Test Bench Construction?

[Enigma]

Hi everyone, I am in the process of planning my first test bench to do calibrations on, I have all my standards, computers etc.  and am in the process of building the hardware to connecting the hardware together.  ie.  wire, test leads, bananna plugs and stuff like that.  I am wondering if there is a good source of supplies for this kind of stuff.  Does it make a difference to use gold plated? Is it better to have your equipment rack mounted or sitting a bench.  I have found a few companies like pomonna and kelven who make test leads but not many more.  Fluke and Agilent have a lot of test leads that are device specific but if you need to bring a signal in that is not compatable with that test lead you are hooped.  I want to make sure I get the best I can for taking measurements.  Most of the signals I am measuring are in the small mV range and resistance measurements with very tight tolerance.  Any help would be appreciated.