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I apologize for my simplicity, but I have height but not a lot of bench space. It occurred to be that there might be a limit to haw many scopes/ TM's one might stack so the question is what are you guys doing.

I have a TM 504 with full load of modules on top of bench with a 2445B, next, and then a 2465.? I would like to stack another 2445b on top of that.? (Don't ask why I have 3 similar scopes - they sort of followed me home [legally])

It looks like putting the TM504 on top would make most sense weight wise, but would make it harder to see screen on bottom scope.

What is most number of these things you'd put atop a very substantial bench?


john

For many years I had a stack of the following sitting at one end of my bench. From bottom to top:

HP 8660D signal generator
HP 8556B spec an (both sections)
Tektronix TM-5006A, fully loaded
HP 3456A precision voltmeter
Heathkit GC-1000 clock

These were in a single stack on a very heavy wooden/laminated bench top which sat on two steel 3-drawer pedestals I bought from Global Industries.

I had no support problems and no heat dissipation problems.

I have also had two 7000-series ‘scopes stacked with no problems, but I always worried about knocking the top off because there is no way to have them interlocked.

DaveD

Sent from a small flat thingy

If these are all about the same width you could make a rack cabinet with shelves. Open front and back with a little space above each unit for ventilation. Might be that there are shelving items at Home Depot that could be used like side pieces with holes for the clips to hole the shelves. Its worth a look anyway. It would be more stable than just stacking. I know about having more stuff than you have room for.

--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@...
WB6KBL

On Fri, 2 Nov 2018 15:12:44 -0400, you wrote:

I apologize for my simplicity, but I have height but not a lot of bench
space. It occurred to be that there might be a limit to haw many scopes/
TM's one might stack so the question is what are you guys doing.

I have a TM 504 with full load of modules on top of bench with a 2445B,
next, and then a 2465.? I would like to stack another 2445b on top of
that.? (Don't ask why I have 3 similar scopes - they sort of followed me
home [legally])

It looks like putting the TM504 on top would make most sense weight
wise, but would make it harder to see screen on bottom scope.

What is most number of these things you'd put atop a very substantial bench?

Because the bottom layer is either a 7000 scope, or the equivalent in
height, with one or two layers of test equipment beyond that.... by
the time I get to the third layer, it really wants to be storage. It's
a height issue due to how high I wish to look, rather than mechanical
(I use individual steel shelves where needed).

Harvey

john

Hi John,

Interesting question!

33 years ago my wife and I agreed to split our residential office 50/50. I gradually appropriated about 2/3rds of it. At first I had plenty of room. Then I had test equipment on each desk. My desks wrap around roughly 300 degrees, and I sit in the middle. Of course eventually I ran out of desk surface. Then I had to go up since under all of my desks there were shelves or filing cabinets.

Right now my desks have TM5006's stacked either four or five high. I have full height 7K scopes two high. I am pretty much at my limit. Any higher and the top row of instruments would be at an awkward height above eye level.

I have so much equipment stacked this way on my desks that I was definitely concerned about the floor not being able to handle the load. During our remodel a few years ago I had the floor reinforced for peace of mind.

I have several friends with four or more filled full height racks, plus other test equipment on their desk(s) so other than my "Test Equipment Figure of Merit" (TEFM) being higher than theirs I'm not alone in this respect. You can calculate your own personal TEFM as follows
TEFM = (Your Test Equipment Volume) / (Total Volume of your lab - space you occupy).
An ideal TEFM would be between 0.5 and 0.75. In my case I have been out of room for a long time and more stuff keeps appearing so I'm above 0.95 and drowning in unfinished projects and equipment waiting to be fixed so I can get it out of here.

Whatever makes you happy!

Dennis Tillman W7PF

In storage I have 500 series and 7K scopes stacked 5 high.? Never had issues with bent cases.? One of my 19" racks is basically a stack of gear too.? Heavy HP scope on the bottom, gradually getting lighter on the way up.
-Dave

From: John Ferguson via Groups.Io <jferg977@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 12:13 PM
Subject: [TekScopes] how high would you stack them?

