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Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

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Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#51

Post by R0b0t1 »

pimlottc wrote: post #44
linsomniac wrote: post #38

I've been working on a workshop workbench, also using 20 series aluminum extrusion. Here's a picture of 2 of the 4 pieces: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AMaBwa5pRBQfqDPQ7 Aluminum extrusion is pretty nice to work with, though in retrospect I probably wouldn't do it again for the workbench. I was able to source it from China via Alibaba, and even with $200 shipping the pricing is way less than you can get it in the US. It…

Looks good! What’s the reason you say you wouldn’t use aluminum next time?

Having built stuff with it before I assume weight. If you buy decent tools aluminum is about as easy to work as wood. Maybe easier, because it warps less.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#52

Post by lpasselin »

madengr wrote: post #14

I built some really nice lab benches using the laminated “butcher block” tops. One has a 48”x72” work surface to accommodate deep test equipment and still have 24” of working depth. A 24”x72” shelf on top of that for more equipment. With the butcher block you don’t need additional framing for support. Just sturdy legs at either end. https://www.globalindustrial.com/g/work-benches/components/t...

These are great. I kind of regret my ikea karlby.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#53

Post by davio »

sokoloff wrote: post #3

Glad to learn about cutlistoptimizer as I looked casually for something like that in the past. I’ll have to figure out how to feed it from Fusion360. Also interesting to learn that Japanese “2x4”s are in that ratio exactly. In the US, they’re 1/2” under nominal size (so 1.5” by 3.5”). Makes it awkward to stack pieces together at times. (2 2x2s next to each other in the US are smaller than a 2x4.)

Meanwhile, my 6x6 deck posts are actually 6x6 and a 2x6 railing won't cover it.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#54

Post by war1025 »

ahelwer wrote: post #46
yboris wrote: post #34

My favorite design idea: move your computer out of the room. My PC is in the next room / closet and the room is completely silent. In my case all I needed was a small hole for an HDMI and a USB cable.

Looks like this person has a triple monitor setup, so that'd be either three DisplayPort/HDMI cables or a single DisplayPort cable if they can daisy chain them (only possible if these are all 1080p monitors). It is an appealing idea, though. I wish there were an easy thin client solution where everything from your actual computer just goes over cat6. Unfortunately cat6 can only handle about 10 Gbps, vs. a single Disp…

> Unfortunately cat6 can only handle about 10 Gbps

What is the main limitation for cables regarding transmission rates? Do we just need to move to fiber?

I was surprised recently looking into wifi options that apparently the new wifi 6 claims to handle 2400Mbps.

I assumed a wired connection would always trounce wireless (and I guess cat6 can do 4x that), but it seems like people are moving mostly to wireless setups. Is it solely because of the inconvenience of wiring things through a building?

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#56

Post by gcds »

archi42 wrote: post #33

Some thoughts: You'll probably want some decent light under the hanging cabinets (plus some shading so you're not looking into them while sitting on your PC). Now is a good time to plan for the necessary cabling/switches/... The overall intent of the structure seems to be "make it sturdy", and yes, overkill :P If you're like me and your monitor(s) are wobbling while typing (=programming = working), a simper solution…

Regarding lighting, I will have some led white and of course some RGB strips too with overhang so no eye pain, and rgb under the small shelf too and etc :)

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#58

Post by driverdan »

madengr wrote: post #14

I built some really nice lab benches using the laminated “butcher block” tops. One has a 48”x72” work surface to accommodate deep test equipment and still have 24” of working depth. A 24”x72” shelf on top of that for more equipment. With the butcher block you don’t need additional framing for support. Just sturdy legs at either end. https://www.globalindustrial.com/g/work-benches/components/t...

Ikea and Lumber Liquidators (in the US) both have very reasonably priced Oak and Birch butcher block. It makes for great table tops.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#59

Post by mywittyname »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #47
flaviu1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the proper way to do something like this? I've made a couple desks myself, but I've never been able to figure out a good way to do joints.

Dovetail and pin it all old style. A good rule of thumb is to not rely on friction for primary load bearing (e.g. nails in tension are bad but nails in shear or a peg being held in by friction are fine). That said, a plywood deck that is glued and screwed down like a subfloor pretty much absolves all sins.

Dovetails are easy if you have the right tools. But that's a $100 minimum investment, so you're going to want to have multiple projects in the works to really make the investment worth it. Doing them by hand is completely possible, it just takes a lot of time and practice to get right. Mortise and tendon or lap joints are much easier to do with hand tools and are a staple of classic wood working. Plus they are really forgiving. Took off too little: grab some sand paper; take off too much: add more glue and sawdust.

For most projects, glue & screw is fine. It's cheap and low effort. I use it in every utility project because speed > looks. I've never tested it, but I'm pretty sure that connection would be stronger than the wood itself.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#60

Post by mywittyname »

polskibus wrote: post #36

I wonder what CAD software has been used. What I find most limiting is lack of good free / open source 2D and 3D software. I know there is FreeCAD and Blender, but the former doesn't have many features that exist in AutoCAD, and the latter doesn't really cover precise modeling use cases.

Sketchup is good enough for projects like these. It's a little awkward because it doesn't have the concept of a body, only faces. But that's only relevant if you're doing simulations on the design.

The biggest issue is that the web version is lacking but the desktop version hasn't been updated in like a decade. So be sure to have a shortcut list handy on another screen because you have to use shortcuts if you're going to be remotely productive.

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