NWD

[Rockhorst]

New Workplace Day! There's a baby boy coming sometime in the middle of March, so we had to rethink the rooms in our house a bit. We decided to move the soldering room to the other side of the upstairs hall. Once we had installed a desk and stuff like that, it took the time between Christmas and New Year's to move everything.Why? Cuz I'm not the tidiest person in the universe. Luckily, my girlfriend loves sorting stuff. I ordered a few extra parts cabinets, explained the difference between resistor, capacitor and IC markings and we set to work. I've never before been this organized. Lighting is not ideal, but below is a guided tour in photos:

The new room is smaller and has a sloping ceiling, but actually, I now feel it's the better room because it has no weird corners and such like the other one. Behind those white panels at the far end, there's secret storage space.


On the left, there's storage (boxes boxes, parts parts, pedals pedals) and a place to populate PCBs


As I said: never been this organized before


Pedals and a DIY 18W combo amp hiding under the cover


On the far end on the right is a space to assemble pedals or take them apart, with appropriate tools nearby and containers to stash the parts so they don't get lost while working on the pedal.


Also shown here is my little test setup: a looper with She Sells Sanctuary played into it, a sort of break out box with aligator clips to hook up circuits, and a small practice amp. Behind that is a power supply. Simple, but this makes repair jobs and testing so much easier.


And finally, this is where the soldering should happen. I bought a second soldering iron. Instead of switching tips (and waiting for them to cool down) I now can just switch soldering irons when changing from leaded to lead free. I've switched to lead free for new projects permanently. It's actually working out pretty well. The parts bins contain switches and pots.

[alanp]

You lucky bugger. I increasingly want a workbench setup like that -- I can't leave things in front of my computer keyboard all the time

I can imagine what a visitor would say -- "Wow, this man is so rich, he has a whole drawer full of MN3005!

[diablochris6]

That's real nice, total pro. I manage to have everything organized into a shoebox and milk crate since my workspace is the dining table. Great job with the shelves and storage bins.

[bsoncini]

That is nice and organized. I'm jealous. I'm another person who needs to use the dining room table.

[matmosphere]

Those are some nice digs man! That's a dream setup.

I actually envy all of you guys. My wife makes me solder out in our detached garage.

[Rockhorst]

I can imagine what a visitor would say -- "Wow, this man is so rich, he has a whole drawer full of MN3005!

I have four in there...I would just put them in some assorted parts bin, but my girl friend won't have any of that. Everything in it's own place, she insisted.

That's real nice, total pro. I manage to have everything organized into a shoebox and milk crate since my workspace is the dining table. Great job with the shelves and storage bins.

Ikea is both the devil and your friend for these kinds of things...this is the fourth incarnation of work space. I started out in the kitchen much in the manner you describe.

I actually envy all of you guys. My wife makes me solder out in our detached garage.

I think that's actually very wise...much better than the dining room table.
I used the previous room for two years. I wiped down the desktop after clearing out all the parts and there's a whole lot of little glistening metal residue left from the work. It's almost too small too see with the naked eye when it's on the desk, but piled together on a wet piece of tissue paper it was very evident. Mind you, this is from underneath a sheet of protective plastic. Basically, (and I might be a bit over zealous with this) I treat my soldering work spaces as contaminated areas.

[gül]

Looks awesome! I have the same Ikea shelving units in my little work area. They're great. I also really like the tray, is it a baking pan? Look at all those enclosures you've got there, just waiting for guts...

My wife has kindly let me take over our dining room area for the workbench. I wish I had a detached garage to work in. We're dealing with lead and fumes, pretty toxic stuff. We're looking to move soon, and I plan to buy one of those small sheds at Home Depot to throw in the yard for my new and improved work space This way I won't be poisoning my family anymore.

Do you guys use a de-fumer or just hella fans (like me)? I thought about buying a de-fumer, but reviews seem to be mixed about how effective they are.

[Rockhorst]

Those are Ikea Baggmuck shoe trays I accidentally spotted while roaming their magazines looking for the stuff I actually needed ...

[287m]

bookmarked!!!

i want my private room like that!

[Rockhorst]

Do you guys use a de-fumer or just hella fans (like me)? I thought about buying a de-fumer, but reviews seem to be mixed about how effective they are.

I've been using a Toolcraft defumer like you see in the last picture (it's not a lamp). I previously had a unit standing on the table top and I think this new one with the swinging arm is going to be a nice upgrade. IMO, it definitely helps. I haven't got asthma or anything, but I always noticed sore throat and coughing after soldering without any kind of active ventilation in the past. There's acidic stuff from the resin core in the fumes that can really affect your breathing. I used to use a bathroom fan with a hose attached transporting fumes out of the window years ago. Both options seem to work and keep things manageable. No sore throats or coughing since.

As far as lead goes: the consensus is that it's so heavy that it immediately falls down. There's no real risk of inhaling any vaporized lead particles. (strictly/technically speaking we should be talking about it's vapor pressure: there's no real chance of gaseous lead atoms escaping from the liquid when soldering). There have been quite extensive studies, measuring lead content in the blood of professional solderers. Virtually none was found I believe. Don't eat and drink at your work space and wash your hands afterwards and you should be fine. Wisdom handed down from RG Keen years ago (credit where credit is due).

[Rockhorst]

Here's a picture of the lead free stuff I've been testing out.

With leaded solders I used to solder at 330 degrees (Celsius). This stuff works nicely with the iron set to 360, maybe a little higher for big surfaces like pots. Flows well, nice and shiny joints just like with the good old stuff. Highly recommended.

On my list still is a heated desolderingpump or maybe a dedicated desoldering station, instead of just the pump and the wire. That should make life a lot easier as well.

[BrianS]

Really nice looking.  And all those PPP boxes. 

Are you on the 3rd floor of your home? The slope and the window remind me of my bedroom in the row house in Veghel I lived in. 

[mjg]

Plus one for the workstation envy here!  I'm another person working from the dining table.  I then have to pack everything into a corner of our music/Lego room when not in use.  Whilst trying not to step on Lego while carrying everything.

Really nice setup Rockhorst, thanks for sharing that with everyone. 

[Rockhorst]

Are you on the 3rd floor of your home? The slope and the window remind me of my bedroom in the row house in Veghel I lived in.

It's a three story building, three layers of apartments running along the full length of the street. The top floor originally wasn't a floor, but an escape route from one side of the street to the other, it really ran over the entire length of the houses. Originally, it was all apartments for rent, but then the owner (an energy company) sold about 50%, including the parts of the escape route directly above the apartments at the top. So that has now been converted to three rooms and a bath room. Quite spaceous as a result.

[blearyeyes]

Oh man that is nice. I can only dream.