# multi-purpose workstation design



## voeckel (Jan 6, 2013)

With all the priceless input of the forum, I tried to design a future workstation, that will have many things combined and saves space.

The following thoughts are my baseline for the design:
- i want to be safe!
- i want to use all kinds of produced energy (heat, etc) to a maximum extend ( i hate wasting useful things)
- i want to process lots of parts in sand baths, so this station would be 'fired up' 12-16 hrs/day (shift workers)
- i need to incinerate ICs and other plastic parts to free the valuable material
- i want to have hot water available but don't want to waste additional energy
- i want to have some automated solution to take care of solder in the sand bath
- i want the station to be compact, using little space
- i want it to be extendable
- i want storage and a free work surface outside the hood
- i want the hood space to be multi-functional


This is what I came up with so far. In my opinion, there is plenty of opportunities to extend the design. I.e. the blower sucks air from the surrounding. At the blower's air input, a Y-piece could be placed where one side sucks air through a connection to the fume scrubbing equipment while the other side sucks the surrounding's air. 
Both Y-openings are adjustable to regulate where the most air comes from. This way, (regulated) underpressure would be produced on the fume scrubber, sucking the fumes through the different containers and filters, while the blower takes the needed rest of air from the room. Opening/closing partially both Y-inputs as needed should give the right balance.

Before I forget it: The access to the charcoal chamber is from the backside. The whole design would be built outside, kind of like you would build a permanent BBQ area in your garden. Protected by an open construction against wind and unpleasant weather of course.

The sand baths can be removed and one would just simply push in a work surface if fire is not needed that day. This would give plenty of workspace under hoods.

The hot water could be used for Hoke's advice on steam baths, etc. or for pre-warming equipment, vessels, acids. It should be already hot enough to directly use it for dissolving lead chloride when needed to get rid of it. The good thing about it is, it does not cost any additional money for the fire has to be up and running for incineration or sand baths anyways.

[EDIT]
The hot water is a closed cycle, feeding itself from the tank. Colder water goes from the tank outside along the backside to the end, then in the inside, slightly upwards along the wall over the charcoal trench, heating up. According to physics, the hot water flows on its own back to the tank, producing this way the closed cycle.
(Not clearly shown in the picture)


I have 1000 more thoughts on what more to do with it but first step first.

It is a theoretical design and I do not have practical experience. However, from what i've read over the months here, I actually feel quite comfortable that it might not be a complete crazy design.

Don't pin me down on exact measures in the drawing. The hood space sections are planned to be around 1m x 1m. Hence, depth is 1m+, length is around 5-6m and height is according to comfortable work position.

Let me know what you think and what you would change or where you see additional potential!


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## Jimmy (Jan 6, 2013)

Whenever you have a forced exhaust, you need to provide a forced source of fresh air too so you will need a blower to match the exhaust CFM of your exhaust fan.


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## voeckel (Jan 6, 2013)

Thanks Jimmy. I didn't know that, never tried this construction.

Actually, i just thought of another good use at the same time. Need to test that then but i think, the fire chamber might get hot enough.

Al has a melting point of 660C/1220F. Maybe the Al scrap can be molten in there as well, producing ingots. Some kind of construction like with the sand baths. To be tested then...

just a thought that came up right now when checking melting points of metals...

[EDIT]
The idea is basically, making the Al scrap here less space consuming. Nothing about purity, etc., the ingots would then be sold that way.

Does anyone else see flaws in the drawing or has a good idea or critics?
All input is appreciated.


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## ericrm (Jan 6, 2013)

this is just an opinion nothing more

i think your thing is dangerous and unuseful...

i understand what your trying to do, a machine/work place that does everything you need. i think it is a bad idea to put everything on such a tigh little rope

you are putting burning material inside your work place (CO build up),if an unlucky spark get somewher it doesnt belong that could mean the end of your story, you heating to the "gazing point" oil filled,epoxy filled,flamable material in a closed environnement, basicaly you making air,fuel and ignition in a tigh container (boom)(and what if your air suction fail while your taking a shit(could be a mega boom)).also do you have calculate the volume of your scrubber will needed to be to neutralyse that much air volume.also you will have oily deposite in your pipe and scrubber because of the fume liberate while roasting you chip and board. 
why not make one fume hood, + one big work table + 1 outisde burning place ? simple and way safer

i dint get the part where you wanna make it outside, still dangerous because of the air,fuel, ignition in your scrubber...

edit : also from my personnal experience the more you complicate thing trying to simplyfie it, the more it broke in your hand ,i see a 1000 way that thing could turn bad because it need to always stand on the rope, as soon as one thing will go wrong you whole setup will sufer..


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## voeckel (Jan 7, 2013)

:shock: (didn't think that it would be SO bad :lol: )

Thanks ericrm. You mention some interesting point of views that I did not take into account the way you explain them. I will go in more detail on this below. 
That's exactly why I posted my thoughts here, before building something that might be a bad, bad mistake.



ericrm said:


> you are putting burning material inside your work place (CO build up),if an unlucky spark get somewher it doesnt belong that could mean the end of your story, you heating to the "gazing point" oil filled,epoxy filled,flamable material in a closed environnement, basicaly you making air,fuel and ignition in a tigh container (boom)(and what if your air suction fail while your taking a shit(could be a mega boom)).



