Wifey helping out in flip flops, A+. Seriously though, she's always a ray of sunshine in your already enjoyable videos. You guys are a great team and make good content together.
As an older guy I would add a bench mounted lit magnifying glass, and if your eye sight is really getting bad a set of jewelers loops that mount on your glasses
I think a little ocd was going on. I would have welded up two shelves and had two less than perfect workbenches, pushed one in the back and piled crap on it. Just built one from scratch with storage drawers and cabinets like I have, but it does not look so lab like. Particle board and formica are expensive, not $2000 dollars expensive. Interestingly I think mine is painted blue because I saw a picture of these in a catalog (what's a catalog?)
Nah. He did right. Plus, we can see that the emperor's clothes really are ... what they are. The price asked VS the materials exposed by his cuts do not match. It's a grift. This is a good video to spread around so people don't get gipped by these grifters.
The remaining pieces can still have use, as a set of shelves under the bench, to hold things like power bricks, and outlets for stuff always plugged in, plus a cheap set of drawers fitted to the one side (on castors so you can easily move it side to side) helps as well with storage of all those things you need. With the IPA a good thing is to get small HDPE bottles, and put small volumes in it, so it is easier to use, and less likely to spill. Works with flux as well, buying in bulk and refilling the pen, though I simply went and got empty dropper bottles, and filled them with flux, and the same for IPA, using nail polish bottles that hold 10ml each. Easy to use, and much better control of where you apply it. Little brush makes for easy cleaning, and you just rinse out the bottle when it is dirty, or move it to being the first wash bottle, and have a clean final wash one.
Went through the same sticker shock on pro benches. Wanted one because we used those kind in the service in our Avionics shops. I ended up using a red Husky storage rack from Home Depot, replacing the metal wire shelves with plywood. Might be a good idea for another bench in the shop for heavier work. Sweet find on those two benches!
Wes, New bench looks great. As a 35 year tech in and out of Navy facilities I like it. I understand why melamine ESD tops cost so much. Melas are small fuzzy woodland creatures that are only found in a tiny area just east of Gotland Sweden. It takes a lot of them to make a benchtop so the prices stay high due to over hunting and loss of habitat. In addition to all the general stuff. On my bench I also keep a solder sucker. I find sometimes it works better than solder wick. I have one of those cheap Chinese 1/4" drive screwdriver sets with about 75 different bits with everything from screwbits to nut drivers. The one I have has a screwdriver handle that also accepts a ratchet. For 95% of the small fasteners I run into it does the job before I open up the Xcelite tool suitcase. I really like the Whia precision screwdrivers. A set of Knipex automatic squeeze type wire strippers is handy. As I got older I found I needed a board microscope. I like the LCD type better than the fixed eyepiece. They are getting cheap to buy now. ~$250.00 I bit the bullet and bought one of the Weller 6966 heat guns you showed. Pricey but I have to say I love it. Thank You ---M---
Nice setup. I worked as an Electrical Engineer for 30+ years and had a bench full of equipment from high end quad chan gigaherz O'scopes to logic and Spectrum Analyzers to TDRs and on and on... Thankfully retired now and only have a multimeter. Thinking about getting a portable o'scope for car troubleshooting, but I drive Toyotas and they never break. 😁 Thanks for the videos! 👍👍
I'm very appreciative of all the content you post, regardless of the subject matter. I enjoy watching content where the host takes pride in their work....a dying breed unfortunately. Between your pride, knowledge base, and ingenuity, you have a pretty damn good channel here! Thanks for investing your time to post content, it pays off!
The winner of the Oscar for "Best Wife Actor!" goes to: Wifie All the women taught her well. That's word for word, for word, what they say. That's why we love them so. Your very, very smart and determined, Wes and I hope you know that.
Sure love that the whole family is included. So many youtubers don't have their families because of the weirdos. We've seen that Wes has other protections.
$500 for the hutch plus shipping and tax is definitely like the $600 toilet seat. Only school districts and large corporations would pay that because the purchasing agent is spending someone else's money. You did a great job with what you had.
I work in a large industrial plant. You are paying for far more than the item. You have to request bids and paperwork before your product is selected. You have to follow established procurement and quality standards. You have to deliver it in a way that takes minimal setup time. There is a whole ecosystem built around supplying to industry. When someone tries to go cheap, they quickly find out why it exists. If it takes someone is stores half an hour to sort out non-standard paperwork, and two technicians an hour to assemble, all your savings have just disappeared.
@@MichaelSteeves Those things exist for reasons, sure. But this is not such an item, nor are his examples. Nobody needs multiple hours to install a toilet seat. These are cheap, every day items.
i'm not a huge electronics guy, but that setup looks fantastic. Building your own shelf was pure genius. Really looking forward to future shop videos regarding lifts and air plumbing etc. I'm certain your shop is gonna turn out amazing.
In the fine print of the marriage certificate, the wife must support the husband no matter how foolish his endeavors seem. Woman math, I saved $1000. By spending the day making it myself.
Wes, in case you didnt know: You can get thread inserts for 3D prints, which get inserted using a soldering iron. they basically melt into the plastic, allowing you to repeatedly screw and unscrew stuff. For this project they're not needed tho. Fantastic job, enjoyed watching it
Great setup! Two suggestions: A: Add a few mains power switches. One that switches on the lights and any measurement instruments and whatnot. Another that switches on outlets for devices you are working on, and your power supply. This way it's easy to not forget something switched on, and also it's easy to use this as an emergency off if something goes poorly. B: Maybe have that cable holder on a hinge so you can swing it out to be able to reach it while sitting at the table. Or possibly just mount it on the wall to the left of the table. P.S. you will miss the additional bench, but you made the right choice to use it for a shelf. In my experience it's a bad idea to have more than the absolutely minimum viable bench space, as it tends to accumulate half finished projects. I strongly recommend installing cabinets everywhere, as they are great storage but won't get used to drop things that you intend to put in their right place later, like shelves tend to do.
I knew the moment I seen flip-flops and knowing the weight of that table that this was not gonna be a good idea for her turns out she had a good idea, but she did give it to college. When she tried lifting; yeah, nope!
Howdy @Mrs Wes. A good bench is its own reward. Tough part is keeping them from reducing to havign only 2 square feet of open space, no matter the bench size.
