thehxfiles

Hello and welcome to the HX Files 027.

In this issue I would like to talk about a small work station that was made from a computer bench and some other bits of wood and metal that where lying around.

As mentioned in previous issues of Echo Ireland, I have no actual workshop and the projects would be made and assembled in and around my house, and in most cases there would be a lot of time lost gathering the parts and tools needed for the job and then putting them away so I can use the room again (normally my bedroom or kitchen). With this bench, the job (the mess) can be left as it is on the bench and pushed into the spare room, out of the way until the next time, and the project can be easily be restarted with the minimum of a delay. As with every job you have to know when to stop adding thing to the project as the bench would become awkward to move around. Having used it a few times I would bring most of the parts and tools needed for the job from their various locations and l would have them to hand on the bench

The project started with a bench bought out of Argus some time ago, but when I went from a tower type PC to a laptop the bench was in the way, as is the way in my home any flat surface can and will have piles of clothes or something on it and the stuff will always fall off it, but with its metal frame and wheels I was reluctant to throw it out, so it was dissembled and put into the shed as it might come in handy sometime.

Many moons later

When the bench was rediscovered in the back of the shed (over a year later), I decided to reassemble it and make a small work table/bench out of it, The first thing done to the bench was to cut a piece of wood to cover the original top, this piece would not have to be perfect, as when it was screwed to the top of the bench it would act as a sacrificial worktop surface that could be marked and drilled into, and be replaced when it got to rough for use.

The storage bins added

The sliding shelf under the bench top

(seen in photo 1 on the left) was originally for the keyboard and as a result is close to the bench top, and its mounting brackets are part of the metal framework and could not be moved. I decided to use it to hold a parts tray and some tools being used at the time for a project, but as the trays being used would not fit on the shelf, the only thing was to fit the trays into the shelf, (as there was plenty of room under it). So with having a sick jig saw the only choice I had was to drill a series of large holes using a hole cutter to remove as much of the timber first, and then with a small saw and some files, squared of the edges so the trays fitted. One of them has a lip on it so it would hold it’s self in place, the other one was held in with the addition of a couple of angle brackets screwed to the shelf and box. On the bottom of the trolley some wood was added to all the sides to increase the capacity of it and to stop anything falling off. There is also a large gap between the sliding tray and base shelf so another fixed shelf can be made to hold some more tools and parts for the project being worked on (but not at the moment) also added was a rail on each side that some cables and leads could be draped over them and always be to hand.

A 2 watt transmitter under test

With all the metalwork done, a back board was made (photo 2 above) and also fitted to the top of the backboard was another shelf; this shelf had some edging fitted to it to stop items falling off it.

Not wanting to use one of the large and heavy power supplies I had, a PSU was used that came from one of a few tower computers, and then it was attached to the back of the bench, along with a double mains socket.

I got the computers from a friend who recycles them, the computers where from a local college that were replacing their stock and I was given some of them, (5) after their hard drives and some other parts had been removed by him. The power supply from the pc has outputs of 3, 5, and 12 volts and it will be used to power the project being worked on and even using some of the 12 volt led’s lights to illuminate the work area from above and from the side, as well as having the use of a mains flexi lamp.

The dismantled cases from the computers can be seen on the bottom of photo 3 on the left, that metal will be ready when I borrow the guillotine from a friend to cut the metal down to more manageable sizes once I first flatten the folds in the panels, also seen in the photo 3 with the metal are some cereal boxes that will be used to make some templates with.

In photo 3 on the left, you can see on the left and right sides of the back board I mounted some dc sockets on a couple of blanking plates, these sockets are attached to the various outputs of the power supply