Wood bench - Paint and/or ESD mat question

[dconnx]

Hi all,

I'm just starting to assemble my LitePlacer which I received just recently (I've spent a while tapping all the AU extrusions earlier).

I've made the bench - it's pretty basic made of wood with a plywood top (under the top I have slats front-to-back on 200mm or so centers). It's quite solid but I've also attached it to the wall to reduce any wobbling.

I'm not sure what to do about the top surface. Reading the Liteplacer building docs (of course only doing this now *after* I've made the bench) I'm reading about an ESD table or ESD worktop and I'm also reading about how the worktop should be a solid color (which of course my plywood top is not). I could just paint the top (a color? grey/green/blue?) or I could buy some kind of ESD mat? On the question of ESD: I see there are various ESD mats for sale (e.g. on eBay with one searched item linked below) but surely a mat, even just a couple of mm thick and carefully glued down, would be a bit "squishy" ?

Thanks for any help on my bench top and/or ESD top/mat question


Derek






EBay ESD mat:
https://www.ebay.ie/itm/ESD-2-Layer-Smo ... SwHnFV4Imq




My (rather basic) bench:

IMG_20190324_184727.jpg (3.13 MiB) Viewed 3047 times

[Elasia]

I'm in the progress of modifying and building my liteplacer as well. I'll be making another thread or maybe even a hackerspace page for it. But anyway, I used a good quality bertech product for the esd layer

https://bertech.com/product-category/es ... -mat-kits/

I like the high temp material, stands up if you are hitting it with hot air or drop an iron etc, I bought my material in bulk from amazon, certain sizes tend to be way cheaper and more material than others oddly like you get 3 times as much but hey i wont complain.

I will be adding aluminum angle to the sides and that will then be screwed down, further I left one button tab on the back left that will be going to earth main ground / aluminum framing. I will also be fully grounding the rest of the machine by way of Green 22 awg wire with soldered to star ring terminals so each moving component is grounded.

Also should say I always cut to size my mats carefully but in the pics I will be posting in my build thread; I did get a little bit sloppy since Im covering it with angle anyway

Hopefully this gives you some ideas

[dconnx]

Hi,

I ended up buying a 1,220 mm X 610 mm X 1.5 mm EST bench mat from Farnell because it was great value (€34.18 - I'm in Ireland). ESD Mat Farnell: https://ie.farnell.com/multicomp/082-01 ... 7-00001003.

It's black and I don't know if that's good or bad (for the Liteplacer camera). I'd also better double-check if the 610 mm is OK.

I also purchased some spray adhesive from Farnell and I'm hoping to try to glue to mat to the plywood worktop (Looking at the adhesive instructions I think I'll be spraying both the mat and the worktop, letting the glue dry on both surfaces, and then carefully roll out the mat and press it down - hopefully this works out...). Spray adhesive Farnell: https://ie.farnell.com/bostik/132504/ev ... 7-00001003

Derek

[Elasia]

I typically use a thin layer of gorilla construction glue.. reason is it does stick but not so much that i cant just pull it up if ever needed

Since the frame itself locks the mat in place I didnt bother with a glue application, also its mdf so if i did pull it, it would be a pain in the ass but the mat would come right off

The trim is just accent pieces.. stand around the store long enough and bound to buy more too add on lol


I went gray just to stay neutral, no blending effects.. I'd think you would be fine other than using a black pcb might cause some grief.. just be sure to have good fudicual marks so you can get quality alignment points