A portable
electronics
workbench
Do you build your electronic projects on
the kitchen table? Do you hnte the hassle
of clearing it all away and then getting
it all out again the next time? Here's the
answer.
By LEO SIMPSON
Let's face it. Most of us don't
have a special room or workbench
where we can pursue our hobby of
electronics. Most of us make do
with the kitchen table for our electronics assembly and design work
but then you have the problem of
clearing it all away for distractions
like meals.
Having had to put up with this
problem for many years, I decided
to have a think about solving it.
What was needed was some sort of
portable workbench arrangement
which could accommodate all the
electronics paraphernalia of the
moment but be packed away at a
moment's notice, underneath the
bed, on top of the wardrobe or even
behind a door.
Even if you have a workshop or a
workbench in your garage, there
are times when you want to work in
the kitchen or family room. Maybe
you want to be with your family
while you work on your hobby or
maybe there's a TV show you don't
want to miss while you work.
In other words there are many
good reasons for having a portable
workbench that can be set up
quickly and with a minimum of fuss.
72
SILICON CHIP
I evolved the design of the
workbench over a period of several
weeks but I am sure that readers
will be able to come up with their
own refinements.
I wanted plenty of space to
spread parts around, a power supply, soldering iron, reels of hookup
wire and so on. It also had to have a
set of parts drawers and provision
for tool storage.
The idea is that when you finish
working on a project for the moment, you can push all the
paraphernalia towards the back of
the workbench and then put the
whole box and dice away. If
necessary, you might want to upend it so that it can sit behind a
door. It could also be hung up on a
wall, out of the way.
The end product is a flat work
surface 820mm wide by 650mm
deep with sloping sides, a closed
back and a narrow shelf along the
back.
Naturally the dimensions can be
varied to suit the material you have
on hand but it shouldn't be made
much smaller otherwise the work
area will be too cramped. By the
same token, it should not be made
much larger either, otherwise it
will be too heavy and unwieldy to
carry.
To make my own workbench, I used white melamine surfaced particleboard which gives a durable
and easily cleaned work surface.
The sheet I used was 16mm thick
but with hindsight 12mm material
would be quite strong enough and
much lighter to carry.
Don't use bare particleboard. It
might be cheap but it's unpleasant
to work upon and the surface is
easily abraded, absorbs any spilt liquids and swells up like a sponge.
Even if you try to seal it with
Estapol or some other finish it is
rarely satisfactory. In short, forget
it.
Of course, such a workbench
(dare we call it a "work centre" or
even a "work-station" ) need not be
confined to electronic activities. It
could be used equally well for other
hobby work such as model aircraft,
model cars and model trains and
could also be used by students for
school projects.
Don't let your la ck of carpentry
skills frighten you away from
building the workbench. As long as
Ready for work. Doesn't it look
impressive? The soldering station is
from Dick Smith Electronics ($129) as
are the fancy Piergiacomi side-cutters
and pliers. The nifty little vyce is an
Arista product, also available from
Tandy. The reels of hookup wire are
from Jaycar, as is the super-large
prototyping board ($69.95).
you have a circular saw and an
electric drill, you can build this
project.
The assembly process consists of
cutting the melamine-surfaced particle board to size, drilling the holes
for the screws and then simply
screwing it together. No glueing is
required, or is possible for that matter, since the melamine surfaces
prevent it.
You need to start with a sheet
12mm thick which will probably
have a minimum size of 1200 x
900mm, depending on where you
buy it. Some timber yards and hardware outlets will cut the material to
size for you for an extra charge
although you will have to check
whether this service is available.
Failing that, you will have to use
a circular saw to cut the material.
