Building An Electronics Workbench
After the construction of laserpup I realized that my office desk was no place to be working on electronics projects. Soldering, prototyping, testing, these are all things that I knew I would be spending a lot of time doing in the future, and I wanted a comfortable place where I can take over the world….
I picked out an empty spot in my office and went to work researching plans. I came across this web site that gives on instructions on how to build a low cost DIY workbench that is meant for a garage or shop. While the plans weren’t exactly what I wanted, they looked to be easy enough to adapt.
Since this is in my office I wanted it the same height as my desk, so I can be lazy and slide my chair back forth between the two. This also meant that the bottom shelf would have to be half the depth so my chair would slide under. I also wanted to add a top shelf for storage, and to provide a place to mount a good light. After taking everything into account I ended up with the following dimensions. It has a 12″ deep bottom & top shelf, a 24″ deep working surface, and is 5′ in length.
I didn’t expect this to be the prettiest thing in the world, but since I would probably be seeing it every day I thought it would be best to at least paint the thing. I also wanted to put down something on the work surface so that it wasn’t bare wood. I had no idea what to use, but after a some searching around I found what I thought would be perfect. I purchased a 25′ roll of 12″ wide silicon sheet rubber on ebay, this was wide enough to cover the shelves with one strip and the table with two. And it was cheap!
To finish it off I mounted a 4′ shop lamp in the top shelf to light up the entire surface. I added one power strip to the side and one to the back. A couple plastic bins and storage containers from home depot and my bench was complete. The only thing left to add is an ethernet switch to the right side.
Completed Electronics Work Bench
In all it took me about a weekend to cut, assemble, and paint everything. It was a relatively easy project, and everything to do it was available at the local hardware store (minus the rubber top).
Parts Breakdown:
- 8-10 2×4x8s
- 1 sheet OSB (cut for free by home depot)
- 1 box deck screws
- 3 metal brackets to mount top shelf to bench
- 1 quart of grey primer
- 1 shop light
- 2 power strips
- 25′ sheet of silicone rubber
The total cost for the project including all the parts was ~$100. I’ve been busy using it for the past few weeks and couldn’t be happier with it.
2 Responses to “Building An Electronics Workbench”
Michael - January 9, 2010
This is a beautiful bench. I’m working on my own right now, and I think I’ll be using yours as my inspiration. I especially love the half-depth bottom shelf to allow a chair! Any chance you have a schematic with dimensions I could refer to?
mike gibson - January 17, 2010
This is an awesome desk. looks just like a homemade version of the $1500 commercial versions i have looked at. I am planning on building this desk in the next 2-3 weeks. thx for posting it on the inet. was wondering if you happened to have the schematics or dimensions?
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