Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Story of My Desk

jlongster.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: The Story of My Desk

#61

Post by critium »

sliverstorm wrote: post #46
tjic wrote: post #2

It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (…

sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again. This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

It also depends on your tolerance for not 100% correct. I've got a ton of stuff i put together that's functionally perfect but doesnt look like it belongs in a showroom anywhere (unless its abstract art!)

Re: The Story of My Desk

#64

Post by jotm »

espadagroup wrote: post #49
sliverstorm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again. This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

I can understand that, though the excitement and feeling of accomplishment more than makes up for cost and angst of possibly having done it wrong.

not to mention the experience! It really helps you learn a lot, and it can come in handy in the future...

Re: The Story of My Desk

#65

Post by diziet »

jlongster wrote: post #35
diziet wrote: post #27

Can the armrests of your chair slide under the desk easily while keeping the top surface of the arms rests almost parallel with the desk surface? The cross section bar right below the actual desk surface could prevent this.

I actually don't have armrests. I don't know why, I just never used them so I took them off. You could have armrests if they are 3" lower than the desk top, but that doesn't seem very comfortable either. You'll have this problem with any solid desk with aprons or a drawer. If you like it that way, you'll need something like a metal base so that you don't need aprons.

I've found that when I have a chair with armrests I am able to slide it closer under the desk and sit straighter than if I was just sitting on a chair with no arm rests.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#66

Post by Fomite »

fsckin wrote: post #18

For me, a used IKEA Jerker for $50 of CL with task light has been perfect. People worship[0] this desk. Now I see why. Lots more photos[1] available, including standing desks, treadmill desks, etc. It's got adjustable height from slouching to standing (painful to adjust, but possible in 1.5" increments). The shelf I have up top has room for 1 full sized PC, 1 printer, and 2 NAS servers. I use another shelf on the bot…

I picked up an Ikea Gerton tabletop that's going to be made into a desk this weekend hopefully. It's got kind of a butcher block look, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#67

Post by jseliger »

nolanbrown23 wrote: post #16

I built my own desk last year because of the expense of a new desk and the fact that all the desks I looked at weren't quite the right size for what I wanted. I've been using it every day for over a year and the desk has withstood a barrage of abuse much better then previous desks I've owned. If you have the space to build one, I highly recommend building one to match your exact specifications. Here a blog post about…

I built my own desk last year because of the expense of a new desk and the fact that all the desks I looked at weren't quite the right size for what I wanted.

I'm now using a sit-stand desk: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/the-geekdesk-writin... , which was pretty expensive, but I would find it hard to go back to sitting exclusively, or forward to standing all the time.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#68

Post by sliverstorm »

shoover wrote: post #55
sliverstorm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again. This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

We are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the tech…

Where can I get plans?

Re: The Story of My Desk

#69

Post by shoover »

sliverstorm wrote: post #68
shoover wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the tech…

Where can I get plans?

Woodworking magazines, woodworker supply shops, fine woodworking forums. Start digging around for what you're interested in and you'll find them.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#70

Post by specialist »

sliverstorm wrote: post #46
tjic wrote: post #2

It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (…

sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again. This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

Good summation of my efforts remodeling my house.

Post reply on HN