Richard I have worked with some of the most static sensitive parts in the world, tunnel diodes. When working for NASA we had to do a failure modes analysis on any parts that failed. I would say the quality of the ESD material ranked at the bottom of factors to take into account. Particularly since any top would be used in conjunction with an antistatic mat. The mats do wear out in the sense that the rubber dries out and they tend to crumble. Other than that I find they all do the job. There is wide latitude. In terms of tops you do not want such as metal or any slick plastic or vinyl surfaces where things slide. I think the ones we used were either wood or composition. I think your ESD top would be fine. Some of the little things are very important. Don't use storage bins with little polystyrene trays for anything. (I like muffin tins.) Likewise keep Styrofoam out of the room. I have measured 5KV on a Styrofoam cup that had coffee in it. Our pot cores came packed in Styrofoam. We had the stockroom unload them and repack in metal trays. Keep the humidity in the range of 40 to 60%RH. Wear only cotton clothing and make sure your soldering iron is grounded. If you wax the floors use an antistatic wax. Use only pink or silver antistatic bags such as Elecraft uses. Leave the ZIP lock bags in your kitchen. BTW if you are one that thinks that ESD devices must be in a certain narrow range of resistance, measure the resistance of an antistatic bag. You'll find the range is way out of sight. The trick here is not to generate ESD rather than dissipating ESD after you make it. 73 Fred, AE6QL
-----Original Message----- From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mark Goldberg Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2016 5:50 PM To: Bob McGraw K4TAX Cc: Elecraft Mailing List Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Anti Static Bench I agree with the previous responses. ESD material does wear out, especially in my dry climate. It has to be replaced once in a while. In commercial operations is is tested on a schedule and discarded if it does not pass. It has to be conductive enough to keep parts from damage and resistive enough to not allow a shock. I would like to offer another option. Home Depot will sell you workbench legs, I bought these but they have several sizes. They were shipped free http://www.homedepot.com/p/Edsal-33-in-Adjustable-Height-Workbench-Legs-ABL3 0/204417821;jsessionid=E3520EC0F5BF7CC72323A1EF2F5C2DE0 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Edsal-5-in-x-72-in-Work-Bench-Stringer-ST72/20441 7825 I then laminated 1/8 masonite on a solid core door, routed the edges and put oak edge banding on just for grins to make the bench tops. I also but blocks under the legs to make it taller for a stand up bench. Take a look at my qrz.com page for pictures. It saved a bunch of money over a standard lab type workbench and I had fun making it. A standard countertop or similar would go on the legs easily, they just screw onto the bottom. The legs are very sturdy. I just put ESD mat on the work surface area. The edge banding was not the best idea, it tends to chip easily. I connected my ground system to the metal legs, maybe it helps as a counterpoise, maybe it makes no difference. 73, Mark W7MLG On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 6:28 PM, Bob McGraw K4TAX <rmcg...@blomand.net> wrote: > Places such as LOWE'S and HOME DEPOT carry stock counter tops. Usually > in 4 ft, 6 ft, 8 ft and 10 ft lengths of several different colors. Standard > depth including the back splash is about 25". I have used one for years. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to fptowns...@earthlink.net ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com