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Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

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Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#61
post #54
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

You still need to have multi gigabit switching and cabling to supply those WiFi6 points though!

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#62
post #16

Is there is link for his old UK desk build? Those steel tubes look boss, great look, and might be something I could tackle myself. This new Japan project looks a lot more ambitious, good luck xD.

Looks like this: https://simplifiedbuilding.co.uk/kits/desk-tables .

There's a US site as well: https://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#63

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?

I meant to go into a little more detail about that, got sidetracked. Part of it was cost/ease of obtaining. Part of it was COVID delays, but it took months to get the extrusion. Part of it is that it's an extra step; I had to build the extrusion frame and then build the panels and tongue them to fit the extrusion. As opposed to just putting together a simple cabinet and top. And if I damage it, it may involve significant disassembly to replace.

I kind of wanted to use it for stiffness and straightness, but in retrospect adding T track to wooden carcasses probably would have been a better option. Especially as 20 profile isn't the same size as typical T-track and associated tooling. It is stiff and strong and straight though.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#64
post #50

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…

You might find this interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/ir9cv2/slabolo...

Yes, very, thank you.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#65
post #57

I have part 2 already written just waiting for youtube to process video, going to post a link to part 2 about shopping all the materials!

Here go, part 2 of my series with Hyperlapse video. Enjoy! https://www.techprowd.com/home-office-project-overkill-workb...

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#66
post #45

Cool project. You really put some planning into it. As others have mentioned S4S lumber in the US is not standardized in size. It can vary. If your using a softwood like Pine, it will also not be strait. This is going to cause your tight tolerances to be off. You should build this with lumber that has been fully dried, and fully straitened and taken to a lesser tolerance, something that can be plained and jointed dow…

S4S lumber is the most straight variety you can buy with the lowest variance in size.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#67
post #49
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.)

To address the various questions about the origin of 2x4 sizing, Here’s a brief article on the topic (TL;DR: incremental reductions over decades until standardization was imposed in 1964): http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/45/nominal-versu... I had been told it had something to do with WWII but could find no actual evidence. When we remodeled our house (built in California in 1920j We found all the 2x4s wer…

The quality of lumber in early 20th century houses is incredible. You'd go broke trying to build a modern house out of lumber that good, assuming you could source it in the first place.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#68
post #16

Is there is link for his old UK desk build? Those steel tubes look boss, great look, and might be something I could tackle myself. This new Japan project looks a lot more ambitious, good luck xD.

It, looks innocent I was struggling with the frame as it weighted aorund 90kg in total was fun to tryo flip it from tabletop on the ground back to legs. But yeah there are many options to get those tubes in the West. Just my suggestion to grab impact driver otherwise you will cry :D

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#69
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.

If you don't need a high-end GPU, it's pretty easy to make a PC essentially silent. And even for a GPU it's possible if you're willing to sacrifice some performance and lower the power target. My desktop is not specifically designed to be silent, but the CPU and case fans are not audible from a typical distance.

Re: Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

#70
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.

I have done precisely this. Though my cabling needs were a bit more significant. The computer sits in a separate room, behind a wall. I cannot hear the multiple fans or coil whine or anything else. Beautifully silent. The computer stays cool, and so does my office. Four or five monitors, couple of USB hubs/peripherals, speakers, and so forth. It is unfortunate though that I spent more on cabling than most people probably spend on their entire computer.
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