We would advise against using a
handsaw for this job. Saw blades
LIST OF MA TERI ALS
16 DIA., 260 LONG DOWELS
TO HOLD HOOK-UP WIRE
.Jo
BASE B20 x652
ALL DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETRES
MATERIAL: 13mm PARTICLE BOARD, MELAMINE COATED BOTH SIDES
ALL EXPOSED EDGES COVERED WITH IRON ON EDGE STRIP
ASSEMBLE BENCH WITH 50-60mm COUNTERSUNK PARTICLE
BOARD SCREWS ANO COVER WITH CRESS CAPS
,k
(
,
PORTABLE WORK BENCH
Fig.1 - this diagram shows the dimensions of the workbench. You can vary
the dimensions somewhat, but don't make the work area much smaller than
that shown.
1 sheet of 1 2mm melamine
surfaced particle board
1 four-way power board
(Kambrook, Goldair, etc)
1 8 50mm x 8 gauge
countersunk wood screws or
Chipboard screws, or 1 8
Furnco Directors (decorative
head particle board screws)
1 8 Furnco white Snap Caps
size 8/8 (to suit screws, not
necessary if Furnco Directors
used)
8 25 metre reels of hookup
wire (Jaycar Cat No
WH-3009)
2 260mm 1 2mm dowels (for
reels of hookup wire)
4 large rubber feet
Miscellaneous
Aquadhere PVA adhesive (to
glue dowels in place), iron-on
melamine edging tape (Armaflex
G-L), double-sided tape.
NOVEMBER 1987
73
Now which component was I supposed to remove? Leo Simpson ponders the
question as he gives the workbench its first tryout.
are quickly dulled by cutting particle boards unless they have silicon
carbide teeth.
To ensure that you achieve
straight cuts, use a straight edge as
a guide for the power saw. The idea
is to clamp a thin straight-edged
length of timber to the particleboard and use it as a guide for
the saw.
Smooth off the sawn surfaces
with a rasp or sanding block before
proceeding to the next step, which
is to make the various rightangle
butt joints to assemble the work
bench.
The various sections are then
screwed together. You can either
use long woodscrews or, better still,
special particleboard screws such
as Furnco "Directors". The latter
have better holding power in particleboard than woodscrews
although they are more expensive.
Alternatively, you can use Chipboard screws which have coarse
threads for easy penetration and
good holding power.
I used 50mm x 8 gauge bright
zinc plated countersunk
woodscrews together with white
Snap Caps (decorative caps made
This photograph shows the various pieces of the workbench before it was
screwed together. We suggest the use of Furnco Directors to secure the
panels (see text).
74
SILICON CHIP
by Furnco ). If you use Furnco Directors you will find that they are supplied with decorative caps.
Which ever screws you are using, there is no need to countersink
the screw heads. In fact, countersinking screwheads in particleboard is not good practice.
Snaps caps are supplied with a
countersunk washer cum clip while
the roundhead of Directors means
that no countersinking is required.
Assuming the use of 8-gauge
screws, each screw position wilf
need to have a 1/8-inch hole drilled
for the threaded portion and then
drilled out to 3/16-inch to take the
shank of the screw. Don't drill too
deep with the latter size otherwise
the screw will have no holding
power.
I used 18 screws to assemble our
workbench and this should be
ample.
To finish off the exposed edges of
the particleboard, use an iron-on
melamine edging tape (Armaflex
G-L) and then trim to fit using a
utility knife.
I also mounted some short
lengths of 16mm dowel to accommodate eight small reels of hookup
wire. Available from Jaycar at
$19.95 for a selection of eight colours, each reel has 25 metres of
hookup wire (13 strands 0.12mm).
Very handy.
Finally, fit four decent-sized rubber feet to the underside of the
workbench so that it does not
scratch or move around on the
table.
I also fitted a four-way powerboard to one side of the workbench
(as made by Kambrook, Goldair,
etc) to provide power for a soldering iron, power supply and so on.
A set of parts storage drawers
can also be set in place next to the
reels of wire using screws or double sided tape.
You'll also want a set of spring
clips (Terry Multifix Tool Clips are
the ones) to hold your most oft-used
hand tools, such as screwdrivers,
pliers and side-cutters.
As you can see, the final
workbench is a little beauty. You
can set it up on a table at a moment's notice and get stuck right into the current job. I wonder why I
didn't make it years ago.
~
