{"id":1177,"date":"2020-07-23T14:27:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T21:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidgunter.com\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2022-03-13T17:57:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T00:57:21","slug":"diy-electric-standing-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidgunter.com\/es-mx\/2020\/07\/23\/diy-electric-standing-desk\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Electric Standing Desk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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DIY Standing Desk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now that I’m working from home full-time for the foreseeable future, I decided it was time to upgrade my home office. The previous glass-topped metal desk unit I thought was so cool back in the 1990s was no longer cutting it. Structurally it was fine but it lacked any sort of height adjustment that I’ve come to appreciate in my lab office. The commercial versions of such desks cost above $1,000, however. There are ~$500 electric standing desks offered on Amazon but they look flimsy compared to what I am used to using on a daily basis. I wanted something that will support several monitors, keyboards and miscellaneous equipment and still be able to raise up and down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, I decided to build my own electric standing desk using a pair of 18-inch linear actuators<\/a> I bought off eBay. These devices are 24 inches long and extend an additional 18 inches, powered off of a 12VDC power supply<\/a>. They are attached to two leg units made up of 2\u00d74 boards as shown below. Each end of the desktop is guided by a single 2\u00d74 that rides along a pair of full-extension drawer slides<\/a> (a pair of slides per leg). The 3\/4-inch plywood at the top is screwed into this leg and provides a good surface for attaching to the underside of the desktop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing worth noting is the small plywood attached to the top of each actuator. This piece is not attached to the plywood top nor to anything else. The reason is that even though these actuators are of the same make\/model, they do not necessarily keep in sync with each other. After several up\/down movements of the desktop, they might be off somewhat. A way to remedy this is to lower the top completely, which brings the actuators back to their lowest position, resetting both of them. The top bracket and the piece of plywood then move away from the desktop with no other stresses upon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n