I apologize for my simplicity, but I have height but not a lot of bench
space. It occurred to be that there might be a limit to haw many scopes/
TM's one might stack so the question is what are you guys doing.

I have a TM 504 with full load of modules on top of bench with a 2445B,
next, and then a 2465.? I would like to stack another 2445b on top of
that.? (Don't ask why I have 3 similar scopes - they sort of followed me
home [legally])

It looks like putting the TM504 on top would make most sense weight
wise, but would make it harder to see screen on bottom scope.

What is most number of these things you'd put atop a very substantial bench?


john

I am just finishing an exercise in cramming a lot of gear into a small space (bench area 4' x 7', room 10' x 7'). I'm using shelving on the double slotted standards with 2 & 3 tab brackets. In addition to the electronics bench, I have 5 computers, 3 monitors on articulated mounts, 2 UPSes and 2 printers. It's "cozy" ;-) Hand tools and soldering gear are mounted on articulated monitor mounts with the soldering station controllers on a lazy susan.

I only went 8" high mainly so I can pull an instrument without having to disturb more than one other instrument. The shelves are about 20" deep. I currently have HP 34401A size instruments stacked, but I found that if I shove a 2 prong Pomona banana plug to BNC adaptor into a 34401A, the top one wants to slide around, so I'm likely to make sub shelves for each instrument using 1/2" or 3/4" EMT standoffs and 1/4" plywood with stop blocks glued to the plywood to keep things from moving when plugging stuff in. My radios, soldering gear and one scope are on 100% extension sliders so I can store them in the corners and easily pull them out for use.

At present I only have a dozen instruments active, but I quickly ran into a problem using regular IEC cords and power strips because of the volume of cables. To resolve that I made a power cable out of 1/2" EMT and handy boxes with each handy box feeding 4 instruments. It took a couple of iterations to get it right.

If stud locations in the wall are an issue, *bolt* the shelf standards to a piece of 3/4" plywood at convenient spacing and then screw the plywood to the studs.

My instrument stack is only about 27" high, but that's because I have almost 600 parts bins lined up two deep above them. The front row will be on rails and carriages so I can slide the front row to one side to access the rear row.

The backs of the benchtop instruments rest on the lowest shelf so the faces of the instruments are inclined at a comfortable viewing angle.

The setup is still not complete, but it's getting there. Probes and cables are in Pomona racks on the wall behind the door which opens inward. I'm going to add a second set of racks to the back of the door.

The only downside I see to this is I've spent most of a month figuring out what to put where. And it's hard or impossible to reach things on the top shelf without a stool even though I'm 6' 2" because the bench is really in front of the shelves.

Reg

Hmmm... Good ideas from you all! What works for me at the moment is a
wooden bench in my garage. I made an equipment shelf for it a few years
ago. Then a couple months ago I put casters (a few bucks apiece for 275
lb ones at Harbor Freight) on the bottom after beefing up the 2 by 4 's.
Now I can move it out from the wall to get at the back. When I move
the car out of the garage, of course. Three 12-outlet power strips
(from HF, of course) on the back and about half are used. Heavy stuff
like SR780 and 8566A spectrum analyzers go on the lower shelf, 8350B
sweep oscillator, power meters, power supplies, etc. are at either side
of the benchtop, and Tek 5110, 7603, and 7904 and HP 54504A scopes and
Wavetek 166 function generator, etc. on the top shelf. Got to keep the
center of gravity low so it doesn't tip over. Now I just need a new
chair with the seat about 4-5 inches higher than my current chair
because the casters raised the benchtop by that much. Next project...

Oh yeah, I screwed my HP 8494H and 8495H step attenuators upside-down on
the bottom of the top shelf so they don't take up any bench area. GPS
disciplined oscillator, distribution amp, and SDRKits vector network
analyzer will be similarly mounted when I can scrape up enough dough to
buy them. Bench space is at a premium because it's only a 5 by 2 foot
bench, and the sides are taken up by the sweeper stack and power supply
stack. I'm a musician as well as an EE, so I organized my bench by
frequency, with low frequency (pitch) on the left and high frequency on
the right, just like a keyboard or a (right-handed) guitar. DC power
supplies at the extreme left going up to the 26.5 GHz frequency counter
(HP 5343A) at the extreme right. The bench is squeezed between the door
going into the house on the left and the water heater in the corner on
the right.

