Hey PF, nice setup. I'm looking to build a similar table for a couple of 3D printers, but mine will all be made from all wood. Of course I still have to do my bench lighting project, but I'm getting there very slowly. Of course that is the way I get most things done these days. LOL Look forward to seeing more projects from you in the future. :)
Thanks Doug! Been having a lot going on here but trying to get caught up. Had considered wood but just decided in my case it would delay getting the job done. More project vids on the way. Very much appreciate the note. Very best.
You're obviously experienced at this, so my comment might not specifically apply to you, but I would caution newbies against using any kind of metal shelving for the equipment. If you do, one must take great pains to make absolutely certain that none of the test equipment can ever make an inadvertent chassis connection to the metal shelving. Although the metal rails are heavily painted and it's not that likely that equipment will scratch through the paint sufficiently to make a connection to it, when you have a mix of vintage and newer test equipment, all of which has different internal grounding scenarios ---- ranging from no connection to a capacitor-coupled/ non-polarized wall-cord connection to an actual earth ground connection ---- the possibility exists of one or more pieces of equipment accidentally making electronic contact with metal shelving. This might not automatically constitute a safety hazard but you really don't want to take a chance on it;, and a more likely possibility is that you will get weird readings from oscilloscopes and other sensitive test equipment due to small amounts of current flowing through the metal shelving, or perhaps it will become a capacitively-coupled pickup antenna or a re-radiator of energy from an RF generator. Perhaps the metal shelving should be grounded, although there might be scenarios where that causes problems rather than canceling them. At the very least I would be putting rubber moldings, or even duct tape, on all exposed edges of the shelving so that equipment doesn't accidentally get pushed onto or into them and make contact. My other comment from 20 years as an audio equipment bench tech is that if you can set up the bench so that it's several feet away from the wall and you can walk behind the shelves to hook up equipment and change power cord routing and so on, do it. This isn't practical for many people working in a small space, but if you have sufficient room I highly recommend it. PS, I would never put soldering equipment up on a shelf; I am right-handed, so the soldering and desoldering stations were on the right side of the bench. I used the variac with built-in current limiting somewhat less often than the soldering equipment , so I put the variac on the left , which might not have been ideal but it was a small narrow bench built into a nook in the wall, and I had to make compromises.
Thanks for those points. Yes, for those inexperienced, the use of an isolation transformer is one of the most overlooked essentials and is difficult to find correctly set up for a tech bench. Those for medical applications still pass through the ground/neutral and therefore do not do the type of isolation needed without modification by someone who knows what they are doing. In looking at my situation you will see I placed a foam insulating tube over the exposed post in the middle back of the bench. The other metal points higher up I can manage. In addition to everything on GFCI I have lots of current limiting as well for DUT. The bench top does not have metal railing under it so I have not had any coupling issues thus far. When soldering, the soldering pencil stand comes down to the bench top so I do not park it overhead when in use. I am definitely space limited so access behind is not possible for me. Thanks for the comments.
@@PracticallyFixed , I don't work on vintage AC-DC transformerless radios, and I'm retired from Audio repair now, therefore on whatever projects I do on my own, an isolation transformer isn't strictly necessary, but if I was working on such radios or using an oscilloscope a lot then it's really a good idea to have one if for no other reason than to prevent blowing up sensitive equipment (including vintage VTVM's). By the way, I've noticed from watching UA-cam videos reviewing modern digital soldering stations that are "clones" of the more expensive pro-grade stuff, some of them leak fairly high voltage at low current onto the tip and could cause all kinds of weird behavior with associated test gear or perhaps damage sensitive IC's and components. One guy opened up a Yihua desoldering station to find that it switched the neutral instead of the hot and had all kinds of other construction and design errors built-in.
