your work area

[guitarmonky55]

so ive got a question.....where do all of you guys do your work?  

my home doesnt really have a useable garage, its completely trashed and i have no way of fixing it without help...im just 17 and dont have that much free time.  anyway ive been soldering upstairs on a pool table that has a ping-pong cover on it, ive converted it to my work table.  my mom doesnt want me to work up there anymore with my iron, and doesnt want me to work in the house, but we dont ahve anywhere else i can work(i used to do the kitchen table thing but it was too much to clean up every day).  so any suggestions?  id like to get a feel for who here works outside too as i may have to invest some time in preparing an outdoor area.

[Karmasound]

get an auto shut off iron with a holder. Then she might feel better about it.

[Peter Snowberg]

Mechanical timers for bathroom fans are perfect for keeping your iron safer. Just wire up a light in parallel with the heater so you see at a glance if it's hot or not. Much safer.

BTW: I work inside at a glass table that is never used for food. I don't like lead in my pizza.

If you do work outside, a soldering station with active temperature control will be a great benefit.

[loscha]

I used to put some foot square floor tiles down!

seconds and end of stock floor tiles can be had very cheaply, and are easy to pack up and move around. You just stack 'em up when you're done!

does your house have room for a small table? go to a charity store, or a yard sale, and see if you can find a small table to make your own.

it's hard starting out

good luck!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Perhaps some "responsible adult" could write a letter to your mum, pointing out the benefits of kids soldering, compared to waht else they could be doing?
I'm not trying to be funny here, I think if your mother is a person open to reason, then maybe that would work.

[Peter Snowberg]

Good show Paul.

I just saw a post from somebody listing all the connected disciplines that go with stompbox building.... it's quite a list.

What parent would want to stop their kid from learning a wide technical skill set, especially when they're hanging out with electrical engineers, professors, highly skilled technicians, respected circuit designers, successful entrepreneurs, and drek like that. :lol: Talk about a mentor resource.....

Now who is going to write it?

[cab42]

Could someone write to my wife as well?  

I don't have a workshop either, working on an old desk in the basement.
I'm quite paranoid about the iron. I have woken up many times in the middle of night and runned down to the basement to check. Haven't forgot it yet.

It's a good idea with a timer. It also have the advantage that if the iron shuts down you know it's time to go to bed

I'm in the middle of building a spare bedroom/home office in the basement, so my old table has to go. I was thinking about building a work tray to be placed an any table. Then I can just remove the whole thing when done.

Carsten

[MartyMart]

At the moment, I'm working on the thick "glass" table in my "Studio room"
I'd like to use my "Brick built shed" but there's no power in there/heat and its FULL of junk/tools bikes etc etc ..

It's fine but I have to put everything away all the time to "work" it all goes in two "steel drawer" units, that the glass top sits on.

Maybe later this year I'll get the "workshop" up and running !! :wink:

Marty.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I don't have a problem (living on my own!) but, it amazes me when I see people doing good work under very adverse circumstances.
I saw a guy in a room so small there wasn't room for a permanent table, he had a board hinged to the back of the door, so when the door was closed, it folded down (with a folding leg as well) and it pretty well filled the room, he sat on the bed.
I guess that isn't as crazy as the model railroad guys with setups that lower from the roof, at least if you have small kids it would get the stuff out of the way.
I am the luckiest guy in the world (as far as DIY is concerned!), and I know it.

[ninoman123]

I have a wooden board on the floor next to my amps (for testing). Only problem with the wood is if I miss the holder or just leave the iron laying on the wood. Once you smell buring maple then you know.  :lol: Every so often I have to vaccuum up wire clippings and leads and all that fun stuff. I have to make sure to pack away my resistors every night or my cats will run off with them.  :?

[smashinator]

I think I probably also fall into the "luckiest guy in the world" category.  Not only do I have a garage that will soon be a workshop, but I also get a whole room to myself in our house to use as my "laboratory."  All my music gear, painting stuff, and electronics stuff in one convenient location!  

guitarmonky - I take it you don't have your own bedroom?

[onboard]

Nino, I'm laughing because that's my routine too. I've often wondered who else has to keep everything put away because of cats. And they love to sit on the workbench and look out the window

I'm pretty up there on the lucky list myself - my wife and I live in a two bedroom place. She determined the spare room was too small for her to use as a studio, so I promptly moved in.