Yeah, it builds up quickly in the tools. Next up, you want a hot air station, a rework station with smd solder tweezers and sucking soldering iron. Then you need a multi voltage power supply, then you need your magnification with a microscope of some kind, signal generators, VNAs, spectrum analyzers, hot plates or board preheaters... And the "active" projects need some space to live at as well! It seems like a never ending expanding cycle. But i like that 😅 I think what Wes' desk is missing is some more storage drawers, but they are probably easy enough to add with some office trolleys that you get cheap/free when corporations throw out "old" furniture.
And don't forget the ESD mat for that Electronics workbench. I would also recommend a soldapult solder sucker and a "third hand" to hold and keep things steady while soldering.
ESD isn't the problem today it was in the past. Early CMOS was very sensitive. Such fragile devices haven't been made in decades now. We have made progress on that front.
@1pcfred I worked in the QA engineering dept/test lab for Parker-Hannifin Corp in their Automation Division in northern California for years. All of the benches had ESD mats with drain wires to ground. Technicians are required to wear ESD shoes and wrist straps with drain wires too. I would do the same and not take a chance on zapping an expensive piece of electronics. You have no idea what parts the circuit is built with. Better to be safe than sorry!
@@damonhill4909 if it worked it wouldn't need to be worked on. Some things aren't worth fixing either. A lot of rules are just about obedience. There's a certain type of person that likes when others do what they're telling them to do. Wear the shoes and the straps! Some like being told what to do too. So it all works out.
Same reason I never bought one of those. You can buy used benches sometimes when big companies are getting rid of stuff... Though the last place I worked at would be just as likely to take a perfectly good bench and toss it in a dumpster. EDIT: I kinda want to replace my Weller WES-51 with a WES-51D.... I was poor and in school at the time, but there's nothing wrong with the WES-51 aside from the lack of a digital temperature display.... And now I know why you got that over the Hakko 😆. If I were to upgrade my soldering station I might go with a Hakko FX-951 for the higher thermal capacity, or copy Marcoreps or whoever it was who made a ripoff JBC or whatever it was.
Back in the eighties I worked with a guy at a local Ford dealer that turned me on to having a personal oscilloscope. Of course I haven't upgraded since those days, and adjusting range is more akin to adjusting squelch on C.B. radio.
An oscilliscope has been on my "to buy" list since the 90s when I first got into the workforce. Any decade now I'm going to pull the trigger on one. :) Maybe I should ask the family to buy me one since they're always wondering what to get me..
@@alskjflaksjdflakjdf An O-scope is a very handy tool if you learn how to use it. For a couple of hundred dollars you can get a pretty good scope with digital memory, and digital readouts for both voltage and frequency. I bought a Hantec DSO5102P a few years ago and have been very happy with it. The controls are almost identical to the hugh dollarTexas Instruments scope I use at work.
Nice bench! I get to use all that stuff on my kitchen table. Then put it all away when family comes over, and hide some of the stuff from myself, then play "try to find the stuff I put away where I know I'll find it", which seems to always be somewhere I can't find it until I don't need it. Then it's "oh crap, there's where I put that".
Nice job Wes, I recently purchased a cheap 30 vdc/10 amp power supply for testing, it said it was variable, but come to find out you have to set the amperage and voltage before the test and have no adjustments during the test, so buyer beware that's why they're so cheap.
I do electronics for the US DoD...what you say about the pricing of and preferred market for ESD-approved workbenches is spot-on. People with budgets do not buy such benches new. Only the largest companies and government are buyers.
Because of cheap imports, we all have a distorted view of what something cost when made locally. That being said, people need to be more creative on their own, like Wes
He's mostly right, all the prefab workbenches at the box stores , Sam's, HD , HF, Lowes are nearly all imports. I have seen some USA Craftsman and Husky tool cabinets, but few.
That's how I learned about those carpet sliders; from my now late wife. Actually, I learned a lot from her, particularly in the area of home maintenance tips and tricks. I can frame a house, do drywall, and all kinds of things, but she knew all the hacks.
Windsor Ontario has a phenomenon known as the "West End Weekend". It runs Tuesday through Saturday. I'll leave it up to you to vision the demographic that follows this calendar.
Thanks Wes you did a great job on your Electronics Bench. Some people just don't understand about building something to save money and setting it up as you want it to be Looks great in that corner of the new room.
For tapping holes in 3D prints, my shop has found great success with ribbed rivet nuts. All you have to do is make your hole slightly smaller than the OD, and then press them in with a hot soldering iron. The heat transfers through the steel and melts the plastic enough to get the m seated. You get a bit stronger hole than just tapping the plastic itself.
The only thing I can see that could be better is that those little blue shelves should have a small lip around the edge to stop things being knocked off so easily. Outstanding job Wes! Not sure where you're planning to put the rest of your leads, though.
I built a bench extremely similar to this for electronics work out of 2x4s, plywood and pegboard 6-7 years ago. Not quite as slick but it served me well.
You can even tap balsa wood. If I remember the procedure correctly, just drill and tap as usual. Get some CA glue aka super glue and dose the threads liberally to harden them up. You'll probably want to get the thin CA glue for hobbies not the thick gel stuff from the big box store so that the threads get a good soaking and you don't end up with globs of glue. After it hardens, chase the threads again with the tap. It's a tried and true method for building attachments for RC airplanes. I use nylon bolts not metal because nylon will fail before the CA infused threads and saves you from repairing primary structure after one too many hard landings or taking off on rough ground. But for a static application in the shop, metal should be fine.
Fantastic job, Wes. That looks an awful lot like my old Electronics Bench that was made out of wood and plywood, served me for a few decades.... now at 81, my stuff is crammed into boxes and I can't find what I want most of the time 🤫
That internal sense of accomplishment cannot be duplicated. Every time you use that bench you will instantly recall the project and have that feeling again. I know, I get it too when my projects/repairs work out. Wes, disregard unkind or chippy comments. I like to hear you talk and explain your thinking as you work. It's how I learn. If someone wants silence, they can always mute the volume. I like all your projects - not just auto/truck - the wood splitter rehab was perfect. If you want to fix it - do it. I say "soder" also, people need to learn there are silent consents in English. To de-solder try a red sucker bulb. Looks like a kid's clown nose W/a white tip. Melt the solder, then squeeze the bulb and suck it into the bulb to be emptied later. Much better than wicks. Like your channel V-much.
