workshops

[Doug Tymofichuk]

Hi, Bud,

Even with hundreds of thousands of electronic components 
"in stock" in my workshop, I still find myself running to 
the store for most projects. I don't think that I will ever 
be in a position to reach into my ROOM full of parts and 
always be able to grab what I need. A well stocked bench 
can take years to build, unless you are independantly 
wealthy. Here are a few things that I have done:

I made the big plunge and bought ALL the 5% resistor values 
in 1/4 watt. This is expensive, but I have never regretted 
it.

Many suppliers such as Alltronics sell assortments of 
resistors, capacitors, etc. for discounted prices, ie. 5lbs 
of resistors or capacitors for $5. This fills a lot of 
bins, and then you can buy missing values individually. 
Especially good for capacitors, which have fewer standard 
values than resistors.

I am an incurable surplus hound, all my friends pass on 
their old electronics to me, and I pick up deals on surplus 
or defective equipment whenever possible. As a result of 
this, there are some parts that I will NEVER have to buy, 
such as LEDs, common hardware (6-32, 8-32, etc.), 7805, 
7812, other regulators, 555 chips, etc., etc. It takes a 
certain amount of knowledge to know what parts are 
salvageable and what isn't. I would almost NEVER reuse 
electolytic capacitors, for example. And the age of the 
electronics also determines what is salvageable. Switches 
and pots can usually be salvaged, but you have to be 
careful as they can be dirty/defective and may require 
cleaning, or just may not be repairable. You can also run 
into some very strange problems caused by using an old part 
that is flaky.

Depending on what projects you are building, you will 
usually need a different set of parts for each. If you want 
to cover all of the bases, you will need to stock as many 
parts as a major supplier does, which is completely 
impractical. When I build something, I can usually find 90% 
of the parts at my bench, and have to purchase the 
remaining ones. I doubt that this will ever change. As we 
are all doing slightly different things, the parts we 
should stock will be slightly different, I do not believe 
that there is a such thing as a definitive list.

Sorry for all the rambling, I don't think I answered the 
question all that well. I stock whatever comes my way 
easily, plus what I know I definitely will need.

Doug.

On Fri, 25 Jun 1999 21:58:56 +0930 "Budweiser [FtS]" 
<budfts at eisa.net.au> wrote:

> I was wondering what everyone has for standard electronics
> parts in there workshop. I am sick and tired of having to 
> make a trip to the electronics store for a simple schematic 
> that ive found on the net. I figured I should do something 
> like get 100 of every type of 5% resistor, and the same for 
> various capacitors. The problem is see, is that this is 
> going to get expensive very quickly.
> 
> So this is what i propose to do. Collate all the opinions 
> from you diyers on what you think are the best/common 
> components every one should have in there workshop, and 
> publish it on my web page. I want to set myself up so that 
> i can just reach to my wall of cabinets and just have the 
> component i need. Any takers?
> 
> 
> bud
> 

----------------------
Doug Tymofichuk
dougt at cancerboard.ab.ca