Someday I'll add a wheeled 19 inch rack, but that's a ways out. I think
I can make it fit against the right wall between the water heater in the
corner and cabinets along that wall. Most difficult part is selling the
idea to my wife!

Good luck putting 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag!

Jim F

On Sat, 03 Nov 2018 08:45:31 +0000, you wrote:

Hmmm... Good ideas from you all! What works for me at the moment is a
wooden bench in my garage. I made an equipment shelf for it a few years
ago. Then a couple months ago I put casters (a few bucks apiece for 275
lb ones at Harbor Freight) on the bottom after beefing up the 2 by 4 's.
Now I can move it out from the wall to get at the back. When I move
the car out of the garage, of course. Three 12-outlet power strips
(from HF, of course) on the back and about half are used.

<snip>

I have a similar approach. The local "club" stores sell a metal shelf
unit, four two piece posts 1 inch in diameter, six wire shelves (try
to find the ones that are not like trays), casters, and with plastic
compression clips that allow you to space a shelf every inch
increment.

I have four of them for equipment and parts, and each one has a fitted
masonite layer on the shelf that keeps equipment feet from being
trapped in the wire shelf, (1/4 inch masonite, cheap, and the local
box store cuts it for free). On the back of one or two shelves is a
long outlet strip. On the top shelf is an under cabinet light.

Made from the remains of an IKEA table (single post design with
casters, variable height) is a U shaped workbench. The top is 1 inch
melamine (white), doubled. Reasonably sturdy. Outlet strip screwed
under the bottom of that one.

There's an extension of that which holds the soldering station,
microscope, 3D printer and desoldering equipment.

The four shelf units are arranged as a beveled corner, two against a
long wall, one beveled, and one against a wall. The units have two
shelves at bottom and somewhat above for storage. The main shelf is
at the height of the workbench.

The beveled shelf unit has no bottom shelves, and allows access behind
the shelf unit without having to move it. On that beveled shelf is a
7904, a tm5000 rack, on top of it is an HP 16702B logic analyzer,
space for a metcal soldering unit and the lab computer.

Above that shelf is another with a 7103 scope, two fluke 8040 DMMs,
and a 2430A.

Above that shelf is another with an HP 3456A voltmeter, a 4262A LCR
meter, ah HP 5316A universal counter, a Sencore LC76 capacitor
tester, and a Tek 1910 digital test pattern generator (TV).

Further than that is storage.

Each rack unit has one or two variable intensity multi-color LED strip
lights for enough illumination to be able to see controls, but not
wash out displays. Your choice of color.

Further around the room are calibration/powersupply/RF, tektronix
module storage, main LCD screen, digital scope, calibration station
for scopes, parts and project storage, etc.

It all works, but is subject to revision as I get new equipment or
work on something else.

Harvey

------ Original Message ------
From: "Reginald Beardsley via Groups.Io" <pulaskite@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: 11/2/2018 7:56:32 PM
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] how high would you stack them?

I am just finishing an exercise in cramming a lot of gear into a small
space (bench area 4' x 7', room 10' x 7'). I'm using shelving on the
double slotted standards with 2 & 3 tab brackets. In addition to the
electronics bench, I have 5 computers, 3 monitors on articulated
mounts, 2 UPSes and 2 printers. It's "cozy" ;-) Hand tools and
soldering gear are mounted on articulated monitor mounts with the
soldering station controllers on a lazy susan.

I only went 8" high mainly so I can pull an instrument without having
to disturb more than one other instrument. The shelves are about 20"
deep. I currently have HP 34401A size instruments stacked, but I found
that if I shove a 2 prong Pomona banana plug to BNC adaptor into a
34401A, the top one wants to slide around, so I'm likely to make sub
shelves for each instrument using 1/2" or 3/4" EMT standoffs and 1/4"
plywood with stop blocks glued to the plywood to keep things from
moving when plugging stuff in. My radios, soldering gear and one scope
are on 100% extension sliders so I can store them in the corners and
easily pull them out for use.

