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previous: kg http://www.ednmag.com/ednmag/reg/19... -- 6/7/2000 6:32 PM

Re: building a home lab

6/7/2000 9:15 PM
MBSetzer	Re: building a home lab Excellent link, thanks, Ken. Couldn't agree more about having a lab for use at any hours, especially long sessions without interruption. It wasn't until I had a slowdown in my regular testing lab work that I added tube amp capabilities to my facility, this has always been a lab/home instead of a home lab. I try to make it comfortable and always prepare enough rations for a 24hour stay every day before I leave home (if I even made it home the night/day before). For amps the biggest problem has always been the sound level, and complaints generated by spouses, neighbors, etc. In my industrial setting, no one complains, even when you can easily hear a cranked stack rumbling inside my building when you first drive up. From the same parking lot there is just as much or more db from other nearby sources: power tools, traffic, boom boxes, overhead aircraft, etc. with 2 body shops, mechanics garages, nearby fire house, restaurant equipment rebuilders and more, in addition to the other lab I built on this street for my previous employer in the '80's, we both now have visitors at all hours. The latest explosion at the nearby Phillips polymer plant rocked our buildings more than all of that combined, though :-o When I go home to my sweetheart, I leave all scientific distraction at the office (unless a client pages me), it's still not possible to give the same impression as a normal working man, but it helps support the illusion to an extent. If she is real tired early I will seldom stay up and watch TV by myself, I just turn it off and read RDH4 which I carry with me at all times, I guess that's cheating except I also carry the National Enquirer. Still my home is only a few minutes from the lab, I will go here at a whim and when she is here there are adequate non-scientific distractions for her too, but I don't play the amps then.

6/7/2000 9:15 PM

MBSetzer

Re: building a home lab

Excellent link, thanks, Ken.

Couldn't agree more about having a lab for use at any hours, especially long sessions without interruption.

It wasn't until I had a slowdown in my regular testing lab work that I added tube amp capabilities to my facility, this has always been a lab/home instead of a home lab. I try to make it comfortable and always prepare enough rations for a 24hour stay every day before I leave home (if I even made it home the night/day before). For amps the biggest problem has always been the sound level, and complaints generated by spouses, neighbors, etc. In my industrial setting, no one complains, even when you can easily hear a cranked stack rumbling inside my building when you first drive up. From the same parking lot there is just as much or more db from other nearby sources: power tools, traffic, boom boxes, overhead aircraft, etc. with 2 body shops, mechanics garages, nearby fire house, restaurant equipment rebuilders and more, in addition to the other lab I built on this street for my previous employer in the '80's, we both now have visitors at all hours. The latest explosion at the nearby Phillips polymer plant rocked our buildings more than all of that combined, though :-o

When I go home to my sweetheart, I leave all scientific distraction at the office (unless a client pages me), it's still not possible to give the same impression as a normal working man, but it helps support the illusion to an extent. If she is real tired early I will seldom stay up and watch TV by myself, I just turn it off and read RDH4 which I carry with me at all times, I guess that's cheating ;-)

except I also carry the National Enquirer. Still my home is only a few minutes from the lab, I will go here at a whim and when she is here there are adequate non-scientific distractions for her too, but I don't play the amps then.