As a 79 year old life long antique auto shade tree mechanic and retired A T & T special services test center technician i am amazed to see the CNC machines work .. Your skill set is Macgyvish !!
Some women don’t get it. “Speedy delivery???” It’s always nice and easy when they say speedy delivery when you are paying for it but when they have to pay it’s a totally different answer. That’s when they say you can do without or you’ve done it this long what’s a little bit longer I can’t believe she won’t back you on this Wes. You are working hard and deserve some nice things to continue to do your work. You’ve put in your time so now you can enjoy the fruits of your labour. Nice job buddy!
I bought the same scope for the same reason. And it was more than 10-11 years ago Wes. Time marched on. I just unboxed and assembled my 3D printer yesterday after it was sitting in the box for longer than I am going to admit. That was a sweet bench you made. I'm still on a "temporary solution I made out of and IKEA desk and other junk I got from their remnants room. The IKEA JERKER desk is the only product IKEA made that I recommend. Naturally the newer ones are not near as good. Your 3D printing is also of interest to me now.
May I suggest a dim-bulb-supply for testing mains-powered devices? It is easy to DIY, it's just a mains power cord with a receptacle and a light bulb socket wired in series. Small devices will get almost the full 120VAC, because of the small resistance of the cold incandescent light bulb. But when your device would have a short circuit or drawing way more power than expected, the light bulb will just light up. No tripped breakers, no harm done. The luxury model has several light bulbs with switches, for easy selection of the expected power draw. And a bulb bypass switch. And a fuse.
I'm with Wes. It hurts my soul to spend money on something I can do by myself. Yes, my time is worth money, but I can get a whole lot done with my own time and make it the way I want it so it's a double win for me.
Those high priced toilet seat stories and such are mostly just news media smoke and mirrors. And often the prices are justified because of the mil spec requirement. We supplied a hammer for several thousand dollars. The stack of mil specifications for that hammer were literally more than a foot high. And I am using "literally" correctly. GREATER THAN ONE FOOT. It took several engineers more than a year to have all the tests done and study all the specs. In the end it was a Stanley hammer from the hardware store. BUT, we had to get a special contract with Stanley that we could continue to buy that EXACT hammer, same alloy, etc. For years to come. Not something Stanley always did. They were usually free to make improvements to their product line and change it as supplies changed but we had to make sure we got exactly the same hammer every time. Stanley had to charge us more for that guaranty. And we had to charge for our engineers time to do all the tests and paperwork for the stack of mil specs. AND the Airforce ultimately only wanted to buy about 200 hammers over 10 years. One spec concerned the spark that the hammer might generate in fuel vapor environment. As for the toilet seat story it turned out the news media was comparing the cost of the toilet seat made by someone who was NOT doing the mil spec paperwork. And once that was calculated it turned out the toilet seat was appropriately priced.
Written phrases like "Colonel Lincoln The Soldering Salmon" proves how messed up spelling in the English language can be. Every single word in the phrase must be taught so their pronunciation must be memorized. The sad thing is that it seems like people aren't memorizing these more and more online. Hard to find a video where the youtuber doesn't pronounce especially as eXpecially or use verse instead of versus. I guess I'm just getting old.
A grand for a shelf seems entirely unnecessary and unreasonable too. Your workaround was neat and elegant. Someone needs to be asking some pretty pointed questions to the manufacturer to justify the cost of what is a jig-built unit with a chipboard surface when the materials and manufacture time would be less than a quarter of the asking price. Great video as always, always something new and novel. Thank you.
Add a solder sucker, a metal trash can (for flicking hot solder blobs into), and a mini fridge. (Need beer for the hot tedious electronic work). I have a dremel on mine too because little files are too tedious. GREAT VIDEO!!!
I've been an mechanic & electronics tech for 40+yrs fixed thousands of dead laptops & phones not to mention read & writing eeproms & modules on my old wood tongue & groove bench with masonite over it never ever had a problem.
I have a Chinese T-12 kit iron and it's way better than my Weller WTCPN Even with a slow SMPS powering it it'll still heat up faster. I need to put a standby switch on my station. All in kit and PSU I think that iron cost me less than $25 to build. I made a custom case for it. They sell those too. But that would have blown the budget to buy that.
Well done, Wes! A couple notes from an electronics hobbyist and retrotech guy (as well as artist, budding writer, and all-around computer neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrd). One, Hakko is NOT an "off-brand" -- and, sadly, many "name brands" aren't any more (for instance, Zenith is now Funai Tech... you should see the guts I pulled out of _that_ LCD TV, what a joke). Two, fume extractor is... more hype than anything else. So-called "solder smoke" is only boiling-off flux and nothing more -- the metal smell is from the solder melting. Solder doesn't atomize, only the flux does... and rosin flux is nothing more than, basically, boiled pine sap (no, seriously, Wiki it, it's pine sap that's been rendered the way pig fat is rendered into lard). It's fine. Three... 0.031in solder (0.8mm in civilized units) for through-hole, use the hair-thin stuff only for super tiny surface-mount stuff unless you want to go through it waaay too fast. Four... antistatic mat is also hype. Unless you're working on something made literally in the 1970s, and it has very specific kinds of chips, you're fine without it. Done plenty of work, and plenty of _rework_ -- never bothered with the wrist strap. Literally the only stuff that needs that kind of protection is the really, really early CMOS-process stuff -- first-gen 4000-series glue logic and first-gen ROMs/RAMs that used CMOS tech. The HMOS, PMOS, and NMOS stuff, you can walk across a football field during an electrical storm holding that in one hand and a bare CB radio antenna in the other, and the chips will wind up better off than _you_ will. Anything TTL, or 1980s-and-later, same story, because by then they'd learned how to do proper ESD protection on chip dies. Tube stuff, same story, it's just too rugged. Literally if you're working on, e.g. an original Pong arcade cabinet from Atari, or "big iron" from IBM or DEC or the like that has actual chips in it, you _probably_ want the antistatic mat and wrist strap, but for anything more modern, or anything old enough to be discrete-component-only, you've not got to worry about it. Other'n that -- looks good to me. It's certainly cleaner than what I've got. Oh, two other things. Learn to use a logic probe and you mostly don't need a 'scope for what most folks use it today -- I have a $17 Elenco, it's the one that Blondihacks uses (aka Quinn Dunki) and she is an absolute literal living legend... as for multimeters, keep a couple Cen-Techs from Walmart around, or the $10 bargain-bin ones from Ace. Use the Fluke (or whatever you consider "nice", for me it's a $15 Sparkfun job) for the important stuff, use the cheap ones where you think you might screw up, so that you're not left swearing a blue streak because you blew up the _expensive_ one -- that's actually a BigClive tip. But, I'm a bit more shoestring than you are. No worries. We all have our limits, and they're all a bit different. One last thing, I mean it this time. Maybe up where you live it's different, but in MY house, "weekend" is Saturday and Sunday -- Friday and Monday only count on federal holidays, and even then it's only Friday evenings... and I don't even work! (I'm too incoherent to moonlight, even, so SSDI is all I have to work with. You'd be surprised at what you can do with a kludged-together 6v battery drill and hand tools and nothin else.)
