hath wroth:

Home workshop where I plan on working on stereo equipment, primarily.
Will a natural fiber runner (carpet) work well for me as a benchtop
surface or are the anti-static mats a must? If so, are there any DIY
or cheaper alternatives to the expensive kind the electronic supply
stores sell?

I don't think it matters much. Most synthetic fiber rugs already
include some form of anti-static protection (imbedded carbon fibers or
dust). If you search Google for "anti-static rug", you'll find plenty
of examples. I've been using random carpet samples for years and
don't recall every blowing anything up with one.

At one time, the topic came up at work. So I borrowed an
electrostatic volts guesser, and did some measuring at work. What I
found was:
1. The only rugs that showed a problem was the Persian wool rug in my
office. Also removing the wool fishermans hat I often wore was good
for a zap. Oops.
2. Grounding the chair had the biggest effect on reducing static
buildup as it gives the tech a place to discharge. Plastic seat
cushions are a bad idea.
3. Putting one hand on an oscilloscope screen and the other on the
circuit board generated more static electricity than I consider
acceptable.
4. Managers and salesmen in polyester clothes and boating shoes are
guaranteed to blow something up.
5. Clean formica table tops can hold quite a static charge. Filthy
formica does not. I used this as an official excuse to not clean up
my mess for many years. Grounding the aluminum strip at the edge of
the table did wonders for discharging the table top.
6. One of the other engineers decided that the table top carpet patch
needed a place for the static electricity to discharge. So, he glued
some aluminum foil to the bottom of the carpet and grounded the foil.
I never did figure out if this worked as I had to return to doing
something productive. I'm undecided if this arrangement is a
discharge path or part of a capacitor.
7. Some people simply generate more static electricity than others. I
generate very little. However, I know others that can blow up
sensitive circuitry without much effort. I have no clue how this
works.

Incidentally, if you're paranoid about static electricity, or just
cheap like me, you can make your own anti-static spray with:
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/house/house17.html
If the fabric softener doesn't remove the static, the ammonia will
empty the room of all the complainers.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558