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I built a lay-down desk

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Re: I built a lay-down desk

#371

I stopped hanging out in /r/DIY before /r/DIWHY became a thing, because it was turning into a roast of people risking life, limb, and property by doing something structurally unsound. There's educating people on building standards, and then there's just bagging on people. In an attempt to be more of the former than the latter, if the string or especially that strut sheer off of their mounts, that whole contraption is…

Lord, thank you for this comment. The structure looks like a death trap and the physics of its construction make very little sense. Be careful everybody!

This comment falls into the "...and then there's just bagging on people.", which the parent wanted to avoid.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And damage does not scale linearly. This must be today's "most HN" comment.

When I think of a "most HN" comment, I think of one of four options: - Dismisses a new project that simplifies a task and makes it more approachable to non-technical folks (Like the famous Dropbox comment [0]) - Is extremely pedantic and serves only as a distraction from a discussion - Argues in favor of pure functional programming - Misses obvious sarcasm, even when the /s is included. [0] https://news.ycombinator.c…

You forgot "find a wordy way to criticize something while pretending you're suggesting an improvement so that you can pander to some viewpoint that it's hard to argue against with the demographics here being what they are"

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#373
Whenever I've tried this angle of recline I've fallen asleep pretty quick.

The one thing I've always wanted to try though was face DOWN recline, like a massage parlor, approaching a sensory deprivation kind of experience. Again might need a lot of coffee beforehand though.

Would love to hear any reports from the daring adventurers who may have tried it. I think the blood flow to your arms might get weird, issue #1 ...

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#374
post #360

I stopped hanging out in /r/DIY before /r/DIWHY became a thing, because it was turning into a roast of people risking life, limb, and property by doing something structurally unsound. There's educating people on building standards, and then there's just bagging on people. In an attempt to be more of the former than the latter, if the string or especially that strut sheer off of their mounts, that whole contraption is…

Author here, I understand your reaction, and I think I didn't put enough context on the safety part. I recommend to anyone to do basic carpentry stuff, but here we have a more complex system I do not recommend someone without experience trying to. replicate it. I have been building that kind of stuff for about 15 years. No nails only bolts have been used as you advise, the structure is very solid compared to the weig…

Author: The term is 'overengineering.' You used thick wood and heavy bolts to compensate for the stresses placed on a structure which gives exceptional amounts of leverage on the joints. Overengineering isn't good engineering.

This thing is a nice first prototype, but it looks like a death trap. There is absolutely no reason for the giant lever arm coming up from behind you and all the way around.

Look at the altwork design. It's a lot lighter and more robust. It doesn't place a ton of weight overhead, and there's a lot less leverage on the joints. Or look at ErgoQuest. The monitors are stationary, and only a lightweight desk/keyboard tray moves.

I appreciate your confidence, but I'm afraid it's misplaced. I've been doing woodworking and engineering for a lot more than 15 years. A couple of things to consider:

"When you want to build this kind of structure, I'm not sure you can plan everything beforehand, there are always things that will happen that you didn't expect." You absolutely can. It just takes practice and experience. When I build something, I plan out what I do, and 9/10 it comes together on the first go. For my mentors, it's 10/10. The first few years I was doing this, it was 0/10.

"After a few failing choices, I ended up with a main pole of 7cm x 7cm." You generally want about a 10x safety margin for dynamic loading and similar issues. If you had a few failing designs, you're way too close to failing in your current design.

Back to the overengineering point: Simply using massive beams of wood and bolts doesn't necessarily make things robust. A 7cm x 7cm piece of wood weighs a ton, and puts that much more strain on everything. That's true for all the pieces. I could build a more robust design with normal-sized boards. That has the distinct advantage that if there is a failure, what falls on me my hurt me, but won't kill or cripple me.

I'm glad you're trying, but by overestimating your expertise, you're putting yourself at risk. I'd encourage you to keep trying, but to also take this sort of constructive criticism seriously.

Think through how the desk ought to move so you don't need the giant lever arm, whether you want the monitors to move at all, and where to mount these so you can get in and out easily. I can think of a half-dozen designs where there are no massive lever arms, where nothing moves or just the keyboard tray moves, where if things break, I don't die, and generally simpler, lighter, and more robust.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And damage does not scale linearly. This must be today's "most HN" comment.

