Two of my Shelby Hamfest acquisitions were a couple of Fluke digital multimeters (DMMs) for $5 each. The seller had no idea if they were working or not, but for $10 I figured they would either be handy workbench instruments if they worked, or fun projects if they didn’t. A brief Google search brought me to a nice tear down/repair attempt blog post.
The Fluke 8000A is a pretty nice looking bench DMM with push buttons for function and range selection, and a handle that also doubles as a stand.
A printed label on the bottom provides specifications and indicates what optional features the meter has. Apparently a rechargeable battery was an available option which would have made it handy for field use. This one didn’t come with a battery.
A label on the top of the unit says this unit was last calibrated in September 1994, 27 years ago. Someone apparently decided at some point the meter wasn’t working properly anymore and wrote “BAD” on the sticker.
Much to my surprise, the meter turned on when I plugged it in. Testing with some precision resistors I have in my collection gave me some pretty good results.
Measuring a 98kohm resistor 
Measuring a 1.2 kohm resistor 
Measuring a 2 Mohm resistor
Measuring the DC voltages of some batteries gave me results that compared pretty well with one of my handheld meters. I haven’t tried measuring anything else yet, but it seems like for $5, I’ve got a pretty decently functioning bench meter (at least for most of the things I’d need to do anyway).
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