the right moment, and sparks flew, and the music rose to a crescendo, and the creature jerked to life, and the crazy doctor yelled, “It’s ALIVE!”
The best Frankenstein movie ever made is still the original 1931 Frankenstein, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff. The second-best Frankenstein movie ever made is the 1974 Young Frankenstein, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder. Both have great laboratory scenes.
In fact, did you know that the laboratory in Young Frankenstein uses the very same props that were used in the original 1931 classic? The genius who created those props was Kenneth Strickfaden, one of the pioneers of Hollywood special effects. Strickfaden kept the original Frankenstein props in his garage for decades. When Mel Brooks asked if he could borrow the props for Young Frankenstein, Strickfaden was happy to oblige.
You don’t need an elaborate mad-scientist laboratory like the ones in the Frankenstein movies to build basic electronic circuits. However, you will need to build yourself a more modest workplace, and you’ll need to equip it with a basic set of tools as well as some basic electronic components to work with.
However, no matter how modest your work area is, you can still call it your mad-scientist lab. After all, most of your friends will think you’re a bit crazy and a bit of a genius when you start building your own electronic gadgets.
In this chapter, I introduce you to the stuff you need to acquire before you can start building electronic circuits. You don’t have to buy everything all at once, of course. You can get started with just a simple collection of tools and a small space to work in. As you get more advanced in your electronic skills, you can acquire additional tools and equipment as your needs change.
Setting Up Your Mad-Scientist Lab
First, you must create a good place to work. You can build a fancy workbench in your garage or in a spare room, but if you don’t have that much space, you can set up an ad-hoc mad-scientist lab just about anywhere. All you need is a place to set up a small workbench and a chair.
I do most of my electronics work in a spare room in my home, which also doubles as a display area for some of the Halloween props I’ve built over the years for my haunted house. Thus, as Figure 3-1 shows, my Mad-Scientist Lab really is a mad-scientist lab!
Here are the essential ingredients of any good work area for electronic tinkering:
Adequate space: You’ll need to have adequate space for your work. When you’re just getting started, your work area can be small — maybe just 2 or 3 feet in the corner of the garage. But as your skills progress, you’ll need more space. It’s very important that the location you choose for your work area is secure, especially if you have young children around. Your work area will be filled with perils — things that can cause shocks, burns, and cuts, as well as things that under no circumstances should be ingested. Little hands are incredibly curious, and children are prone to put anything they don’t recognize in their mouths. So be sure to keep everything safely out of reach, ideally behind a locked door.FIGURE 3-1: My Mad-Scientist Lab really is a mad-scientist lab!
Good lighting: The ideal lighting should be overhead instead of from the side or behind you. If possible, purchase an inexpensive fluorescent shop light and hang it directly over your work area. If your chosen spot doesn’t allow you to hang lights from overhead, the next best bet is a desk lamp that swings overhead, to bring light directly over your work.
A solid workbench: Initially, you can get by with something as simple as a card table or a small folding table. Eventually, though, you’ll want something more permanent and substantial. You can make yourself an excellent workbench from an old door set atop a pair of old file cabinets, or you can hit the yard sales on a Saturday morning in search of an inexpensive but sturdy office desk. If your only option for your workbench is your kitchen table, go to your local big box hardware store and buy a 24-inch square piece of ⅝-inch plywood. This will serve as a good solid work surface and protect your kitchen table until you can acquire a real workbench.
Comfortable seating: If your workbench is a folding table or desk, the best seating is a good office chair. However, many workbenches stand 4 to 6 inches taller than desk height. This allows you to work comfortably while standing. If your workbench is tall, you’ll need to get a seat of the correct height. You can purchase a bench stool from a hardware store, or you can shop the yard sales for a cheap bar stool.
Plenty of electricity: You will obviously need a source of electricity nearby as you build electronic projects. A standard 15-amp electrical outlet will provide enough current capacity, but it probably won’t provide enough electrical outlets for your needs. The easiest way to meet that need is to purchase several multi-outlet power strips and place them in convenient locations behind or on either side of your work area.
Plenty of storage: You’ll need a place to store your tools, supplies, and components. The ideal storage for hand tools is a small sheet of pegboard mounted on the wall right behind your workbench. Then, you can use hooks to hang your tools within easy reach. For larger tools, such as a drill or saw, built-in cabinets are best.For small parts, multicompartment storage boxes, shown in Figure 3-2, are best. I suggest you get one or two of these to store all the little components such as resistors, diodes, capacitors, transistors, and so on. If you get two boxes, get one that has a few larger compartments and another that has a greater number of smaller compartments. It’s also a good idea to keep a few small, shallow storage bins handy. These are especially useful for storing parts for the project you’re working on. It helps to keep your parts together in a shallow bin rather than having them scattered loose all over your work area.
FIGURE 3-2: Multicompartment storage boxes are ideal for storing small components.
Equipping Your Mad-Scientist Lab
Like any hobby, electronics has its own special tools and supplies. Fortunately, you don’t need to run out and buy everything all at once. But the more involved you get with the hobby, the more you will want to invest in a wide variety of quality tools and supplies. The following sections outline some of the essential stuff you’ll need at your disposal.
Basic hand tools
For starters, you’ll need a basic set of hand tools, similar to the assortment shown in Figure 3-3. Specifically, you’ll need these items:
Screwdrivers: Most electronic work is relatively small, so you don’t need huge, heavy-duty screwdrivers. But you should get yourself a good assortment of small- and medium-sized screwdrivers, both flat-blade and Phillips head.A set of jeweler’s screwdrivers is sometimes very useful. The swiveling knob on the top of each one makes it easy to hold the screwdriver in a precise position while turning the blade.FIGURE 3-3: Basic hand tools you’ll want to have.
Pliers: You will occasionally use standard flat-nosed pliers, but for most electronic work, you’ll depend on needle-nose pliers instead, which are especially adept at working with wires — bending and twisting them, pushing them through holes, and so on. Most needle-nose pliers also have a cutting edge that lets you use them as wire cutters.Get a small set of needle-nose pliers with thin jaws for working with small parts, and a larger set for bigger jobs.
Wire
