New Test Bench Project

Wasn't sure where to put this, a lot the new bench will be Fastenal parts among other things, I guess the best way to describe it is a custom made bench maybe...  

One of the 1st things done after building this place in 97 was this bench, and the unit that holds all the car audio and testing stuff.  The unit on the cart actually came up here from the old shop and was built around 1989 or 90.  There was a ton of stuff in that area, much of it in drawers so deep it was hard to get to a lot of it, you can see it in one of the pics.

There's some wall cleaning to do after not moving some of this stuff for 26 years for sure.  A lot of the wires going through the wall run all over the shop for the alarm system sensors, I had the main box in the bench that finally died after 23 or so years and the new unit was moved to the waiting area.  Several of them are speaker wires that run to the main shop and the back of the shop.  I like my tunes and yes they are still working now.  Running wires that were added over the years is all going behind the wall metal like it belongs, and some are being removed.  I think I can take the old phone jacks out too. 

A lot of moving was done today, a pretty good start.  The shop is officially as messy as it's ever been so I better get on the ball tomorrow. 

 

This took a lot longer than I thought...   

Anyway, the wires are all run behind the wall, the metal is back on and clean, floor is scrubbed and it's all ready to start on the new bench.  First thing this morning I swapped out the little 18ga speaker wire to the subs for 12ga fine stranded, definitely made a big difference.  The tangled wire mess is all sorted and all that's left is putting loom on them.  Not sure why I used such little stuff in 97, it's prob all that was here at the time and I had to have my tunes while moving in lol.  

I started gathering the parts for the new bench and realized the gray horizontal drawer cross braces are buried deep in the 4 car garage.  I guess tomorrow some trailers will have to be moved, and a lot of things in the garage to get to them.  This bench will need a lot of cross braces and wire drawer racks so it will easier to do some rearranging out there and bring the pallets + portable racks in here.    

 

Well it took awhile but after moving things in the parking lot and getting to the fastenal stuff in the other garage, it's now all in the shop until these little projects are done. 

There are pallets on top of pallets on these big blue organizers, and of course what I'm after is on the bottom of most of them...  Needless to say, at least I have plenty of Fastenal fixtures + parts.    

The new bench setup is 42" tall, 1 inch taller than the last one and can hold up to 36 bins per section or 144 total.  I don't think I need that many under this bench, we'll see what happens with the arrangement.  The subs are staying on the far end and other things can go under there as well.  I even painted the sub box this morning after over 30 years of needing it.  I'm not cutting any corners this time, it will take as long as it takes. 

The iron worker made perfect cuts on all the uprights in less than 5 minutes, it's my fav tool in the shop for sure.  After cutting the 42" off of the uprights there were 36" pieces left.  There are enough 36" pieces for 4 more fixtures and the clearance under the standard benches in here is 37" so that's just perfect with no waste.  I already have plans for some of them under the new small equipment bench which is the next project after this one is done.  Things should go pretty quick now that everything is in here.  

 

Good progress today despite the peeps coming in + phone ringing.  All of the lower framework is in and it's set up for 60 bins right now.  I don't think that will be enough but we'll see, I got 72 of them out stored in the back room for starters.  Wood tops are on and 1/8" metal tops are ready to go over that.  There are a lot of pieces of 30" x 8' metal stacked on the rear bench where all the oil is from benches taken to the farm over the years.  Gonna need some help for that, 30" x 8' pieces of that are to heavy for me alone to get to the bench and on there.  It still needs some tweaking and cleaning but it's coming together.

All power on the bench is now surge protected.  I had another 4' plug strip sitting in the back so I linked it with the original one that was there.  Another nice thing is everything for it was already sitting around here, some of it for many years. Now I have those spaces for other things, and it's getting more stuff out of the way and put to use.  

 

Had to do trimming on almost all of the uprights after the wood shelves went on.  These things aren't machine exact but the metal tops had to be sure to lay flat on the wood so they wouldn't move around.  All of them are bolted together, metal tops are on, and there is edging all the way around the entire metal tops.  The main 12V test + tunes unit is all in, wiring is sorted, and it's back together and where it will stay. 