At present I only have a dozen instruments active, but I quickly ran
into a problem using regular IEC cords and power strips because of the
volume of cables. To resolve that I made a power cable out of 1/2" EMT
and handy boxes with each handy box feeding 4 instruments. It took a
couple of iterations to get it right.

If stud locations in the wall are an issue, *bolt* the shelf standards
to a piece of 3/4" plywood at convenient spacing and then screw the
plywood to the studs.

My instrument stack is only about 27" high, but that's because I have
almost 600 parts bins lined up two deep above them. The front row will
be on rails and carriages so I can slide the front row to one side to
access the rear row.

The backs of the benchtop instruments rest on the lowest shelf so the
faces of the instruments are inclined at a comfortable viewing angle.

The setup is still not complete, but it's getting there. Probes and
cables are in Pomona racks on the wall behind the door which opens
inward. I'm going to add a second set of racks to the back of the
door.

The only downside I see to this is I've spent most of a month figuring
out what to put where. And it's hard or impossible to reach things on
the top shelf without a stool even though I'm 6' 2" because the bench
is really in front of the shelves.

Reg

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.

I use Hardigg military rack cases each set of specialized instruments lives in its ‘own’ waterproof and air and dust tight hardigg case with its own power strip. My ‘basic’ instruments like scope, frequency standards a couple of signal generators power supplies and soldering gear are on bench.

The hardiggs allow me to store the gear in the garage/shed without risk of damage also if i need to ship something for a work project its ready for fedex. I use furniture dollies to move the cases themselves as each is 75-150 pounds i always keep them under the fedex limit.

Content by Scott
Typos by Siri

On 11/4/18 6:43 AM, Scott McGrath wrote:

I use Hardigg military rack cases each set of specialized instruments lives in its ‘own’ waterproof and air and dust tight hardigg case with its own power strip. My ‘basic’ instruments like scope, frequency standards a couple of signal generators power supplies and soldering gear are on bench.

The hardiggs allow me to store the gear in the garage/shed without risk of damage also if i need to ship something for a work project its ready for fedex. I use furniture dollies to move the cases themselves as each is 75-150 pounds i always keep them under the fedex limit.

Content by Scott
Typos by Siri

I'm blown away by this. I had seen these, but thought they were equipment specific.? Many must be, but what a great idea.? And if cosmetics aren't critical they seem available? (used) on Ebay for reasonable prices.

As to my original question, I decided that (bottom up) packed tm 504, 2445b, 2465, 2445b, small arbitrary signal generator was ok - seems solid.

FWIW, I have a rolling Harbor Freight cart (#5770) which I built a top for. Someone at Harbor Freight must have been really sharp because if you lay four 2x4 lengths around the inside of the perimeter with the 4 (well 3 1/2) side up, they will protrude about an 1/8" above the sides making it possible to screw a sheet of plywood to top to make a table. I have another one for my 6040 CNC router - same scheme.

The workbench one needed a power strip, so I cut a 4 inch by 10 inch piece of 3/8 MDF board and hot glued the $4.95 power strip to the board and screwed the board to the side of the cart.? I would have baulked if someon had suggested GLUEING a power strip to anything, sounds pretty crummy, but it didn't have mounting holes where they would do any good and it was plastic and cheap, so I did it.? And it doesn't feel like it's ever going to come loose.

On 11/4/2018 7:15 AM, John Ferguson via Groups.Io wrote:

<snip>

FWIW, I have a rolling Harbor Freight cart (#5770) which I built a top for. Someone at Harbor Freight must have been really sharp because if you lay four 2x4 lengths around the inside of the perimeter with the 4 (well 3 1/2) side up, they will protrude about an 1/8" above the sides making it possible to screw a sheet of plywood to top to make a table. I have another one for my 6040 CNC router - same scheme.

Hello--

Be aware that HF products have variable quality. Always read the reviews
before purchasing-- for example, their "Mobile Base/300 Lbs.
Capacity" (model 95288) presents some time-consuming assembly challenges.

73--

Brad AA1IP