Building a Home Lab: My Electronics Tools & Supplies

[SixNein]

Do you have a home lab? What does your lab consist of?

My lab mostly consists of electronics tools like an oscilloscope, function generator, various power supplies, meters, and so forth.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Sounds like most peoples - the basic tools for a home physics lab are:
1. a stopwatch
2. a sensitive balance
3. a ruler

Probably also want:
4. multimeter
5. fnord
6. field microscope or glass
7. bunsen burner
8. soldering iron

Associated material that goes with them. Labs tend to accumulate gomi surrounding the work that is done ... like brown stains from ferric chloride used to etch PCBs, PBC stock off-cuts, bits of insects, dribbly candles ... people are usually impressed by a jacobs ladder sizzling in a corner and exotic glassware (blow your own) with bubbly stuff in it. I have not been able to get hold of a stuffed crocodile though.

Most stuff I find I need I can build.
But essential for a physicist is a large dry-erase surface to write on and an appropriate marker. I like using whiteboard markers on windows.
Some people's home labs are lots of writing space on walls and a table in the middle for a computer and reference works.

Aside: for really envious electrical home lab stuff, see Peter Terrin (google the name).

 

[ZapperZ]

My "home lab" consists of my kitchen. That is where I experiment.

Zz.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I have both a triple beam balance and a digital scale. Also: an analog VOM, and my other meters are automotive related: tach/dwell meter, vacuum/pressure gage, and a timing light. Several nice different "measuring sticks" of different lengths, including a meter-long one, which is not that common in the U.S. My 6-inch Brown & Sharpe dial calipers get used quite often, and I also have two Brown & Sharpe micrometers, a 1-inch and a 2-inch. A whole bunch of other machinist's measuring tools, a tool box full of soldering stuff and misc electric and electronic parts. A lot of wood working tools: table saw, drill press, circular saw, jig saw, dremel. So, not exactly a lab, but a workshop that can be used for laboratory purposes.

 

[Dr Transport]

bunch or equipment left over from my days as a carpenter. Adding more and more over the years, the thing holding me back from picking up a 'scope, set of laser equipment and an optical bench etc is lack of electrical power outlets in th ebasement...