A generalized chassis support for the workbench

[Mick Bailey]

Look at his unit, now how much would you charge - materials and labor - to make one for someone?

I often get asked to make up versions of commercial stuff. When it comes to the final price sometimes people go quiet. They expect a bespoke, hand-made piece of equipment to be cheaper than a commercial version, like getting a car custom hand-built and wanting it at lower cost than a showroom model. A guy asked me to make him a steadycam unit - hydraulic damping, shoulder mount, all lightweight materials. He said he wanted it cheaper than £70 because "you can get one off the shelf for that".

I always have this idea of home-made jam. Slightly more expensive than supermarket brands, but how much if you had to make the jar and lid, too?

Like most people, I build lots of stuff for myself, just because I de-rate my own labour cost to zero; spare-time jobs instead of watching TV to make life easier. Factoring in materials, overheads and hourly rates would kill off many projects in favour of buying a commercial product.

[Chuck H]

There are some things you can make for less it costs to buy. Most of them are low demand or hand made items. The key statement on everything else was "I de-rate my own labour cost to zero." Yeah, I do that too. Then there are other situations where you find it's cheaper to tool up to make something and need to factor in a return per unit. Sometimes you break even. Someone like Juan Fahey, who has limited access to things and better access to tools has turned this into an art and is basically manufacturing a great deal of his components that the rest of us just buy.

And then there's the hitch of many manufactured items being "almost" what we want. Designed to fit the bill for most users but not you. I think it's a common reaction by many of the members here to think 'Ah, well... I'm going to have to make it then.' The satisfaction of having something that is exactly what you want (and no one else has) can have value equal to the de-rate in labor cost. Hell, that applies to maybe half of the amps the members here build.

[Sowhat]

Here's what I use, simple and made from wood lying around my shop. It's got a 4-8 ohm 200/400 watt dummy load on it and can handle even the most outrageous chassis's like this Framus Cobra monstrosity.



It's just got a 1x2 frame rail with 2 "T" shaped uprights that will slide to any chassis width. Sure it's not a rotating type but then again I only spent 1/2 hour making it.

[Chuck H]

That's pretty boss. And the Framus IS pretty monstrous! I've really liked the tilt option shown on other designs though. Maybe a nice addition to an already useful tool.?.

[drewl]

Nice.
Aside from all manner of cables and adapters, I also have the big dynamite load resistors mounted in holders.
Some
1/4" some alligator leads with tabs to connect voltmeters and scope probes.

[Sowhat]

Here's what I use, simple and made from wood lying around my shop. It's got a 4-8 ohm 200/400 watt dummy load on it and can handle even the most outrageous chassis's like this Framus Cobra monstrosity.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33080[/ATTACH]

It's just got a 1x2 frame rail with 2 "T" shaped uprights that will slide to any chassis width. Sure it's not a rotating type but then again I only spent 1/2 hour making it.

Actually the coolest part of this caddy is not the caddy itself but the mirror in back of it. This is a throw back to the days when I would do a lot of video game monitors and this made it easy to do CRT alignments, since then I always have a mirror in back so I can see everything real easy. I keep the scope, signal gen, power supplies, variacs and whatnot off to the right and heaping piles of junk to the left.

[Chuck H]

I keep the scope, signal gen, power supplies, variacs and whatnot off to the right and heaping piles of junk to the left.

[Enzo]

AH,my bench becomes a heap of crap all too soon, but I also always go to the store and buy some 12"x12" mirror panes and put them on the wall at the back of the bench, when I put up a shop. I too have serviced hundreds if not thousands of arcade video monitors, but with amps, it lets me see the jacks on the rear or get a look at the power tubes, and so on. My scope and stuff live on a riser above the bench.

About the time arcade games all went to huge monitors, I was about done working on arcade stuff.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Actually the coolest part of this caddy is not the caddy itself but the mirror in back of it. This is a throw back to the days when I would do a lot of video game monitors and this made it easy to do CRT alignments, since then I always have a mirror in back so I can see everything real easy.

Besides all that, having those mirrors is good feng shui practice.

[Enzo]

The wife and I like bookstores, I still go to Barnes and Noble regularly. We used to walk through the store, and when we saw Feng Shui books, we'd rearrange them, like turn them sideways or something. Don't know if anyone else ever got the joke, but we found it amusing.