Looks like you might have read my comment about using Carpet Squares in your office. They look great. And by the way, what brand of drill bits do you use? I need to get better drill bits.
@WatchWesWork Thank you for the reply? I know you're pretty busy, so I appreciate that. I'm going to look into those drill bits right away. Always looking forward to your next show.
Thanks for sharing. I've been using a white folding table for now. It works but I need a shelf for my hot air station and bench power supply. Also that fume extractor just hides the smoke, it doesn't actually protect you much. The (I forget the term) toc? levels are still there. Ideally you pump the air outside. Also if you ever come across a microscope cheap, or want one. I bought a amscope SE400Z. Its alright, I mounted it to a vesa monitor mount I got for cheap second hand. Also upgrade from that 858D. The atten ST-862D is about $150 from WGP. Well worth it. Cheers
LOL "speedy delivery" "1000 dollars" "SPEEDY DELIVERY!" "1000 DOLLARS!" you all crack me up lol "Its not the weekend, its friday" The kids right...you know lol
Saving $1000 is money that can be used for something just as important. DYI is also very rewarding and you customized it to your liking. Looks GREAT.
Yes it does and I am so envious of it.
That $1000 can go towards things you can't DIY!
@@Dries007BE There's nothing you can't DIY, just things out of your wheelhouse. Remember, NileRed is making hot sauce out of nitrile gloves.
And keeping things out of the trash is valuable just on its own.
@@aserta DIY me a new graphics card then.
Wifey helping out in flip flops, A+.
Seriously though, she's always a ray of sunshine in your already enjoyable videos. You guys are a great team and make good content together.
Hey, those are OSHA approved steel toed flip-flops
my foreman doesnt wear boots either
@@Andy_Hinners I worked with a carpenter once that actually had a pair of steel toed sandals.
chinese safety shoes or here in Australia thongs
Nice T-shirt Mrs. Wes. Fun to see you still get along with Thomas; and an occasional joke cracking..😁
As an older guy I would add a bench mounted lit magnifying glass, and if your eye sight is really getting bad a set of jewelers loops that mount on your glasses
Loupes.
I have 2 Optivisors, one for each workbench, plus the magnifier with light
I’ve started doing some board level repair on small electronics. Ive got a vintage microscope I’ve added LED lights and a circuit board holder to.
Sacrificing the second table hurt my hoarding soul. But that looks so much better than the shelf I would have rigged up. Proper.
I think a little ocd was going on. I would have welded up two shelves and had two less than perfect workbenches, pushed one in the back and piled crap on it. Just built one from scratch with storage drawers and cabinets like I have, but it does not look so lab like. Particle board and formica are expensive, not $2000 dollars expensive. Interestingly I think mine is painted blue because I saw a picture of these in a catalog (what's a catalog?)
Ok, looking around Wes's shop, maybe not ocd. Just wanted something really nice until he clutters it up.
Nah. He did right. Plus, we can see that the emperor's clothes really are ... what they are. The price asked VS the materials exposed by his cuts do not match. It's a grift. This is a good video to spread around so people don't get gipped by these grifters.
In my case, I would have absolutely made some abomination out pallet wood and scrap square tube.
The remaining pieces can still have use, as a set of shelves under the bench, to hold things like power bricks, and outlets for stuff always plugged in, plus a cheap set of drawers fitted to the one side (on castors so you can easily move it side to side) helps as well with storage of all those things you need.
With the IPA a good thing is to get small HDPE bottles, and put small volumes in it, so it is easier to use, and less likely to spill. Works with flux as well, buying in bulk and refilling the pen, though I simply went and got empty dropper bottles, and filled them with flux, and the same for IPA, using nail polish bottles that hold 10ml each. Easy to use, and much better control of where you apply it. Little brush makes for easy cleaning, and you just rinse out the bottle when it is dirty, or move it to being the first wash bottle, and have a clean final wash one.
Went through the same sticker shock on pro benches. Wanted one because we used those kind in the service in our Avionics shops. I ended up using a red Husky storage rack from Home Depot, replacing the metal wire shelves with plywood. Might be a good idea for another bench in the shop for heavier work. Sweet find on those two benches!
Wes,
New bench looks great. As a 35 year tech in and out of Navy facilities I like it.
I understand why melamine ESD tops cost so much. Melas are small fuzzy woodland creatures that are only found in a tiny area just east of Gotland Sweden. It takes a lot of them to make a benchtop so the prices stay high due to over hunting and loss of habitat.
In addition to all the general stuff.
On my bench I also keep a solder sucker. I find sometimes it works better than solder wick.
I have one of those cheap Chinese 1/4" drive screwdriver sets with about 75 different bits with everything from screwbits to nut drivers. The one I have has a screwdriver handle that also accepts a ratchet. For 95% of the small fasteners I run into it does the job before I open up the Xcelite tool suitcase.
I really like the Whia precision screwdrivers.
A set of Knipex automatic squeeze type wire strippers is handy.