I started dusting off and putting bins in, then noticed how late it is so I'm headed out to find some supper + wind down, there's always tomorrow.  

 

Been organizing like crazy.  Took apart an old 40' cord reel I had in the back storage, tightened up the spring, cleaned it up, and put it on the wall where it used to be many years ago.  There will be another 4' long 12 outlet strip mounted on the welding bench when all is said and done.  The reel will power it when need be and still keep it mobile. 

I think I'm getting in a I'll be able to find everything ecstasy mood now lol. 

 

I opened the proverbial can of worms today...  I got into the metal drawers and things are all over, no wonder I can't find anything.  As things grew things were put in several different spots.  There are Fastenal bin fixtures in the back that have a lot of this stuff, things are mixed up in the slide out drawer organizers, and stuff is just everywhere.  The one gray drawer in the pic has springs, bushings, clips, speed nuts, regular + special spacers in it when there are already other places for all of that stuff...  No wonder I have to look everywhere for some things.   

The Wheel Horse stuff needs to be moved to the back where all the parts are, and the stuff like consumables or constantly used things like electrical connectors, cotters, etc, needs to prob stay under the new bench.  I'm thinking maybe 2 - 4 drawer setups up front, and the rest of the not constantly used stuff in the back with 5 other drawer setups that are back there already.  They need to be labeled as well.  We'll see after sleeping on it.

I spent all day moving little things all over the shop today and tomorrow will be more of the same.  Things always take longer than I think but things will be done right this time... 

 

Everything in the metal drawers is organized.  It took most of the day but was easier than I thought.  There were already bins in the back for a lot of the other metal drawers not pictured, and I even ended up with 3 of the metal drawers emptied. 

I think I've also found a nice solution for a lot of the organizers and they will even be on wheels now.  There was another 4' 3 shelf unit in the back office that I forgot about that just had some empty buckets and cleaning stuff on it so that stuff got put where it belongs and freed up another shelf unit.

There was also a roll of 1/4"+ nice rubber mat that was in the back for a long time.  My friend and flooring guy gave it to me, and some 3/8" of the same thing years ago that were leftover from a job doing an exercise place.  It came out a few days ago so I would remember to cover some things with it.  Nicest thing is I haven't spent a penny doing all of this so far, everything was just sitting around here clogging up the place and it's finally getting used and making even more space so it's a win win. 

 

Hard to believe that everything used on this new bench is neatly organized in drawers and 1/3 of them are still empty.  Once everything was moved to the areas where they belong it will make things easy find and easy to do without running all over the shop.  I printed out over 100 labels first thing this morning for these bench drawers, the new welding bench drawers, and several for the 7 big bin organizers in the back that never got finished.

There's still a little more to do but it's time to move on to do more to the welding bench on that end, then get to the new bench for the smaller mounted tools. 

I'll add more in here as it gets done.  First pics are sort of a before + after, even though it's not quite done yet... 

 

It's been almost 2 years since this topic was posted in, my how time flies, whether you're having fun or not.  

Doing more work on the test bench in between other things and after work.  I've been redoing the main testing section, it needs a little TLC and updating after 35 years of service, I built it in 1990.  I had it on a work bench at dad's place in his shop where I did misc work back then.  The panels are getting recovered in silver carbon fiber vehicle wrap and the bench is getting more Fastenal drawers, I never thought they would all be used but they are now.  

I was in the car + home audio business when this this was built and there were a lot of connections where I could bypass and hook in any one component, then use the rest of the system to test it.  All of those connectors were removed except the speaker inputs + outputs, I still use them from time to time.  The main thing it's used for now is testing 12V things, and to run the sound system in the shop.  I still can't live without a good sound system and subwoofers, it's still in my blood even after all these years...

The 1st pic is removing the extra connections and cleaning up the wiring.  I had a Rockford Fosgate Power 300 in there for a long time but put a Hifonics Gemini in there to test it for awhile then just left it in there.  They are both equivalent 4 channel amps with built in subwoofer crossovers and control so it's just more work to change it back.  

I made a panel to cover the extra connector holes and put a few fans in it to help keep the amp cool, I do tend to turn things up at times, especially after I quit with customer work for the day and holidays when I know I won't be bothered.