When I think of a "most HN" comment, I think of one of four options: - Dismisses a new project that simplifies a task and makes it more approachable to non-technical folks (Like the famous Dropbox comment [0]) - Is extremely pedantic and serves only as a distraction from a discussion - Argues in favor of pure functional programming - Misses obvious sarcasm, even when the /s is included. [0] https://news.ycombinator.c…

Those are all negative. Lots of HN comments are positive.

Can you think of any other community where someone can discuss the damage of a CRT monitor falling into your face with terms like "scale linearly" and everybody just nods in agreement?

I think it's delightful, one of the little pleasures of hanging around here.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#376

I stopped hanging out in /r/DIY before /r/DIWHY became a thing, because it was turning into a roast of people risking life, limb, and property by doing something structurally unsound. There's educating people on building standards, and then there's just bagging on people. In an attempt to be more of the former than the latter, if the string or especially that strut sheer off of their mounts, that whole contraption is…

/r/DIY, and basically every other part of the easily accessible public internet where people used to build things died because the people who build things left those parts of the internet. The people who actually build cool stuff left because they didn't like a bunch of people with little to no experience in the things they are doing telling them about how they should have done them and that should have worn more saf…

> Nobody who's actually contributing content of any value is going to stick around somewhere they have to take shit from a bunch of internet riff-raff that isn't contributing anything.

Ah, yes. The exact realization I had, 26 years ago, which made me finally give up on asking questions in EFNet #Linux.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#377
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not body weight, but deadlifts are a good counteraction. Glutes, lower back and upper back all come into play.

Heavy deads fixed my back. Took a while to work up, but it was the best thing I have ever done.

Can confirm the same for me!

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#378
post #8
post #5

A friend once said “There’s all these studies about how bad sitting is for you. Now there are even studies about how bad standing desks are for you. Nobody ever says anything bad about laying down so I just try to do that as much as possible.” I still laugh. Perhaps true in part though.

The worst potential consequence of laying down is that your back muscles would become weaker. This is one of the reasons why sitting harms your back, and with laying down it would be even worse. Unless it's combined with some exercise it could be a really bad idea.

I can confirm. I've mostly been working from my bed during these Covid times, and once I started going to the gym I was astonished by just how weak my back was, as opposed to my upper body or legs. But thankfully, it's building back up nicely.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#379

I stopped hanging out in /r/DIY before /r/DIWHY became a thing, because it was turning into a roast of people risking life, limb, and property by doing something structurally unsound. There's educating people on building standards, and then there's just bagging on people. In an attempt to be more of the former than the latter, if the string or especially that strut sheer off of their mounts, that whole contraption is…

/r/DIY, and basically every other part of the easily accessible public internet where people used to build things died because the people who build things left those parts of the internet. The people who actually build cool stuff left because they didn't like a bunch of people with little to no experience in the things they are doing telling them about how they should have done them and that should have worn more saf…

The last time I participated, a guy had build a loft in his garage that was going to fall on his head or his car within a year. Sooner if he actually put all the stuff on his shelves up there.

try /r/woodworking for a more mature conversation.

The people who know they fucked up post self-deprecating pictures for a group chuckle. Showing your first dovetail (even if it looks like a 10 year old made it) is practically a rite of passage. The rest of the projects are usually small enough they can't kill people, or anchored to the floor so you might lose a toe at worst.

Re: I built a lay-down desk

#380
post #360

I stopped hanging out in /r/DIY before /r/DIWHY became a thing, because it was turning into a roast of people risking life, limb, and property by doing something structurally unsound. There's educating people on building standards, and then there's just bagging on people. In an attempt to be more of the former than the latter, if the string or especially that strut sheer off of their mounts, that whole contraption is…

Author here, I understand your reaction, and I think I didn't put enough context on the safety part. I recommend to anyone to do basic carpentry stuff, but here we have a more complex system I do not recommend someone without experience trying to. replicate it. I have been building that kind of stuff for about 15 years. No nails only bolts have been used as you advise, the structure is very solid compared to the weig…

I looked again to see if I was imagining things. The first picture I see is all screws and nails? The bits above as well as behind the chair are the parts that concern me. Lots of pieces that can shear off and drop that arm in your lap. One of those cleats has a screw going in at a very acute angle. for instance.

I'm going to quibble with the other response about the arm above being over-engineering. You're copying existing designs instead of trying to work out your own geometries. You could probably move the moving parts behind the monitor, but I don't know how hard a time you'd have keeping the footprint from increasing.

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