable tools here are my Dremel-branded scroll saw/disc sander combo, and my Dremel drill press. I like the scroll saw. It vibrates more than the old Delta that I had a few years back, but the construction is great and the blade holders are much more versatile. I actually bought the store display model rather than a new one, as Dremel decided to remove the disc sander in the updated version. In my opinion, this was a major loss, and I use the sander more than the saw. There are few shaping tasks that cannot be accomplished with it, unless you need to form a concave surface.
The Dremel drill press is an older model that I have been using to drill circuit board stock for ages. I have had excellent success with carbide PC-board bits. Despite their reputation, I have only broken one bit in all the time I have been using them. My only guess is that my success stems from the combination of punching centering dimples before I start drilling, and using a high drilling speed and firm pressure. The Dremel-brand HSS bits work very well for softer materials like wood, plastic, and aluminum.
On top of the cabinet is my collection of Ryobi 18V tool batteries, less one that is currently in my canister vacuum, two Ryobi chargers, a Makita 10.8V charger, a Ryobi radio and a Chumby. I have taken to using the Chumby as a network mp3 player appliance, using the radio as a power amplifier.
To anyone who wants to use a Chumby to play from an SMB share, the trick is to ssh in, insmod /drivers/cifs.ko, and then mount the network shares as /mnt/usb, /mnt/usb2, /mnt/usb3 or /mnt/usb4. The Chumby will then scan the network shares when you enter the music player and instruct it to use a USB device. Not a perfect solution, but it works.
Also in this cabinet are many of my old test tools, including my old power supply, clock generator, frequency counter, and my Old-World Light Bulb Load.
Tools
I recently rebuilt the left iron and replaced the tips. Now the left iron is a needle tip and the right iron is a modest sized chisel tip. My new multimeter came with a thermocouple, so I also took the opportunity to recalibrate the station. I have to say that, as strange as this thing looks, it is the best soldering station I have ever used. The fine folks at Edsyn were very polite and helpful in helping me determine the parts that I would need, and they even followed up with me by phone to make sure I was satisfied.
On the right is my Aoyue 852A++ hot air station. This is, so I have been told, a cheap Chinese knock-off of a quality station. My experience is that, while it is cheap in the sense of being inexpensive, it is well built and very useful. I find I use it for shrinking heatshrink tubing more often than anything else, but when I have a surface-mount problem, it is exceptionally handy.
On the pegboard above, I mounted my desoldering braid and my solder bottle. Many years ago, Radio Shack used to sell solder as a coil in a little pill bottle. I have kept the tradition alive, and I still wind a coil of solder around a dowel and put it in a pill bottle with a hole punched in the lid.
Under the Edsyn station is the steel base plate from my Desk Squid. I pull it out from time to time when I need a helping hand, although the squid arms work as well for some things adhered to the steel frame of the bench itself.
On top of my analog scope sits an HP signal generator and a small HP power supply. Surplus equipment is great. On top of the digital scope, from left to right, sits my old Radio Shack analog multimeter, a digital meter that Circuit Specialists sent me for free, and my new Amprobe meter. I use the middle meter mostly for its transistor test feature, which helps identify the ever elusive pin order. The BC547 and the PN2222A, my two favorite NPN transistors, have their emitters and collectors reversed relative to each other, and I can never remember which is which. The Amprobe meter is nice, and it came with a thermocouple.
Above the meters is my Fluke "Master Accessory Set", which contains a half-dozen different kinds of useful test probe, and the leads that came with the kit. Above that is a denim roll-up I made a while ago for my technical tweezer kit, and a little plastic bucket that holds scope probes. At the top is a little Extech logic probe style multimeter. Also pictured are gator clips, minigrabbers, an RS232 cable, an FTDI USB TTL serial cable, some test probes, and some BNC cables. I keep my Desk Squid stuck to the top left corner of my bench unless I'm using it.
On the desk itself, I have some safety glasses, a container of breadboard wire, a breadboard, a couple wire cutters, my mug of various little tools, an IC straightener, a case of jewellers screwdrivers, and a small self-healing mat. The circuit on prototyping board is a small power supply that I am designing, which may eventually become a kit.
In the bottom left of the picture is my black book, and my pencil. Keeping a good engineering notebook is important, and BookFactory.com makes the best. I had this one made well before the Maker Notebook was created, and I like the style. When I fill it, I'll place an order for one numbered 00002.
Well, that's my workshop.