As I got older I found I needed a board microscope. I like the LCD type better than the fixed eyepiece. They are getting cheap to buy now. ~$250.00
I bit the bullet and bought one of the Weller 6966 heat guns you showed. Pricey but I have to say I love it. Thank You
---M---
Nice setup. I worked as an Electrical Engineer for 30+ years and had a bench full of equipment from high end quad chan gigaherz O'scopes to logic and Spectrum Analyzers to TDRs and on and on... Thankfully retired now and only have a multimeter. Thinking about getting a portable o'scope for car troubleshooting, but I drive Toyotas and they never break. 😁 Thanks for the videos! 👍👍
I'm very appreciative of all the content you post, regardless of the subject matter. I enjoy watching content where the host takes pride in their work....a dying breed unfortunately. Between your pride, knowledge base, and ingenuity, you have a pretty damn good channel here! Thanks for investing your time to post content, it pays off!
The winner of the Oscar for "Best Wife Actor!" goes to:
Wifie
All the women taught her well. That's word for word, for word, what they say.
That's why we love them so.
Your very, very smart and determined, Wes and I hope you know that.
Mrs Wes is super focused on the upcoming weekend!
I did enjoy that 😂.
Sure love that the whole family is included. So many youtubers don't have their families because of the weirdos. We've seen that Wes has other protections.
Mrs Wes doesn’t seem to like to work on shop stuff
Party time
She's a teacher. Nuff said.
The repeated improv comedy of “it’s the weekend” was just gold.
Do we have Clearance Clarence?
$500 for the hutch plus shipping and tax is definitely like the $600 toilet seat. Only school districts and large corporations would pay that because the purchasing agent is spending someone else's money. You did a great job with what you had.
2000 $ for that thing and it is made from plywood... I do not know what to say.
@@leocurious9919 High density particle board. :)
Normally anyone would needing the setup but not able to build it
I work in a large industrial plant. You are paying for far more than the item. You have to request bids and paperwork before your product is selected. You have to follow established procurement and quality standards. You have to deliver it in a way that takes minimal setup time.
There is a whole ecosystem built around supplying to industry. When someone tries to go cheap, they quickly find out why it exists. If it takes someone is stores half an hour to sort out non-standard paperwork, and two technicians an hour to assemble, all your savings have just disappeared.
@@MichaelSteeves Those things exist for reasons, sure. But this is not such an item, nor are his examples. Nobody needs multiple hours to install a toilet seat. These are cheap, every day items.
A pin sticking out to slide the solder wick reel onto would be a good idea :)
i'm not a huge electronics guy, but that setup looks fantastic. Building your own shelf was pure genius.
Really looking forward to future shop videos regarding lifts and air plumbing etc.
I'm certain your shop is gonna turn out amazing.
It's shocking how good it looks 😂
Mate you warm my heart lol. A "mechanic" who knows more about ESD than half the wannabe "technicians" on the YT. I am very pleased!
In the fine print of the marriage certificate, the wife must support the husband no matter how foolish his endeavors seem. Woman math, I saved $1000. By spending the day making it myself.
"It's the weekend, I probably wont be out here to help". Immediately helping in the next shot.
Got a keeper there!
I love it when Mrs. Wes, the dog and your children are involved in your projects.
Pretty sure the dog is stunned😂
@@Jon-wg8vrWILLARD! YA STUNNED?? 😂😂😂
@@elesjuan I was hoping Wes was going to catch it I could swear I remember him making a comment about Pegg once
@@Jon-wg8vr oh Wes absolutely has made Peg references. LOVE IT.
BOOM, the way you were beaming when you showed off your homework said it all Wes! Great job and thank you for sharing.
Wes, in case you didnt know: You can get thread inserts for 3D prints, which get inserted using a soldering iron. they basically melt into the plastic, allowing you to repeatedly screw and unscrew stuff. For this project they're not needed tho. Fantastic job, enjoyed watching it
@JobyFluorine-ru4bd
Looks to me that was recycled 3D materials. An excellent use the second time around. You fool.
Wife: "I will not be helping."
5 seconds later: shows wife helping.
I have one of those wives too. We're lucky fellas Wes.
I had the same color and style Benches back in my electronic tech job in 80's, An excellent project, well done, looks Great too!
Great setup!
Two suggestions:
A: Add a few mains power switches. One that switches on the lights and any measurement instruments and whatnot. Another that switches on outlets for devices you are working on, and your power supply. This way it's easy to not forget something switched on, and also it's easy to use this as an emergency off if something goes poorly.
B: Maybe have that cable holder on a hinge so you can swing it out to be able to reach it while sitting at the table. Or possibly just mount it on the wall to the left of the table.
P.S. you will miss the additional bench, but you made the right choice to use it for a shelf. In my experience it's a bad idea to have more than the absolutely minimum viable bench space, as it tends to accumulate half finished projects. I strongly recommend installing cabinets everywhere, as they are great storage but won't get used to drop things that you intend to put in their right place later, like shelves tend to do.
Mrs. Wes is working smarter, not harder and she didn't break a sweat moving that table
Mrs Wes has a Masters Degree in Mathamatics. She is one extremely intelligent and very smart person. Massive respect for her and Mr Wes.
I knew the moment I seen flip-flops and knowing the weight of that table that this was not gonna be a good idea for her turns out she had a good idea, but she did give it to college. When she tried lifting; yeah, nope!
Howdy @Mrs Wes.
A good bench is its own reward. Tough part is keeping them from reducing to havign only 2 square feet of open space, no matter the bench size.
Amen to that! I've got one about 9 feet long and wish I had 2 square feet! Stuff is multiplying while I sleep is my estimation
Workbenches and sheds suffer from the same problem. They are NEVER big enough.
Yeah, it builds up quickly in the tools. Next up, you want a hot air station, a rework station with smd solder tweezers and sucking soldering iron. Then you need a multi voltage power supply, then you need your magnification with a microscope of some kind, signal generators, VNAs, spectrum analyzers, hot plates or board preheaters... And the "active" projects need some space to live at as well! It seems like a never ending expanding cycle. But i like that 😅
I think what Wes' desk is missing is some more storage drawers, but they are probably easy enough to add with some office trolleys that you get cheap/free when corporations throw out "old" furniture.
I thought the clear area of the workbench was the vice jaws.
Who else squealed "yeah" when the table legs clicked so nicely into the printed holders? Nice project Wes, happy for you.
