ADJUSTABLE STAND UP WORKSTATION

I’ve always thought the stand up desks seemed like a good idea, for someone that has to spend a lot of time in front of a computer. I know that if I had a desk job, I would certainly want to try it. So this year, I decided to make one for my best friend, for Christmas.

I looked on line at lots of different models, and home made ideas. But I didn’t see anything that I liked, that I could make strictly out of wood. I finally came up with my own idea which would keep the keyboard and monitor down flat at the desk level, and then easily raise them up together, to any height that felt comfortable.

I chose some walnut I had, that was rich with beautiful colors. I sanded everything down to 1,000 grit sandpaper.

It would have made life so much easier if the unit could be screwed down to the desk, however most people won’t want to be making holes on top of a big executive desk. So to keep the unit from lifting off the desk, when adjusting the workstation up, I used some 2” angle iron that I had, and a lot of other steel to come up with extra weight. I ended up with 12 pounds of steel on each side.

Some of the wood I chose for the legs had knots in them. I cut in some splines to reinforce the weak spots at the knots.

Since this was going to be a surprise for my friend, I couldn’t have him tell me what height would work good for him. So I made it plenty high, and used four knobs to tighten the lift at any point that seemed comfortable. Since I put a nice finish on the wood, I didn’t want the lifting legs rubbing the finish off, at the pivot points. So I put in fender washers. But with the slick washers, this made it hard to keep the unit from slipping when you tightened the locking knobs. To correct this, I coated the washers, at the knobs, with epoxy, to give some bite to the pivot point. The weight was just too much though for the knobs to hold the unit from slipping down. So I ended up making some spacers to slip between the legs, to hold the table at the heighth that worked good for my friend.

I recessed a rare earth magnet in the spacer, to mate up with a small washer on the leg. This made it easy to slip the spacer in place.

Then you just let the unit back down until the spacers hold it in place.

For extra comfort in using the mouse, I made a hanger that attaches to the side, with a strong rare earth magnet.

To prevent the monitor from toppling off, I made some tracks for the monitor base to slide in to.

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