[time-nuts] Test equipment / work benches...

Burt I. Weiner biwa at att.net
Sun Jan 24 17:28:03 UTC 2010


In my work shoppe, which is about 9' x 16' I have 6 RCA BR-84 steel 
Racks.  The racks hold standard 19 inch panels and are each  84" 
high, 22" wide overall and 18" deep with adjustable rails in the 
front and back.  I have them bolted together and braced to the walls 
with 2x4's from wall-to-wall.  I built a work bench on the front 
that's about 30" deep and 110" wide.  Along the front of the racks I 
bolted a 2x4 to the racks (using bolts, fender  washers, lock washers 
and nuts) that extends along 5 of the racks.  I had some long 2" wide 
L-Brackets that I used to build a 2x4 frame for the bottom of the 
table top, which is attached to the 2x4 along the front of the 
racks.  From the front of the sides, on the inside of the frame, I 
bolted two 2x4's that run back to the bottom of the racks and bolted 
them to the racks at the base.  I also bolted two 2x4's front to back 
of the table top frame dividing it in thirds for rigidity.  I then 
bolted a piece of good grade particle board to the top of the 
frame.  The table top extends about 2" over the front of the frame 
and on the front of the frame I installed a long plug strip.  This 
has served me well for more than 20 years and can carry all the 
weight for my needs (including myself).  I have a lot of my test 
equipment in the racks.  What was originally supposed to be only my 
"Measurement Laboratory" area has turned into an every-day work 
bench.  A few years ago I added a frame of sorts on the right with 
shelves to hold some ham gear and even more test equipment.  If you 
want you can see a glimpse of a small portion of the bench at 
http://www.biwa.cc/freqmeas.htm.  When this picture was taken I had 
the top "cleaned".  As of last night I could not find the bench, but 
I have a general idea of where it is.

While the bench is fairly easy to remove, if you know where all the 
bolts are and the order it was assembled, I hate to think of the poor 
soul that will have to remove this stuff after I croak.

Burt, K6OQK


At 04:43 PM 1/23/2010, time-nuts-request at febo.com wrote

>Also, HP/Agilent equipment racks are sometimes available on eBay.  These are
>nothing like the relay racks or server racks that you commonly see in data
>centers.  They are *stout*.  They're very expensive when new, but almost
>free for the shipping when bought used.  I used generic shelving units to
>hold test equipment for a long time, but once you use real racks, you won't
>go back.
>
>An Agilent E3662A/B rack can hold up to 81 EIA units of gear weighing up to
>1800 pounds.  I have three in my living room and wish I had more...
>
>-- john, KE5FX

Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, California  U.S.A.
biwa at att.net
K6OQK 





More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list