I wanted to continue the great discussion we had last night about the 3d printing and prototyping studio. I think we had a lot of discussion on the 3d printers, lasers and routers, so I wanted to touch on the electronics lab.
I’m excited about having a more robust electronics labs than the typical home setup and I think it would be a fantastic offering for the makerspace.
I took a look through the lab here at my work, plus my home lab and here’s my suggestion for just a basic setup I think we can put together for about $1,500.
Does anyone have some connections with Watlow or Benchmark in town? Maybe they would be able to donate a few used items? If anyone has a lead on some older equipment that would be great too, we don’t need cutting edge stuff here 
Soldering station: probably worth having a more precise unit for delicate work, then a generic one for most project. If we host classes, it would be easy to get a few more if needed.
- Weller WE1010 70W $100
- Weller WT1012 95W $150
- Fume extractor - some cheapy amazon thing probably fine $50
- Hot air station - 858D hot air station (or some clone, its cheap and works great) $50
Prototyping supplies: misc shared material for breadboarding and hacking stuff together
- Ribbon wire
- Breadboard ribbon wire with crimp pins
- Set of stranded wire of various gages
- Breadboards
- Tool box, parts bins, etc..
Lab test equipment:
- DC power supply - I have an old Rigol DP832 to donate
- Multimeter - basic Fluke or Klein $100
- Benchtop multimeter - UniTrend or something basic $150
- Oscilloscope - Rigol DS1054Z. A little fancy, but has 4 channels, a big display good for showing or teaching a class. $350. An used scope from ebay or something would be fine.
Misc tools:
- Helping hands clips
- tweezer set $10
- screwdriver set $50
- pliers set $50
- xacto set $20
- magnifying glass stand $20
- Calipers $50
- Flush cutters
- mini needle nose pliers
- Wire strippers