Howdy AAC stalwarts.
The time has come to plan the migration of my current lab, called my “studio” because of its use also for photography and other things, to a larger room. Part of this upgrade will be new bench(es), new desks, and other furniture upgrades. It will also include some parts storage and organization upgrades. I will probably have several questions in this thread and I am hoping to learn something and make this whole project better.
So here is my question for the collective wisdom:
My current concern is specifying workbenches. There are a variety of ways I could go. Traditional electronics benches from the normal channels are outrageously expensive. My wife says, “well if that’s what it takes, buy that” but I am not willing to pay literally up to 10x the cost of what I know to be a very functional bench to get a commercial one. My budget for the benches, therefore, is a confusing ~$600 to ~$6000 for 8’ of 30-36” deep bench.
My current plan, which is extremely subject to change is to get two 48” benches. I have pretty much settled on 1.5” butcher block tops. ESD mitigation, where needed, will be through pads and not the bench itself. I haven’t had any ESD troubles with wood benches anyway.
I have looked around and it’s very hard to find what I want. If I was looking for ~24” deep benches I would be all set. This Husky 46” by 24” adjustable height bench with nice drawers would be the bee’s knees, or the cat’s meow, or something good. I really like the height adjustment, and the drawers are very nice. They’d be perfect for pliers, drivers and the like. But alas they are only 24” deep. I about putting a 12” fixed bench directly behind, which would be pretty costly for what it is, or attaching a 12” x 48” butcher block to the back in some way but it just doesn’t seem right.
I am not averse to considering an 8’ bench rather than two four footers, or even something not very much like this one but with its own merit. So my question to you is, ”any ideas?”. I need to plan this out soon. I will be painting the room soon and I really want to get out of my cramped space. By the way, I plan on an instrument shelf so if you have an option where i don’t need to come up with something separate, that’s brilliant.
I like the aesthetic of this bench, and since this is going to share space with photography and office functions, something snazzy looking is much better than something kind of ugly. Industrial is not necessarily a problem. Adjustable benches with tubular legs for example, are good, while those benches that use bench sheet steel legs and frames, while structurally just fine, are not the sort of thing I want to put in this studio.
Can you help?
The time has come to plan the migration of my current lab, called my “studio” because of its use also for photography and other things, to a larger room. Part of this upgrade will be new bench(es), new desks, and other furniture upgrades. It will also include some parts storage and organization upgrades. I will probably have several questions in this thread and I am hoping to learn something and make this whole project better.
So here is my question for the collective wisdom:
My current concern is specifying workbenches. There are a variety of ways I could go. Traditional electronics benches from the normal channels are outrageously expensive. My wife says, “well if that’s what it takes, buy that” but I am not willing to pay literally up to 10x the cost of what I know to be a very functional bench to get a commercial one. My budget for the benches, therefore, is a confusing ~$600 to ~$6000 for 8’ of 30-36” deep bench.
My current plan, which is extremely subject to change is to get two 48” benches. I have pretty much settled on 1.5” butcher block tops. ESD mitigation, where needed, will be through pads and not the bench itself. I haven’t had any ESD troubles with wood benches anyway.
I have looked around and it’s very hard to find what I want. If I was looking for ~24” deep benches I would be all set. This Husky 46” by 24” adjustable height bench with nice drawers would be the bee’s knees, or the cat’s meow, or something good. I really like the height adjustment, and the drawers are very nice. They’d be perfect for pliers, drivers and the like. But alas they are only 24” deep. I about putting a 12” fixed bench directly behind, which would be pretty costly for what it is, or attaching a 12” x 48” butcher block to the back in some way but it just doesn’t seem right.
I am not averse to considering an 8’ bench rather than two four footers, or even something not very much like this one but with its own merit. So my question to you is, ”any ideas?”. I need to plan this out soon. I will be painting the room soon and I really want to get out of my cramped space. By the way, I plan on an instrument shelf so if you have an option where i don’t need to come up with something separate, that’s brilliant.
I like the aesthetic of this bench, and since this is going to share space with photography and office functions, something snazzy looking is much better than something kind of ugly. Industrial is not necessarily a problem. Adjustable benches with tubular legs for example, are good, while those benches that use bench sheet steel legs and frames, while structurally just fine, are not the sort of thing I want to put in this studio.
Can you help?