A family member built his own 5m pottery furnace in his garden and showed me what to take care of when it comes to CO gases, etc. The charcoal chamber would not be closed, it would have safe air-venting pipes in each compartment, to have gases building up in the chamber removed. His design takes automatically care of this, without any needed equipment. Hence, no air suction equipment is needed that could fail.

I will try to find a picture of his furnace so that you see what I mean. It's really a (kind of) beautiful construction (for pottery stuff) :mrgreen: and works even better than the furnaces they have in the nearby pottery school.



ericrm said:


> also you will have oily deposite in your pipe and scrubber because of the fume liberate while roasting you chip and board.
> why not make one fume hood, + one big work table + 1 outisde burning place ? simple and way safer



I am a bit torn about this for I get your point but simply lack the space. That is why i wanted to design a 'compact station that consums minimum space but can be used for all purposes (I.e. either boards OR incineration, etc).
I will have to go back to the drawing board for sure, for I see that it really seems to be better to separate a couple of things. At least the scrupper unit will have to be moved due to your mentioned reasons.



ericrm said:


> i dint get the part where you wanna make it outside, still dangerous because of the air,fuel, ignition in your scrubber...



I mentioned this part to make clear that this construction (with a fire trench and incineration) would not be build inside in a garage or so.



ericrm said:


> edit : also from my personnal experience the more you complicate thing trying to simplyfie it, the more it broke in your hand ...



Safety is my top priority and I agree with you on the above. It's a sad truth. :lol: 
I will change the design and will post it here again once done. Meanwhile, I would be grateful for any additional community comments or thoughts as well. Maybe something else should be kept in mind when looking at the 'monster'.

Cheers,


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## butcher (Jan 8, 2013)

I like the basic idea, I think the furnace needs more attention, exhaust flues, air supply, doors for feeding furnace and ash cleanout, ash grates, dampers for temperature and combustion air control, instead of just a trench for charcoal, the fire and combustion chamber should be confined in the furnace, the heat could be utilized out side the combustion chamber, for the sand bath and water coil heaters.

It can take a lot of air to support combustion, and depending on how hot you are burning how much air would be needed, you would not want this flue gas to rise through where your sand bath and workers are, and you do not want to count on your fume hood to handle the combustion gases.

The hot water tank would also need to be vented ,not a closed tank that could build steam pressure and explode.


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## niteliteone (Jan 8, 2013)

What are you expecting the lead\solder to do ???

Run through the sand bath and out the spout like water ???

It will NEVER happen. The solder will start out-gassing lead fumes (they WILL kill) at around 725* F (385 C) 

Also the solder in the sand will oxidize and turn the sand bed into a sand dross box that will solidify and never do as you want it to. Think pumice stone.

Also the molten solder will dissolve any ""GOLD"" it comes into contact with and tie it up in the dross mess.

I spent many, many years running and maintaining wave solder machines and would never try anything like this to do anything that would recover values.

If you want to remove parts and solder from PC boards just get an oven (think pizza oven) put a conveyor where the boards are loaded on one end and drop off the other end where all the parts and solder fly off the boards or someone catches the boards and thumps them on edge and the parts with solder fly off.


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## voeckel (Jan 12, 2013)

Sorry for the late reply gentlemen. I had been busy the last days.

@ butcher
This is indeed something that was planned for the furnace. The access to the separated departments is from the backside, which is not shown in the above drawing. I am not really a prof when it comes to drawing so please excuse the flaws, not showing all details.

But you are right, that there is much more to it than just a trench.


@ niteliteone
Actually, that was somehow the idea. I think it was mentioned somewhere on the forum that you could remove the solder from the sandbath, separating it. Hence, my thought was instead of gathering it in the bath, so why not letting it flow out at the lowest point (automizing it a bit) instead of accumulating it? 
But here's again the lack of practical experience on my side. I didn't know that it would not work that way. Thanks indeed for pointing it out with your experience.

To be honest, the conveyor is a great idea and I wonder myself, why I didn't think of THIS! :lol: 
One of these typical OUCH moments. :roll: 


I am preparing a new trip abroad at the moment, so I think I won't be able to upload a new revised version of my planned workstation. I'll try. But thinking about the given comments, it more and more makes sense to me, leaving things separated. That means, I need to check on how to arrange here to get more space.

Ergo, sharing my thoughts here was already a leap forward for me thanks to your help. :idea:

Cheers,


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## buddynorville (Dec 7, 2013)

You are thinking, that's good. And it's good to ask opinions and not go forward with just your ideas. I'm not down grading your ideas, it's just a good idea to air them among your peers. /and while doing all this thinking, come up with a cure for cancer there under the hood.


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