The best thing I did to the workspace so far was cover the workbench with nubby carpet. An iron holder prevents any melting carpet mishaps, and now I can work on instruments in the same space without having to lay down a pad.

[jmusser]

I've worked on my kitchen table for a long time. It has a tile top on it which keeps me from scratching it up. I am in the process of redoing a room in my house into a shop though, since my daughter left for college. I really doubt It'll keep my miswiring down much though :roll:

[Marcos - Munky]

When I started, I used to work in the kitchen table. Now, I work in the PC desk . It's in my room, I have easy access to schematics and layours, I use the same power supply for the iron and my printer (the bad thing is that I need to choice between the iron and the printer ) and have enought space.

[Torchy]

crp

[Mark Hammer]

After years of getting yelled at for doing things at the kitchen table, and having to unpack and pack my "workshop" every night so we could actually go to bed, I was blessed with acquiring a very substantial workshop, three years ago.  Indeed, one of the primary reasons we bought our current home was the almost 16ft workbench in the garage (complete with pegboard wall for hanging stuff and storage shelves below), and the attached office (the prior owners ran a home business servicing dental office equipment from there).  I wish I could make better use of it (it's a heated garage, but I have so much crap in front of the baseboards, I can't turn on the heat in the winter), but it's there when I need it.  Sadly, both the office and garage use flourescent lights, so while I can SEE everything, I have a hard time detecting when a circuit is low noise because of the incessant hum and interference.

In trying to improve your working context, I thinks it pays to make a list of the things that are most problematic about an electronics workspace.  Knowing what others are concerned about will help to identify how to remedy the situation, and prepare a workspace that nobody minds.

1) Flying bits, dust, and shavings.  Sadly, pedal making involves cutting stuff off, drilling stuff out, clipping ends, and stripping insulation.  That stuff flies everywhere and mothers/spouses are right to be annoyed at having to vacuum it up or pick it out of their socks or any carpetting.  If you have some *good* wire strippers, and end nippers (cleaner cuts tend to travel shorter distances), and have some means of catching the flying bits before they leave your work area for elsewhere, that would be good.  For eample, construct a small workspace out of sheet metal or masonite, or something, with high side and back walls so that flying bits stay contained.  If it can have a handle and be transported elsewhere, so much the better.  Do ALL drilling, scraping, etc somewhere else.

2) Chemicals, their stains and stinks.  Solder fumes don't appeal to everyone.  Etching can be stinky and downright threatening to both clothes and non-glass surfaces.  There are things like "smokeless ashtrays" intended to absorb cigarette fumes.  Perhaps these can serve as tiny fume hoods in your workspace to draw construction scents away from those easily irritated by them.  If you want to etch, I suggest you construct another "containment area".  Many stores sell large plastic lid-coverable basins for storing things under the bed.  You can use something like that as your work area for etching, by keeping all supplies and the actual etching bath inside one.  That also means you can carry everything out or elsewhere, and avoid any unnecessary or unpleasant spills.

3) Limiting sprawl.  Get yourself a convenient system for managing your inventory and projects, so that what you are working on at the moment does not require you to take up huge amounts of space.  For instance, your inventory may reside elsewhere, but all the parts you need for project X (and maybe a few spares or subs for experimentation) are sitting in a resealable labelled sandwich bag that you bring to your actual workspace.  The easier it is to unpack and repack, the more forgiving people will be about you using space that is generally reserved for other activities.  There are few things as irritating as listening to someone say "Just a sec..." over and over while they hastily clean up, and few circumstances as likely to screw up your sense of continuity with a project as a too-hasty cleanup to get out of someone's way.

4) Do you HAVE to make that noise?  Face it.  You have to test the pedal, and it doesn't always work first time out.  Moreover, many times when it DOES work out, not all are appreciative of what it does.  For this, small 386-based practice/headphone amps are indispensable for testing stuff out without subjecting everyone in the house/apartment to high-intensity 60-cycle hum or a resonance control set too high.  Just make it a point to always keep the volume on any headphone amp low until you know you need more volume.  Your eardrums are precious.

5) Your OWN tools.  People like to know where to find things.  Make it a point to buy and use your own tools.  That includes things like scissors and knives and glue.

6) Invest in storage bins.  Accept it, not everything you build will work first time out, and sometimes you will have to wait a while for those last few parts to come in or appear.  Buy some appropriate-sized storage bins with lids that you can stack or stow away for the things you aren't able to stick on your pedal board.