Isolation transformer was front of mind as I am about to work on a true hot-chassis set, without even the (now failed) capacitor isolation. Fact is, none of the videos here or elsewhere are instruction of fundamentals, including safety. I don't know where younger or inexperienced folks get the fundamentals these days as I believe classes on this in public schools are long gone. Being raised by an engineer "helping him" with tube gear (including TVs as we all did) as a kid, and then working in the R&D department at TI as a teen I picked up most of my initial training then, which of course continued in my working life (also retired). Newbies need an "Elmer", as in the ham world; I have never seen adequate instruction in fundamentals on any channel here. Just no substitute for an old hand looking over their shoulder and correcting someone as they are making an error. As mentioned, these videos are intended for just entertainment for folks like me who enjoy watching folks puzzle through troubleshooting and how to use logic based upon their understanding. I am trying to give back by videoing my own projects. Interesting point about the irons (I think I saw that video you mentioned a while back). Perhaps I should open mine up and take a look. Have done a lot of work with it and haven't damaged anything yet (have been using this unit for about 15 years), but you got me interested. Saw shango do a review recently of a station which created noticeable RF interference for him; my soldering station does not do that to a noticeable extent, but my relatively new hot air station does. Wonder if FCC relaxed their regulations to facilitate all these lower cost switch mode power supplies that are everywhere now.
@@PracticallyFixed , I don't know if the FCC specifically relaxed regulations on RF emissions or if UL safety codes have been watered-down ----- but with so many people buying "cloned" or counterfeit equipment directly from Asia, basically they get what they get because there is little to no regulatory oversight of such equipment. If you watch Big Clive's channel, he frequently does teardowns and reviews of equipment that turns out to be highly dangerous. But anyway, younger generations typically don't have the chance to learn electrical and electronic safety until they make a major mistake which they might not recover from. Learning to use power tools as a kid in the late 60s, I discovered what could happen if you were using a metal cased, ungrounded power drill while standing barefoot or in damp moccasins on a concrete slab floor in the basement or garage. Our schools had wood and metal shops,, auto mechanics for the gearhead types (wasn't my thing), and an electronics shop.. We subscribed to Popular Mechanics, Popular Electronics and other similar magazines as kids, so we were always reading about electrical and electronics projects that you could do yourself. In 1970 or 71 my dad, my younger brother and I partially gutted our cottage at the beach, rewired the electrical, improved the plumbing, and changed out all the windows and put up new paneling. I got zapped a few times by the power tools and I was much happier in the late 70s and 80s when double-insulated Bosch and Makita tools came out that didn't need grounding and wouldn't shock you through the plastic casings. Nowadays, of course, the prevalence of cordless tools makes both pros and DIY-ers even safer. Also, as an amateur guitar player, and still amateur all these years later, we all found out the hard way that playing guitar while standing on a concrete slab could zap you because the strings were connected to the chassis of the amp. If you want to see videos on UA-cam where the techs are very careful to remind people that amplifiers should always have a 3 wire earth-grounded power cord, watch guitar amp repairs. The good techs are all very careful to reiterate this fact over and over, and to point out when the switch or fuse are placed in the neutral line instead of the hot line, or if the chassis grounding is done in a way that's unreliable. By the way, I posted some soldering related videos on my channel recently including a review and tear down of a $45 Harbor Freight Schneider soldering station that isn't half bad for the money (certainly much better than what I had to work with as a kid in the 60s), as well as an investigation into the crappy direct-from-China soldering iron tips that are so prevalent on the internet nowadays. It's one thing to buy a cloned soldering station direct from China, but people, especially newbies to soldering, are really better off buying name brand tips, solder, flux and other accessories from authorized distributors in the US instead of buying from faceless Asian sellers. If you skim through the comments of any soldering-related video on UA-cam, you will find dozens of people complaining that the solder "won't stick to the tip" or "falls off the tip", or "it won't melt, it won't flow"...... and of course,"what am I doing wrong?"
![Finale - 1940 Zenith "Long Distance" Portable - Vacuum Tube Radio 6D510 Part 2 [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oIIv1x1tjus/mqdefault.jpg)
![Finale - 1940 Zenith "Long Distance" Portable - Vacuum Tube Radio 6D510 Part 2 [4K]](/img/tr.png)
![Zenith Tube Radio and the Story BEHIND Civil Defense Radio Markings - 1961 XD50G Restoration [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X4t-CAelWdE/mqdefault.jpg)
Looks great! A lot more room with improved equipment management 👍😉
Hi Jim, thanks for the note. More to come soon.
