workbench
And whats on it.
my workbench and whats on it
My workbench is a constant work in progress, constantly changing and adapting to take on new tools and work best for the space I have, but most importantly, it’s where all my tools live. I’ll go over the main tools, what they are, and why I chose them.
There have been many times in the past that I have purchased cheap tools to try and do the work I do, only to realize after a short time that if you pay pennies, you get monkeys! Having good quality tools makes this difficult job so much easier to do.
My microscope is a 4K digital scope connected to a modified 27-inch Apple display. The scope arm is custom-made to fit my bench and meet my needs.
Screwdrivers & Tweezers
After destroying countless screwdrivers and struggling to pick things up with the wrong tweezers, I now have a main set of quality Wera screwdrivers and several pairs of fine precision tweezers that I keep close to my workspace in this rotating holder.
hot air station
My hot air station is the Quick 861DW. It is a beast of a station and outperforms any other station I have ever tried. Again, I spent a long time using various cheaper stations, but after upgrading to this Quick, I don’t think I’ll ever use another hot air station. Its build quality is superb, and it never fails to perform 100% of the time.
SOldering Iron
My soldering iron is the Hakko FX-951. This iron is perfect for this kind of work; it heats up fast, auto-sleeps when placed in the cradle, has easy swappable tips, and again, has 100% accuracy 100% of the time. The iron is not cheap, and neither are the tips, but if I were to lose this today, I would buy the replacement iron tomorrow.
You can also see it in this photo next to the Hakko mini PSU and short detector unit. Used for putting out any voltage or ampage I need to power something or to inject voltage when hunting down short circuits,
multimeter
My multimeter is the OWON XDM1041. It’s a fantsaticx meter with all the features you could need. I upgraded the standard leads that come with it to longer, softer probe leads, and it works great. It also has a USB port, so you can display information from the meter on a PC if needed.
thermal camera
My thermal cam is the UNIT-T PRO UTi260B. It’s amazing what this camera can do, and its image quality and resolution with the MacRO lens are outstanding. This little camera is worth its weight in gold.
the draw
While it may look a bit of a mess, everything in this draw has its place, from thermal paste and solder wick to different types of flux. It has all the main tools I use on a daily basis sitting in a convenient little drawer under my desk.