Finally, your back and your eyes are as important as your eardrum.  You need a *comfortable* workspace with good lighting.  Invest in a good desklamp that provides decent illumination without being in the way, and make sure that the chair you use or surface you work on is at a height which will allow you to emerge from 3 hours of soldering with a back that does not need the immediate attentionof a chiropractor.

[mojotron]

I do have a wife in a million though. She isnt musical, probably doesnt understand my obsession, but never complains about the mess, smell of solder or strange warbling sounds. ...

Me too,   we moved from Houston into a really old house in the Seattle area and didn't know what to do with the finished attic... We have 4 kids - so it's a fairly big house... We figured that we would make a space for the kids (they actually have a lot of space already) ... for the time being I moved all my gear up there, and although it's a 12x25 space with a slanted ceiling on one side and pipes in weird places, I can play at stage volume up there and no one minds. Besides being a musician, making custom stomp boxes for people, as well as an being an engineering manager for a computer company, I do a lot of gear trading/repair for profit. When I first "took-over"    the attic, my wife made a few statements like "I don't get my own space...".. but now it's been 8 months and my son has also moved his gear up there.. since I have been able to show a decent income associated with my occupation of the attic - nothing illegal  :shock:  - she has accepted it.. she calls it "the zone" now - mostly because that's the only area of the house where you can get cell phone reception, and looks like a DMZ up there most of the time... I recently took her on a nice vacation and bought her some nice stuff - believe me - sharing the blessing goes a long way with your family!!

My plans might be a bit bigger than some people's, but since I decided to start marketing my stomp boxes, this area has been essential for getting that up and running - and I still have a ways to go - my WWW site is the next big thing I need to spend time on... I am building a spray/baking hood in the garage - where I can spray and bake 5+ boxes at once and actually do a more professional looking job than my normal sharpie work, but I have been spraying outside and baking with a single clamp on industrial lamp where ever I could vent the fumes.

After being married for a long time and being a son before that, I have found that if I can support my own interests - finding the space/time/money - and be very diplomatic - my family has always been really accepting of my work and it's needs. But, I've been building guitar related stuff for 25 years - and I started soldering on my foosball table when I was in high school...

What I have found is that you may not have all of the space/time/money you need, but through communicating the benifits/importance of what you need - with the attitude of working out a compromise - I have been able to work out a doable arrangement everytime...

[ninoman123]

Do you HAVE to make that noise?

I need a practice amp. Im pretty sure my family doesnt like the loud humming and popping when I forget to plug the ground lead of a jack into the bread board.

Perhaps some "responsible adult" could write a letter to your mum, pointing out the benefits of kids soldering, compared to waht else they could be doing?

Thats EXACTLY how I got my mom to stop complaining.

[blandman74]

if it comes to making a table, i have a suggestion: go to home depot or wherever and ask them to cut a piece of plywood to the appropriate size for a table top.  buy some shelving liner to cover it with. then buy galvanized plumbers pipe of appropriate lengths, plus eight flanges, and 't' pieces.  

You will need two extra pipes to go diagonally across, just underneath  the table top, between two pairs of legs each.  Use pythagorean theorem (a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared) to determine the length of those two horizontal pieces.  then buy short and medium lengths of pipe to make up the legs (along with the t-pieces).  get #6 wood screws to mount four of the flanges right into the bottom of the table top, and the other four flanges are the "feet"

You can then build an amazingly sturdy workbench for cheap, and you never have to buy a saw! (that was important for me, I hate woodwork). The rest of the plywood left over i used under my mattress for a more comfortable "box springs."  Best to use 3/4 inch plywood

For a couple of years I would find shallow cardboard boxes and cut the flaps off of them.  Then using the flaps I would build little "shelves" inside the boxes (using a stapler) to store various things.  Cheaper than buying bins (but f'ugly), and you can make them while watching t.v.  I also started using empty wooden wine cases (free at any liquor store) for the same sort of thing.

now that I think about it, the table idea might be a pretty well-known one, but if people have trouble picturing i can take picture. I threw out the cardboard boxes when I got a job.

[Hal]

about leaving the iron on: my iron is plugged into the same thing as my lights, so turn off the lights, the iron goes off.  

No, its not a switch controlled outlet, its an extention chord.  But still...