Really digging these shop videos!
And don't forget the ESD mat for that Electronics workbench. I would also recommend a soldapult solder sucker and a "third hand" to hold and keep things steady while soldering.
A third hand with lighted magnifier is nice.
ESD isn't the problem today it was in the past. Early CMOS was very sensitive. Such fragile devices haven't been made in decades now. We have made progress on that front.
@1pcfred I worked in the QA engineering dept/test lab for Parker-Hannifin Corp in their Automation Division in northern California for years. All of the benches had ESD mats with drain wires to ground. Technicians are required to wear ESD shoes and wrist straps with drain wires too. I would do the same and not take a chance on zapping an expensive piece of electronics. You have no idea what parts the circuit is built with. Better to be safe than sorry!
@@damonhill4909 if it worked it wouldn't need to be worked on. Some things aren't worth fixing either. A lot of rules are just about obedience. There's a certain type of person that likes when others do what they're telling them to do. Wear the shoes and the straps! Some like being told what to do too. So it all works out.
That's the first time I have ever seen a flying squirrel!
Unfortunately for the squirrel, it was the "Boeing" subgenus.
I said to my son, look he's a flying squirrel now. Glad to see others are on the same track.
Can’t believe the eagle flew away. He was in gun range.
That shelf looks fantastic. Very well executed.
Congrats on your new office and electronic work space,you deserve the upgrade!
The wife looks as interested in the project as cleaning week old road kill off the street!🤣🤣
Same reason I never bought one of those. You can buy used benches sometimes when big companies are getting rid of stuff... Though the last place I worked at would be just as likely to take a perfectly good bench and toss it in a dumpster.
EDIT: I kinda want to replace my Weller WES-51 with a WES-51D.... I was poor and in school at the time, but there's nothing wrong with the WES-51 aside from the lack of a digital temperature display.... And now I know why you got that over the Hakko 😆.
If I were to upgrade my soldering station I might go with a Hakko FX-951 for the higher thermal capacity, or copy Marcoreps or whoever it was who made a ripoff JBC or whatever it was.
Wes is becoming my favorite woodworking channel on YT!
Woodworking WESnesday.
Back in the eighties I worked with a guy at a local Ford dealer that turned me on to having a personal oscilloscope. Of course I haven't upgraded since those days, and adjusting range is more akin to adjusting squelch on C.B. radio.
An oscilliscope has been on my "to buy" list since the 90s when I first got into the workforce. Any decade now I'm going to pull the trigger on one. :) Maybe I should ask the family to buy me one since they're always wondering what to get me..
@@alskjflaksjdflakjdf An O-scope is a very handy tool if you learn how to use it. For a couple of hundred dollars you can get a pretty good scope with digital memory, and digital readouts for both voltage and frequency. I bought a Hantec DSO5102P a few years ago and have been very happy with it. The controls are almost identical to the hugh dollarTexas Instruments scope I use at work.
Nice bench! I get to use all that stuff on my kitchen table. Then put it all away when family comes over, and hide some of the stuff from myself, then play "try to find the stuff I put away where I know I'll find it", which seems to always be somewhere I can't find it until I don't need it. Then it's "oh crap, there's where I put that".
Nice job Wes, I recently purchased a cheap 30 vdc/10 amp power supply for testing, it said it was variable, but come to find out you have to set the amperage and voltage before the test and have no adjustments during the test, so buyer beware that's why they're so cheap.
"We're building an electronics table" "We?" LOL for a moment there I thought I might be watching Stuff Made Here
My wife is also the human outfeed table.
Is wall control a new and upcoming company? Just saw a J. Kenji Lopez-Alt vid where he was recommending them too.
I do electronics for the US DoD...what you say about the pricing of and preferred market for ESD-approved workbenches is spot-on. People with budgets do not buy such benches new. Only the largest companies and government are buyers.
Because of cheap imports, we all have a distorted view of what something cost when made locally.
That being said, people need to be more creative on their own, like Wes
He's mostly right, all the prefab workbenches at the box stores , Sam's, HD , HF, Lowes are nearly all imports. I have seen some USA Craftsman and Husky tool cabinets, but few.
That's how I learned about those carpet sliders; from my now late wife. Actually, I learned a lot from her, particularly in the area of home maintenance tips and tricks. I can frame a house, do drywall, and all kinds of things, but she knew all the hacks.
“…it’s Thursday.” 😂😂
Windsor Ontario has a phenomenon known as the "West End Weekend". It runs Tuesday through Saturday.
I'll leave it up to you to vision the demographic that follows this calendar.
Thanks Wes you did a great job on your Electronics Bench. Some people just don't understand about building something to save money and setting it up as you want it to be Looks great in that corner of the new room.
Nice, I have workbench envy. And a new storage "solution" to explore 😊
Selfishly, I'd much rather watch Wes fabricobble than watch Wes procure
For tapping holes in 3D prints, my shop has found great success with ribbed rivet nuts. All you have to do is make your hole slightly smaller than the OD, and then press them in with a hot soldering iron. The heat transfers through the steel and melts the plastic enough to get the m seated.
You get a bit stronger hole than just tapping the plastic itself.
As well as just making that section thicker
The only thing I can see that could be better is that those little blue shelves should have a small lip around the edge to stop things being knocked off so easily.
Outstanding job Wes! Not sure where you're planning to put the rest of your leads, though.
Result turned out much better than I expected, great job Wes
I built a bench extremely similar to this for electronics work out of 2x4s, plywood and pegboard 6-7 years ago. Not quite as slick but it served me well.
You can even tap balsa wood. If I remember the procedure correctly, just drill and tap as usual. Get some CA glue aka super glue and dose the threads liberally to harden them up. You'll probably want to get the thin CA glue for hobbies not the thick gel stuff from the big box store so that the threads get a good soaking and you don't end up with globs of glue. After it hardens, chase the threads again with the tap. It's a tried and true method for building attachments for RC airplanes. I use nylon bolts not metal because nylon will fail before the CA infused threads and saves you from repairing primary structure after one too many hard landings or taking off on rough ground. But for a static application in the shop, metal should be fine.
Ya still could use a SOL-DERRR Suck'R. (Sounds bad, works good!) 🤣
Awesome bench and many ideas I will need to copy. Thanks.