Hey PF, nice setup. I'm looking to build a similar table for a couple of 3D printers, but mine will all be made from all wood. Of course I still have to do my bench lighting project, but I'm getting there very slowly. Of course that is the way I get most things done these days. LOL Look forward to seeing more projects from you in the future. :)
Thanks Doug! Been having a lot going on here but trying to get caught up. Had considered wood but just decided in my case it would delay getting the job done. More project vids on the way. Very much appreciate the note. Very best.
You're obviously experienced at this, so my comment might not specifically apply to you, but I would caution newbies against using any kind of metal shelving for the equipment. If you do, one must take great pains to make absolutely certain that none of the test equipment can ever make an inadvertent chassis connection to the metal shelving. Although the metal rails are heavily painted and it's not that likely that equipment will scratch through the paint sufficiently to make a connection to it, when you have a mix of vintage and newer test equipment, all of which has different internal grounding scenarios ---- ranging from no connection to a capacitor-coupled/ non-polarized wall-cord connection to an actual earth ground connection ---- the possibility exists of one or more pieces of equipment accidentally making electronic contact with metal shelving. This might not automatically constitute a safety hazard but you really don't want to take a chance on it;, and a more likely possibility is that you will get weird readings from oscilloscopes and other sensitive test equipment due to small amounts of current flowing through the metal shelving, or perhaps it will become a capacitively-coupled pickup antenna or a re-radiator of energy from an RF generator. Perhaps the metal shelving should be grounded, although there might be scenarios where that causes problems rather than canceling them. At the very least I would be putting rubber moldings, or even duct tape, on all exposed edges of the shelving so that equipment doesn't accidentally get pushed onto or into them and make contact.
My other comment from 20 years as an audio equipment bench tech is that if you can set up the bench so that it's several feet away from the wall and you can walk behind the shelves to hook up equipment and change power cord routing and so on, do it. This isn't practical for many people working in a small space, but if you have sufficient room I highly recommend it. PS, I would never put soldering equipment up on a shelf; I am right-handed, so the soldering and desoldering stations were on the right side of the bench. I used the variac with built-in current limiting somewhat less often than the soldering equipment , so I put the variac on the left , which might not have been ideal but it was a small narrow bench built into a nook in the wall, and I had to make compromises.
Thanks for those points. Yes, for those inexperienced, the use of an isolation transformer is one of the most overlooked essentials and is difficult to find correctly set up for a tech bench. Those for medical applications still pass through the ground/neutral and therefore do not do the type of isolation needed without modification by someone who knows what they are doing. In looking at my situation you will see I placed a foam insulating tube over the exposed post in the middle back of the bench. The other metal points higher up I can manage. In addition to everything on GFCI I have lots of current limiting as well for DUT. The bench top does not have metal railing under it so I have not had any coupling issues thus far. When soldering, the soldering pencil stand comes down to the bench top so I do not park it overhead when in use. I am definitely space limited so access behind is not possible for me. Thanks for the comments.
@@PracticallyFixed , I don't work on vintage AC-DC transformerless radios, and I'm retired from Audio repair now, therefore on whatever projects I do on my own, an isolation transformer isn't strictly necessary, but if I was working on such radios or using an oscilloscope a lot then it's really a good idea to have one if for no other reason than to prevent blowing up sensitive equipment (including vintage VTVM's). By the way, I've noticed from watching UA-cam videos reviewing modern digital soldering stations that are "clones" of the more expensive pro-grade stuff, some of them leak fairly high voltage at low current onto the tip and could cause all kinds of weird behavior with associated test gear or perhaps damage sensitive IC's and components. One guy opened up a Yihua desoldering station to find that it switched the neutral instead of the hot and had all kinds of other construction and design errors built-in.
