Want to think everyone who had been using the room and keeping it tidy.
I moved the storage boxes off of the floor and onto the shelves. Not the most optimal setup but good until after the open house.
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Wow. If only my lab at home looked this organized!
— Zach
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I agree, this looks AMAZING! You should post a before pic to get a real sense of the progress made in there. Again, KUDOS to you guys for really transforming this place!
in all honestly, the lab is now up there with all the other electronic lab porn on the internet. Amazing job and great work seeing it to this point.
Here is the before picture.
@Tron had since filled out the donated parts shelf and fixed up the benches. @artg_dms moved the black bins into good homes and we then put the parts drawers on the shelves. There is a plan to get those in a more accessible arrangement soon.
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I don’t believe it. 'Shopped, you can tell from the pixels. 
Great job guys! That looks fantastic.
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My 2 cents (ok, 0.49 cents worth) of comment/advice:
I have been told that there needs to be clear, open space available for 4
distinct functions in order to allow for “flow” which can help to keep the
electronics room functionally organized:
- A shelf to place equipment which needs to be tested/repaired/further
dispositioned such as outside repair or decision to trash. - A shelf to place projects abandoned on a workbench so that the
workbench can become available for someone else, and the project can be
reclaimed or eventually tossed - A shelf for all things incoming into the electronics room - such as
tools misplaced to other area and returned, or donations to be processed,
and for items used in the electronics room but for which someone doesn’t know where to put back. - A shelf for outgoing - items which were misplaced or borrowed and left
inside the electronics room or otherwise, and need to be properly returned. The last two might best be close to the door.
These shelves should of course be properly labeled
Looking good is great, but it should IMPROVE organization and functionality
and is not be done at the expense of organization and functionality.
Also, be aware that earlier, a design sub-committee was formed, which included an interior designer, and the head of the subcommittee which put the final draft in CAD, along with several others. They meticulously thought out the room layout and appearance, and their final opinion was impressive.
Additionally, the shelving which holds the black bins of parts is a prototype and is not complete. It was one component included in the design committee final opinion, and was intended to be finished and duplicated for other parts, equipment, personal project storage space. Alex, woodshop chair had offered to assist in building additional shelving units (presummably based on the prototype).
Good ideas David,
I think shelf 2 and 4 could be combined if policed well. I think this is a great solution for one of the shelves we have in the room.
So How do we decide what to remove to clear up a set of shelves for this purpose (this is targeted at the group not tron solely). I’ve heard a few members state that culling some of our parts is a possibility. But, when pushed for which parts, the response is often we just need to go through everything. Could we discuss some possible guide lines so that the lay member wanting to help can pitch in on the clearing of some parts?
The abandoned and incoming shelves are still in place but do need to be labeled better. I think you @Tron had set the time for a week before disposal, which is pretty fair. The disposition shelf, I remember it but someone removed the label. I agree with @Nick in that the abandoned and outgoing shelf can be combined if policed well. So far thre was only one abandoned project and I tossed it a day or ago. Looked like someone had done some toy circuit bending and left us with the unused guts.
My opinion was that the small boxes with drawers needed to get off the floor. The do need a better place than on the wire shelves. But for open house it will work. Next week we will get back to functionality.
Thanks for everyones input and mostly help.
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If I may… I did not set a time for “disposal” as this would have constituted an irreversable decision, which I believe would have been inappropriate for an “acting” chair. I was expecting direction from the committee in due course on this and other issues. So far, this all seems great, and the spirit of cooperation here is going surprisingly well. Congratulations, @Lampy on how well you are doing all this.
As far as clearing parts, I believe that as the parts become more organized, what we have that is lopsided in terms of inventory will become clear.
One possible direction could be:
(1) move the empty black bins off the top of the shelving rack, and finish re-locating all black bins around the room onto the shelving if it has not been done.
(2) Put sort/move the black bins with similar labels together.
(3) consolidate and re-sort contents of black bins with like labels, relocating misplaced parts to appropriately labeled bins and pulling all through-hole parts from black bins (the surface mount bins) and placing the through-hole parts in a tub to be consolidated with the cases of plastic bins (small boxes of drawers) of through-hole parts.
(4) Purchase a label maker (which Makerspace no longer has).
(5) Organize through-hole parts into plastic bins. Label the plastic bins with visible black-on-white labels.
(6) Build one more shelving rack, with the woodshop’s help, and move all remaining parts to it, which includes getting the small boxes with drawers off the floor, permanently.
(7) At this point, that lopsidedness in inventory should be obvious, as well as how much space (two large shelving racks) we will allocate to hold electronic components.
I am putting out the above out as a specific plan, and as a starting point for discussions. Most of it does not require any intricate understanding of electronic components to follow. Once finished, we would be a major step forward in having the area be a resource where people can get things done.