Fantastic job, Wes. That looks an awful lot like my old Electronics Bench that was made out of wood and plywood, served me for a few decades.... now at 81, my stuff is crammed into boxes and I can't find what I want most of the time 🤫
Never gets old seeing you impressed with yourself Wes
Wes,
Very nice E table. I enjoyed your video and seeing your family. Boe
Wes man how satisfying is this watching a Fella scratching his itch “ your electronic bench “ my tool shed !😊happy for a guy
I'm not an electronics guy. . But I am a workbench guy. Nice work!!
wow, that 'kiddo' is growing up so fast, great to see him. nice project, cant wait see some action
I've got a cat that dines on squirrel every chance he gets. He leaves nothing but the tail.
You would think the cat would love all that extra hair to cough up in your house😂
@@Jon-wg8vr
I've seen what's produced at the other end the next day. Must all get dissolved no fur. no bones.
@@Andy_Hinners you dig up your cat turds
That internal sense of accomplishment cannot be duplicated. Every time you use that bench you will instantly recall the project and have that feeling again. I know, I get it too when my projects/repairs work out. Wes, disregard unkind or chippy comments. I like to hear you talk and explain your thinking as you work. It's how I learn. If someone wants silence, they can always mute the volume. I like all your projects - not just auto/truck - the wood splitter rehab was perfect. If you want to fix it - do it. I say "soder" also, people need to learn there are silent consents in English. To de-solder try a red sucker bulb. Looks like a kid's clown nose W/a white tip. Melt the solder, then squeeze the bulb and suck it into the bulb to be emptied later. Much better than wicks. Like your channel V-much.
As a 79 year old life long antique auto shade tree mechanic and retired A T & T special services test center technician i am amazed to see the CNC machines work .. Your skill set is Macgyvish !!
Watch Wes Work… more like “Watch Wes get dragged by his old lady again”
Definitely a sweet looking workbench setup
Outstanding job! You had the best motivation a man can possibly have......proving the wife wrong.
$2200.00 for a formica topped bench? That's absolutely ridiculous! I can't believe that these people are still in business!
yea the govt can only buy from certain dealers, its crazy the costs of stuff
yep, just after he said the price i immediately thought government sales and large corporations.
Schools, institutions must spend your money on these or something like them. Also, This is a ESD formica, which you can't buy at lowes.
Awesome electronics bench!!!! I need one of those..lol....problem is that you will definitely need two of these benches....
Some women don’t get it. “Speedy delivery???”
It’s always nice and easy when they say speedy delivery when you are paying for it but when they have to pay it’s a totally different answer. That’s when they say you can do without or you’ve done it this long what’s a little bit longer
I can’t believe she won’t back you on this Wes. You are working hard and deserve some nice things to continue to do your work. You’ve put in your time so now you can enjoy the fruits of your labour.
Nice job buddy!
I bought the same scope for the same reason. And it was more than 10-11 years ago Wes. Time marched on. I just unboxed and assembled my 3D printer yesterday after it was sitting in the box for longer than I am going to admit. That was a sweet bench you made. I'm still on a "temporary solution I made out of and IKEA desk and other junk I got from their remnants room. The IKEA JERKER desk is the only product IKEA made that I recommend. Naturally the newer ones are not near as good.
Your 3D printing is also of interest to me now.
May I suggest a dim-bulb-supply for testing mains-powered devices? It is easy to DIY, it's just a mains power cord with a receptacle and a light bulb socket wired in series. Small devices will get almost the full 120VAC, because of the small resistance of the cold incandescent light bulb. But when your device would have a short circuit or drawing way more power than expected, the light bulb will just light up. No tripped breakers, no harm done.
The luxury model has several light bulbs with switches, for easy selection of the expected power draw. And a bulb bypass switch. And a fuse.
Wes im 3 minutes into the video and it sounds like your wife is giving you permission to buy tools/shop supplys don't argue with her 😂
I'm with Wes. It hurts my soul to spend money on something I can do by myself. Yes, my time is worth money, but I can get a whole lot done with my own time and make it the way I want it so it's a double win for me.
And it is more fun.
Long time since I watched someone use a screwdriver to drive screws!
Or use a hammer to drive nails. 😄
Sweet! The only thing missing is a desk magnifying glass with a light.
I agree you can never ever have to many leads Loved the Video Great work as always 17:08 @Watch Wes Work
Those high priced toilet seat stories and such are mostly just news media smoke and mirrors. And often the prices are justified because of the mil spec requirement. We supplied a hammer for several thousand dollars. The stack of mil specifications for that hammer were literally more than a foot high. And I am using "literally" correctly. GREATER THAN ONE FOOT. It took several engineers more than a year to have all the tests done and study all the specs. In the end it was a Stanley hammer from the hardware store. BUT, we had to get a special contract with Stanley that we could continue to buy that EXACT hammer, same alloy, etc. For years to come. Not something Stanley always did. They were usually free to make improvements to their product line and change it as supplies changed but we had to make sure we got exactly the same hammer every time. Stanley had to charge us more for that guaranty. And we had to charge for our engineers time to do all the tests and paperwork for the stack of mil specs. AND the Airforce ultimately only wanted to buy about 200 hammers over 10 years. One spec concerned the spark that the hammer might generate in fuel vapor environment.
As for the toilet seat story it turned out the news media was comparing the cost of the toilet seat made by someone who was NOT doing the mil spec paperwork. And once that was calculated it turned out the toilet seat was appropriately priced.
I understand. I have done work inside government nuclear research facilities, and on military bases. You don't just show up and start working.
Written phrases like "Colonel Lincoln The Soldering Salmon" proves how messed up spelling in the English language can be. Every single word in the phrase must be taught so their pronunciation must be memorized. The sad thing is that it seems like people aren't memorizing these more and more online. Hard to find a video where the youtuber doesn't pronounce especially as eXpecially or use verse instead of versus. I guess I'm just getting old.
Just axe yourself, "does it really matter"?
A grand for a shelf seems entirely unnecessary and unreasonable too. Your workaround was neat and elegant. Someone needs to be asking some pretty pointed questions to the manufacturer to justify the cost of what is a jig-built unit with a chipboard surface when the materials and manufacture time would be less than a quarter of the asking price. Great video as always, always something new and novel. Thank you.
