setting up the workspace

Most important is to have a good work area, one with enough light, space and the required tools will make the difference between loving or hating every moment of a project. When I embarked on the project I had only a soldering iron, a cordless drill and a few bits and pieces, but nowhere what was needed...I could hear the bank account beginning to empty already.

Pictured above is the work area I setup for doing all the electronics stuff. It's real important for this to be confortable, well lit and ergonomic - you'll be sitting down for long periods of time soldering some painfully tedious boards together, the last thing you want is get a stiff neck or injure yourself. I found it important to do short bursts of work no more than an hour each and take 10 min stretch breaks in between. Don't do long hours or work into the late into the night or if you're tired - you'll screw things up and have to redo it. As far as tools go, I'm not saying you need all of this but I ended up setting up this work area with the following;

• variable desk power supply
• multimeter
• breadboard
• rulers & set-squares
• vernier calipers
• permanent markers & pencils
• mini hacksaw
• stanley knife
• artists blade
• wire strippers
• mini screwdriver set
• bright lamp
• small deck vice
• clamper
• temp controlled soldering iron (with fine nib)
• iron cleaner
• tweasers
• side cutters
• plyers
• magnifying glass
• wire-wrapping wire
• tin wire
• cables
• solder
• solder braid
• solder sucker
• paint brush & toothbrush
• mixed heatshrink
• electrical tape
• cable ties
  

As far as the rest of the work area, because I decided I would build my own housing from scratch, and using aluminium and perspex as materials, I knew I would have a bit of work to do. I could either pay someone else a lot of money to do each part of the work, or put a lot of money into the machines and tools myself. Because I live alone and have spare space in my flat I decided it would be smarter to invest in the machines and do it all myself. Always aim to be as safe as possible; always wear eye goggles, clamp things securely when tooling, ensure you have ample light and don't work too late int the night or whilst tired.

You can see above the result of converting my study into the workshop where I will make the housing and guts. Turned out there was just the right amount of space. Again I'm not saying you would need all of thisbut I ended up additionally fitting this work area out with;

• drill press
• drill press vice
• drill bit kit
• belt/disc sander
• jigsaw & set of blades
• adjustable clamped workbench
• portable drill
• dremel & bit kit
• hacksaw
• set of quick-clamps (these are awesome!)
• bright lamp
• mini file set
• metal files
• file brush
• centrepunch
• sanding block
• various grades of wet-and-dry sandpaper
• claw hammer
• lock-plyers
• safety goggles
• plastic sheeting (to protect carpet)