New idea for work bench?

I've seen a "homemade" shop bench for electronics repair that had an edge designed to catch screws or lay screwdrivers. Those are usually carpet coverer, so parts can't really roll away.

jumping away c-clips is another story.

I always call them "Jesus Clips". "JESUS---where did THAT go?"

You may want to run a couple of pieces of threaded rod through the glued-up top, though it's probably better to do this before the glue dries.

Sounds like a very nice pseudo butcher block.

Can't remember where I saw it (TMBR?) but I've used this jeweler's idea to great effect.

To Wit: Regular shop apron with the entire bottom hem clamped to the top of the leading edge of your workbench. Wear the top of the apron like normal. You now have a large 'catchment' for small parts that would normally zing off to an undisclosed location on the floor. This saved my bacon on a couple of occasions.

It's nifty to pick up the part from your 'bib' rather than go crawling on the floor for 10 minutes looking for the elusive spring or whatchamacallit.

--Winston

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:42:19 -0400, the infamous "Buerste" scrawled the following:

No. See "carving platter" for earlier patents.

Good idea, Tawm. Get some good commercial carpeting. It's like I/O but tougher and less cheaply made. Banks, etc. use it.

I have a Jesus Clip Holder. It's a spring-loaded roach clip of sorts. (reference from another life) the little carburetor linkage clips were the worst sort for flying off into nowhere.

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

I recently ran across a heavy brass oil cup with a hinged lid and 1/8" pipe thread with some lamp tube screwed into it. It has some burned resin and a stainless steel screen in it. I haven't seen it for 30? years! When I saw it, the reaction was: "I can clean that up and use it as an oil cup!" My, things have changed!

You may want to run a couple of pieces of threaded rod through the glued-up top, though it's probably better to do this before the glue dries.

Sounds like a very nice pseudo butcher block.

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I see your point but how can I drill the holes? I did alternate the grain.

On my desk at work, where I often do fine mechanical things, I have a strip of 1/8" x 1"magnetic tape on the face of the top. No good for brass for some reason though.

Auger bit, followed by auger bit with a length of bar welded to it to extend it.

Can also be done with a spade bit and the same extension.

BTDT.

Mark Rand RTFM

I thought they were called: Oshit! Clips and that it was an inflexible rule that you never have a replacement in the whole effin' shop.

No. See "carving platter" for earlier patents.

Good idea, Tawm. Get some good commercial carpeting. It's like I/O but tougher and less cheaply made. Banks, etc. use it.

I have a Jesus Clip Holder. It's a spring-loaded roach clip of sorts. (reference from another life) the little carburetor linkage clips were the worst sort for flying off into nowhere.

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

Strap sez: "Good idea, Tawm. Get some good commercial carpeting. It's like I/O but tougher and less cheaply made. Banks, etc. use it."

Many years ago I got some heavy-duty carpet left over from the lobby of a bank. Took my hot-melt glue gun and some shears and fashioned it into a protective covering for my Jensen "Engineers" tool case. Turned rough-side out, the airlines were never able to gouge the simulated leather of the tool case.

Bob Swinney

No. See "carving platter" for earlier patents.

I have a Jesus Clip Holder. It's a spring-loaded roach clip of sorts. (reference from another life) the little carburetor linkage clips were the worst sort for flying off into nowhere.

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:09:59 -0400, the infamous "Buerste" scrawled the following:

That's a good idea, too.

Yeah, I had to add brass and aloonimum magnets to mine, too. They're really, really hard to find for a decent price. Anyone got sources?

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

Everyone seemed to use carpet or carpet samples when I started working the electronics bench.

I think you will find them gone the way of the Dodo Bird nowadays. Motorola more-or-less said either you put down anti-static mats and use such practices or were going to pull affiliation. If your electronics repair wizard still has a carpet patch on his bench I think I would be looking for another place to get things serviced...

Things still worth repairing or that have parts available can still be fixed on carpet.

Pretty much most stuff is throw away though.

Where would you even order parts for a $30 DVD player?

Static has always been a problem for solid state devices. One of the training videos I was required to view had a major resistor distributor highlighted in it. Just inserting their resistors into a clear plastic bag applied enough static voltage to them to change their values out of tolerance. Nearly drove them batty trying figure out what was going amuck. Hence why you see the pink bags nowadays or at least that was how they used to come. I've been out of circulation for ~8 years now.

If it was my DVD player I would carefully open and look for anything suspicious. Years of fixing similar stuff helps in figuring out what looks suspicious, but I've quit holding my breath lately :) If I couldn't easily spot/find anything I would end up replacing it. If we actually had to pay the true price of these things (USA labor rates) they would be worth fixing. Maybe someday soon when people figure out that they can no longer afford to buy even imported items because they don't have a job things will change...

Carpet makes a nice surface for fixing all sorts of mechanical items, but not for anything with a semiconductor in it.

standard steps doesn't apply to throw away electronics. You can't order the unmarked IC, and there's no service guide. This doesn't even count that the board would probaly fall apart if any SM parts were removed. Maybe some parts in the power supply burned up, but again, good luck finding out what they were. Trying to read the 1 to 3 digits on SM parts and figuring out what they really are is almost pointless.

It's too bad too. I prefer to fix vs. throw away when possible. Luckily, my 1998 dvd player still works fine.

Not everything is 0.000004 micron process and will be destroyed by +4 volts of static.

I'd not take a computer apart on carpet, other things are fine.

I have a grounded static mat on this computer table, and cover it with cardboard or rug scraps to work on dirty stuff. It's the background here:

The other side of the surplus mat is a good example of the abuse they will and won't take. It came from the Segway lab where we disassembled and modified the machines on it. The damage is mainly razor blade cuts and melted spots. The sharp edges of machined castings didn't really affect it and grease smears came right off with static mat cleaner, which is about as strong as Windex.

jsw

I was surprised to discover that static could also mess with the accuracy of a powder balance. Not an electronic scale, a balance made by OHaus for Dillon. Setting the balance on a grounded sheet of aluminum steadied it out nicely. This was midwinter, very dry air.

Your Dillon 650 dispenses powder volumetrically but the initial setting and adjustments when changing calibers still need to be done with a balance or scale.

Poke a "drain hole" somewhere in the circumscribed gutter. That's where you can shove spilled powder rather than suck it into old sparky the vacuum. Spilled powder can be spread on the lawn or garden, it's good nitrate fertilizer.