Set Up Your Own Electronics Workbench from Nothing

When I wanted to start doing more electronics, I had only a vague idea of what tools I should get or what is even necessary. In school, everything was already set up for me to use. All the equipment looked intimidating and expensive. Is it all necessary?

I did a lot of research and have slowly built up an electronics lab over the course of a year. Additionally for work, I've worked with several PCB assembly houses, and I've copied their efficient set up. I hope this can give you a starting off point. Of course, there are multiple ways of setting up your workbench with differing opinions on equipment. I've used this setup for numerous projects and have been very satisfied. If you have other opinions, I'd love to hear them to improve my setup.

General Equipment:

#	Equipment	What I have	Cost	Comment
1	Workbench			I had thought a lot about the surface top for the workbench, particularly metal conductivity and shorting out components, and thought I needed to get a special type of table. But if you get an anti-static mat, you can work on any general flat surface. I would recommend a table at a height for sitting down so anyone, short or tall, can work at your workbench.
2	Anti-static mat	Sierra FSS100B	41	This grounds your parts (to eliminate static electricity which can damage your electronics) and provides insulation (to prevent shorting out exposed parts.) To ground your mat, here’s a useful instructable.
3	Multimeter	Fluke 115 Extech EX330	113 52	The Extech330 was the first electronics equipment I bought. I chose the Extech330 after watching EEVblog #91 on the multimeter shootout because it was not too expensive and had the basic features I needed. It works fine; however, I do find that I need to replace the batteries quite often, especially when I don’t use it for long periods of time. I think I may take the batteries out when I don’t use it to prevent battery drainage. The Fluke is so highly reviewed, so when I was ready to invest in a better one, I bought one.
4	Tweezers	Aven 18032TT	25	I recommend tweezers that aren’t magnetic because it can be frustrating when your small components stick to the tweezers. Also, you want strong tips that won’t bend after use. If they get bent, it’s difficult to pick up small components. These are titanium tweezers, and I haven’t had any issue with magnetism or bending.
5	Wire strippers	Greenlee PA1118	17	I was just looking for a wire stripper that goes up to 30 AWG wire diameter so I can strip thin wires. I chose this one because it had good reviews on Amazon.
6	Wire	B-30-1000 200M 30AWG Wire	10	30AWG wire is great to use on PCBs. Colors I have found very useful to have include red (power), black (ground), and multiple other colors for variety
7	Tape measure
8	Scizzors
9	X-acto knife			When I visited PCB assembly houses, I noticed that the soldering technicians do most of their small components work with x-acto knives, instead of tweezers. They use the x-acto knives to place components on the board and to remove them. I would get one with disposable blades.
10	Kapton Tape			When I’m using a rework station or heat gun to remove components, I tape surrounding components with kapton tape to protect them
11	Oscilloscope	Rigol DS1052E	400	This is a great entry-level scope. I’ve debugged I2C readings with this and I also like that it has a USB drive on it so I can save images to a flash drive.
12	Power supply	Mastech HY3005D-3	200	Components tend to require different voltages (typically 5V, 3.3V, or 1.8V), so it’s nice to have a variety of power. This power supply has 3 channels.
13	Hot glue sticks			Use hot glue to hold your wires in place. You can use your soldering iron to melt the glue on the board which can give you finer placement precision
14	IC Hook Test Leads	CAB-00501	9	Very useful to hook to tiny pins on development boards and to connect to thin wire leads that you may have placed on your boards.
	Soldering station
15	Soldering iron	Weller WD1000 or OKInternational PS-900	350	Weller was a nice entry-level soldering iron. The PCB assembly house I went to uses the OKInternational one. I think it’s helpful to consider irons with removable tips or at least are replaceable inexpensively.
16	Soldering iron tips	LT Series Tips
17	Microscope	AmScope SM-4TX-144A	510	For very small objects, the microscope really eases eyestrain. The magnification of this microscope is great for my needs. But the threads to hold the light fixture up have broken so the light falls off. I have to tape it up
18	Solder fume extractor		39	I just looked for well-reviewed ones on Amazon.
19	Fan			I would get a battery-power fan for more flexibility
20	Solder	Kester 24-6337-6422	58	This solder is great. It works really well and is thin enough for small components. I’ve worked with other solder which doesn’t melt well at all and can be frustrating.
21	Flux	Oatey 30106	9	I just chose one on Amazon.
22	99% Isopropyl Alcohol			To clean your PCB of flux which can corrode your PCB
23	Tinner	HF Wilson	15	I just chose one on Amazon
24	Rework Station	Aoyue Int852A+	139	This one’s fine. It goes up to 400F and I’ve been able to remove surface mount components (size 0603 and 0402) and some QFNs.

Here is my soldering station setup:
It's extremely important to keep things neat, especially because you are using dangerously hot tools.

 Here are some things I love about my setup:

1. Everything is within reach. I don't usually need to move the equipment around. 
2. The fan blows the solder fumes into the soldering fume extractor to prevent me from breathing in fumes
3. The microscope is close enough to the edge of the table so if I need to view an object from further away, I can pull the microscope neck out and view the object over the edge.
4. The workbench is at a comfortable seat height, and I have a chair with adjustable height. When other people need to work at this station, they just adjust the chair and don't need to adjust the microscope.
5. Cardboard to protect the antistatic mat from heat burns

Things I would improve:

1. I would get a battery-powered fan. You run out of outlets quickly in this concentrated area.
2. I would like to get my tools organized on the wall. I'm thinking of a peg-board wall mount.

Those are my thoughts. Hope this can help.
Happy engineering!