Test equipment / work benches...
In my work shoppe, which is about 9' x 16' I have 6 RCA BR-84 steel
Racks. The racks hold standard 19 inch panels and are each 84"
high, 22" wide overall and 18" deep with adjustable rails in the
front and back. I have them bolted together and braced to the walls
with 2x4's from wall-to-wall. I built a work bench on the front
that's about 30" deep and 110" wide. Along the front of the racks I
bolted a 2x4 to the racks (using bolts, fender washers, lock washers
and nuts) that extends along 5 of the racks. I had some long 2" wide
L-Brackets that I used to build a 2x4 frame for the bottom of the
table top, which is attached to the 2x4 along the front of the
racks. From the front of the sides, on the inside of the frame, I
bolted two 2x4's that run back to the bottom of the racks and bolted
them to the racks at the base. I also bolted two 2x4's front to back
of the table top frame dividing it in thirds for rigidity. I then
bolted a piece of good grade particle board to the top of the
frame. The table top extends about 2" over the front of the frame
and on the front of the frame I installed a long plug strip. This
has served me well for more than 20 years and can carry all the
weight for my needs (including myself). I have a lot of my test
equipment in the racks. What was originally supposed to be only my
"Measurement Laboratory" area has turned into an every-day work
bench. A few years ago I added a frame of sorts on the right with
shelves to hold some ham gear and even more test equipment. If you
want you can see a glimpse of a small portion of the bench at
http://www.biwa.cc/freqmeas.htm. When this picture was taken I had
the top "cleaned". As of last night I could not find the bench, but
I have a general idea of where it is.
While the bench is fairly easy to remove, if you know where all the
bolts are and the order it was assembled, I hate to think of the poor
soul that will have to remove this stuff after I croak.
Burt, K6OQK
At 04:43 PM 1/23/2010, time-nuts-request@febo.com wrote
Also, HP/Agilent equipment racks are sometimes available on eBay. These are
nothing like the relay racks or server racks that you commonly see in data
centers. They are stout. They're very expensive when new, but almost
free for the shipping when bought used. I used generic shelving units to
hold test equipment for a long time, but once you use real racks, you won't
go back.
An Agilent E3662A/B rack can hold up to 81 EIA units of gear weighing up to
1800 pounds. I have three in my living room and wish I had more...
-- john, KE5FX
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, California U.S.A.
biwa@att.net
K6OQK
An idea I really like, but haven't had room to implement at my current
house, is one that a friend used. Rather than standard 19 inch racks,
he used the heavy duty 24 inch deep, 48 inch wide, 60 inch tall shelf
units available at home improvement stores -- the ones with the heavy
metal frame and particle board shelves that are well supported around
all four sides.
He had three of these units holding his test gear, with a workbench in
front. The shelves were arranged so that the one lined up directly with
the workbench with the higher shelves spaced for either a single heavy
piece or a stack of lighter stuff. The beauty part is that he had
enough room to get around and behind the shelves to work on the rear
cabling. Using shelves rather than bolting the gear into racks makes it
much easier to rearrange the pieces when the mood strikes.
As for myself, I have a couple of racks, a 30x60 metal office table as a
workbench, and several wooden equipment carts with casters that a
woodworker friend built for me. A picture of one of the carts (with a
second partially visible behind) is attached. They are made of
heavy-duty plywood with metal frames for the shelves and metal cross
braces for stabilization. The top shelf is tilted to allow a better
viewing angle. These have worked really well in my fairly small space.
John
Oh, and I also put up 4x8 sheets of white perfboard all around my
workspace instead of drywall, and have various metal hooks to hang
cables from. That's been really handy.
John
John Ackermann N8UR said the following on 01/24/2010 01:19 PM:
An idea I really like, but haven't had room to implement at my current
house, is one that a friend used. Rather than standard 19 inch racks,
he used the heavy duty 24 inch deep, 48 inch wide, 60 inch tall shelf
units available at home improvement stores -- the ones with the heavy
metal frame and particle board shelves that are well supported around
all four sides.
He had three of these units holding his test gear, with a workbench in
front. The shelves were arranged so that the one lined up directly with
the workbench with the higher shelves spaced for either a single heavy
piece or a stack of lighter stuff. The beauty part is that he had
enough room to get around and behind the shelves to work on the rear
cabling. Using shelves rather than bolting the gear into racks makes it
much easier to rearrange the pieces when the mood strikes.
As for myself, I have a couple of racks, a 30x60 metal office table as a
workbench, and several wooden equipment carts with casters that a
woodworker friend built for me. A picture of one of the carts (with a
second partially visible behind) is attached. They are made of
heavy-duty plywood with metal frames for the shelves and metal cross
braces for stabilization. The top shelf is tilted to allow a better
viewing angle. These have worked really well in my fairly small space.
John
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Here's a couple of items from the Make Magazine site:
Re-purposing IKEA furniture to hold rack mount gear:
http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack
A workshop to dream about:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/dream_workshop.html
How many hours did that person work to make everything look good for the
cameras, and what does it look like in mid project?
In my own lab I didn't use Ikea furniture, but I did build a two bay wooden
rack. 90% of the gear is on slides or sliding shelves (using drawer
hardware), so the wood is not a drawback. The sides and intermediate
upright are 2x4 frames with OSB panels glued into dados for strength.
Cheers,
Keith
-----Original Message-----
From: John Ackermann N8UR [mailto:jra@febo.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:19 AM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Test equipment / work benches...
An idea I really like, but haven't had room to implement at my current
house, is one that a friend used. Rather than standard 19 inch racks, he
used the heavy duty 24 inch deep, 48 inch wide, 60 inch tall shelf units
available at home improvement stores -- the ones with the heavy metal frame
and particle board shelves that are well supported around all four sides.
He had three of these units holding his test gear, with a workbench in
front. The shelves were arranged so that the one lined up directly with the
workbench with the higher shelves spaced for either a single heavy piece or
a stack of lighter stuff. The beauty part is that he had enough room to get
around and behind the shelves to work on the rear cabling. Using shelves
rather than bolting the gear into racks makes it much easier to rearrange
the pieces when the mood strikes.
As for myself, I have a couple of racks, a 30x60 metal office table as a
workbench, and several wooden equipment carts with casters that a woodworker
friend built for me. A picture of one of the carts (with a second partially
visible behind) is attached. They are made of heavy-duty plywood with metal
frames for the shelves and metal cross braces for stabilization. The top
shelf is tilted to allow a better viewing angle. These have worked really
well in my fairly small space.
John
On 1/24/10 10:43 AM, "Keith Payea" kpayea@bryantlabs.net wrote:
Here's a couple of items from the Make Magazine site:
Re-purposing IKEA furniture to hold rack mount gear:
http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack
A workshop to dream about:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/dream_workshop.html
How many hours did that person work to make everything look good for the
cameras, and what does it look like in mid project?
Where I used to work (a mechanical special effects shop), we used to think
about a scheme where you'd have a bench base that supported a removable
bench top. The bench top had raised edges on sides and back (so stuff
doesn't roll off), and a removable front edge. Then, you'd have a big
motorized storage rack for the benchtops. Each project then gets it's own
bench top. Work on project 1 for a few hours,then, stow it, and pull out
benchtop 2 for the next project.
It lets you do things like tape, fasten, or clamp parts to the bench (say,
while waiting for the glue to dry or resin to cure). After all, for most
projects, the vertical extent on the bench is not very much (maybe a foot or
two) but the horizontal extent is great, and preferably not disturbed. What
we want in that "ideal shop" is always "lots of benches and tables" so you
can spread out.