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