I suspect their cost is more about making a niche product in the US for institutional customers who require insane amounts of paperwork.
Mrs Wes cracks me up. haha
Spiffy bench though Wes. Interesting application of 3D printing. Your office is really coming along.
No tree rats were hurt in this video
Maybe just one....
I don't understand the reason why you 3D printed plastic brackets to join the two halves of the shelf.
Why not metal brackets or weld?
Maybe because he can, they work well, and it's pretty cool content.
Add a solder sucker, a metal trash can (for flicking hot solder blobs into), and a mini fridge. (Need beer for the hot tedious electronic work). I have a dremel on mine too because little files are too tedious. GREAT VIDEO!!!
I've been an mechanic & electronics tech for 40+yrs fixed thousands of dead laptops & phones not to mention read & writing eeproms & modules on my old wood tongue & groove bench with masonite over it never ever had a problem.
Now you need to find an identical table without the shelf for your 3D printer
Turned out really nice!
Kiddo is getting so Big Wes And Great Custom electronics Table Super Snazzy love Weller and Haiko 11:48 @Watch Wes Work
I have a Chinese T-12 kit iron and it's way better than my Weller WTCPN Even with a slow SMPS powering it it'll still heat up faster. I need to put a standby switch on my station. All in kit and PSU I think that iron cost me less than $25 to build. I made a custom case for it. They sell those too. But that would have blown the budget to buy that.
Great team effort! Next time, you gotta get some OSHA approved shoes for the Mrs.
Awesome project. Your wife's facial expression and comments at the beginning were perfect
Holy toledo ya boys grown up quick
I used that Weller soldering iron kit years ago while working for Lockheed as a calibration tech. I highly recommend it!
Well done, Wes!
A couple notes from an electronics hobbyist and retrotech guy (as well as artist, budding writer, and all-around computer neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrd). One, Hakko is NOT an "off-brand" -- and, sadly, many "name brands" aren't any more (for instance, Zenith is now Funai Tech... you should see the guts I pulled out of _that_ LCD TV, what a joke). Two, fume extractor is... more hype than anything else. So-called "solder smoke" is only boiling-off flux and nothing more -- the metal smell is from the solder melting. Solder doesn't atomize, only the flux does... and rosin flux is nothing more than, basically, boiled pine sap (no, seriously, Wiki it, it's pine sap that's been rendered the way pig fat is rendered into lard). It's fine. Three... 0.031in solder (0.8mm in civilized units) for through-hole, use the hair-thin stuff only for super tiny surface-mount stuff unless you want to go through it waaay too fast.
Four... antistatic mat is also hype. Unless you're working on something made literally in the 1970s, and it has very specific kinds of chips, you're fine without it. Done plenty of work, and plenty of _rework_ -- never bothered with the wrist strap. Literally the only stuff that needs that kind of protection is the really, really early CMOS-process stuff -- first-gen 4000-series glue logic and first-gen ROMs/RAMs that used CMOS tech. The HMOS, PMOS, and NMOS stuff, you can walk across a football field during an electrical storm holding that in one hand and a bare CB radio antenna in the other, and the chips will wind up better off than _you_ will. Anything TTL, or 1980s-and-later, same story, because by then they'd learned how to do proper ESD protection on chip dies. Tube stuff, same story, it's just too rugged. Literally if you're working on, e.g. an original Pong arcade cabinet from Atari, or "big iron" from IBM or DEC or the like that has actual chips in it, you _probably_ want the antistatic mat and wrist strap, but for anything more modern, or anything old enough to be discrete-component-only, you've not got to worry about it.
Other'n that -- looks good to me. It's certainly cleaner than what I've got.
Oh, two other things. Learn to use a logic probe and you mostly don't need a 'scope for what most folks use it today -- I have a $17 Elenco, it's the one that Blondihacks uses (aka Quinn Dunki) and she is an absolute literal living legend... as for multimeters, keep a couple Cen-Techs from Walmart around, or the $10 bargain-bin ones from Ace. Use the Fluke (or whatever you consider "nice", for me it's a $15 Sparkfun job) for the important stuff, use the cheap ones where you think you might screw up, so that you're not left swearing a blue streak because you blew up the _expensive_ one -- that's actually a BigClive tip.
But, I'm a bit more shoestring than you are. No worries. We all have our limits, and they're all a bit different.
One last thing, I mean it this time. Maybe up where you live it's different, but in MY house, "weekend" is Saturday and Sunday -- Friday and Monday only count on federal holidays, and even then it's only Friday evenings... and I don't even work! (I'm too incoherent to moonlight, even, so SSDI is all I have to work with. You'd be surprised at what you can do with a kludged-together 6v battery drill and hand tools and nothin else.)
Just as you got to the bald eagle with the squirrel part, my dogs raced outside to chase a squirrel lol
Looks like
you might have read my comment about using Carpet Squares in your office. They look great. And by the way, what brand of drill bits do you use? I need to get better drill bits.
Yes, carpet squares. Worked out great. I use Chicago Latrobe drills.
@WatchWesWork Thank you for the reply? I know you're pretty busy, so I appreciate that. I'm going to look into those drill bits right away. Always looking forward to your next show.
I picked a bad day to be a squirrel. Lol. Nice electron bench.
Thanks for sharing. I've been using a white folding table for now. It works but I need a shelf for my hot air station and bench power supply. Also that fume extractor just hides the smoke, it doesn't actually protect you much. The (I forget the term) toc? levels are still there. Ideally you pump the air outside. Also if you ever come across a microscope cheap, or want one. I bought a amscope SE400Z. Its alright, I mounted it to a vesa monitor mount I got for cheap second hand. Also upgrade from that 858D. The atten ST-862D is about $150 from WGP. Well worth it. Cheers
"the Royal we" 🤣 i'm gonna implement that at my house 👍🏻
LOL "speedy delivery" "1000 dollars" "SPEEDY DELIVERY!" "1000 DOLLARS!" you all crack me up lol "Its not the weekend, its friday" The kids right...you know lol
To us, Wes, all your videos are 'bangers'! You do you, we'll be here for it.
What, no flux capacitor ???!