Isolation transformer was front of mind as I am about to work on a true hot-chassis set, without even the (now failed) capacitor isolation. Fact is, none of the videos here or elsewhere are instruction of fundamentals, including safety. I don't know where younger or inexperienced folks get the fundamentals these days as I believe classes on this in public schools are long gone. Being raised by an engineer "helping him" with tube gear (including TVs as we all did) as a kid, and then working in the R&D department at TI as a teen I picked up most of my initial training then, which of course continued in my working life (also retired). Newbies need an "Elmer", as in the ham world; I have never seen adequate instruction in fundamentals on any channel here. Just no substitute for an old hand looking over their shoulder and correcting someone as they are making an error. As mentioned, these videos are intended for just entertainment for folks like me who enjoy watching folks puzzle through troubleshooting and how to use logic based upon their understanding. I am trying to give back by videoing my own projects.
Interesting point about the irons (I think I saw that video you mentioned a while back). Perhaps I should open mine up and take a look. Have done a lot of work with it and haven't damaged anything yet (have been using this unit for about 15 years), but you got me interested. Saw shango do a review recently of a station which created noticeable RF interference for him; my soldering station does not do that to a noticeable extent, but my relatively new hot air station does. Wonder if FCC relaxed their regulations to facilitate all these lower cost switch mode power supplies that are everywhere now.
@@PracticallyFixed , I don't know if the FCC specifically relaxed regulations on RF emissions or if UL safety codes have been watered-down ----- but with so many people buying "cloned" or counterfeit equipment directly from Asia, basically they get what they get because there is little to no regulatory oversight of such equipment. If you watch Big Clive's channel, he frequently does teardowns and reviews of equipment that turns out to be highly dangerous. But anyway, younger generations typically don't have the chance to learn electrical and electronic safety until they make a major mistake which they might not recover from. Learning to use power tools as a kid in the late 60s, I discovered what could happen if you were using a metal cased, ungrounded power drill while standing barefoot or in damp moccasins on a concrete slab floor in the basement or garage. Our schools had wood and metal shops,, auto mechanics for the gearhead types (wasn't my thing), and an electronics shop.. We subscribed to Popular Mechanics, Popular Electronics and other similar magazines as kids, so we were always reading about electrical and electronics projects that you could do yourself. In 1970 or 71 my dad, my younger brother and I partially gutted our cottage at the beach, rewired the electrical, improved the plumbing, and changed out all the windows and put up new paneling. I got zapped a few times by the power tools and I was much happier in the late 70s and 80s when double-insulated Bosch and Makita tools came out that didn't need grounding and wouldn't shock you through the plastic casings. Nowadays, of course, the prevalence of cordless tools makes both pros and DIY-ers even safer.
Also, as an amateur guitar player, and still amateur all these years later, we all found out the hard way that playing guitar while standing on a concrete slab could zap you because the strings were connected to the chassis of the amp. If you want to see videos on UA-cam where the techs are very careful to remind people that amplifiers should always have a 3 wire earth-grounded power cord, watch guitar amp repairs. The good techs are all very careful to reiterate this fact over and over, and to point out when the switch or fuse are placed in the neutral line instead of the hot line, or if the chassis grounding is done in a way that's unreliable.
By the way, I posted some soldering related videos on my channel recently including a review and tear down of a $45 Harbor Freight Schneider soldering station that isn't half bad for the money (certainly much better than what I had to work with as a kid in the 60s), as well as an investigation into the crappy direct-from-China soldering iron tips that are so prevalent on the internet nowadays. It's one thing to buy a cloned soldering station direct from China, but people, especially newbies to soldering, are really better off buying name brand tips, solder, flux and other accessories from authorized distributors in the US instead of buying from faceless Asian sellers. If you skim through the comments of any soldering-related video on UA-cam, you will find dozens of people complaining that the solder "won't stick to the tip" or "falls off the tip", or "it won't melt, it won't flow"...... and of course,"what am I doing wrong?"