Standing and sitting

 I've been standing at my desk instead of sitting.  It has really helped my back.  Enough that I can concentrate on work.  Now my legs and feet ache.  I'm able to move the keyboard/mouse and sit, but the monitors are too far away.  I've ordered a new chair that I know will work so I should be ok sitting. However, I still think standing is good too.

You can see in the previous post, I have a laptop & 2 monitors.  I could adjust the stand I made, but not with everything on it.  It's time for a stand that can adjust with everything on it.  And to make it wider (13") so nothing hangs off the ledge.

I've seen some DIY lifts that use an X with 1 side fixed and the other moving.  Unless all the weight is on one side, it won't work for something distributed across the whole thing.  I decided to go with a scissor jack, like for a car.  The base is fixed, the top is fixed and a screw adjusts it. 

By using 2 crosses, I can have a wide stance to support across the whole 56".  The middle pivots are 12.5" apart.  And front to back are about the same.

I want to raise & lower about 20".  To make the crosses, I cut 8 pieces of wood to 22".  So, we have 8 links.

I found the center, drilled a hole and then drilled another hole just a bit in from the end (1/2"?).

I used those holes to drill another piece with matching holes.  Then, with a bolt in the center, I rotated the bottom piece to its undrilled end & drilled through.  Using this, the distance from center to the either end will match.  And then I drilled all the rest to match.

For the base, I have a long piece of 1x3.  I purchased v grooved wheels with bearings to roll along it.  It's important the the bolts through the wheels are the same height as the fixed bolts. 

I'm using 1/4" 20tpi bolts everywhere.  I have washers between pieces of wood to reduce friction.  The wheel bearing is recessed so I stack 2 washers and the fender washer prevents the wheel from rubbing wood.

I have a strip of 1/4" oak nailed to the base that works as a rail for the V.  Just lightly planed square off the bandsaw.

 

The crossed links are separated by a small block of wood and washers.  The total thickness should be the same as the 1x3 used for the base & top.

Looking at the end with the top & base.  You can see the oak strip is offset.

 Here is my initial assembly.  I have 3 horizontals fixed with dowels to the 2 56" long base pieces.  The front top rail is screwed to the desktop left right & center.  The back top rail is only screwed in the center.

With everything tightened down, it moves smoothly up & down.  If you look at the cross bolts, you can see the crossbars I bolted between.  This adds strength & some stability front to back.  

I used insert nuts in the end of the crossbar.  It's bolt -> washer -> wood link -> washer -> wood spacer block -> washer -> wood link -> washer -> insert nut -> crossbar.  The cross bars are oak.  Because I have lots of it.  And this is the part to raise & lower the desk stand.

I drilled holes in the center of the crossbars.  In one crossbar, I put a threaded insert.  

I screwed a piece of 1/4"-20 rod through the insert and through the hole in the other crossbar.  On the end of the rod on the other side of the hole I put 2 fender washers with paste wax between and then 2 nuts that I jammed together.  I also put paste wax on the threaded rod to help lubricate it.

There is lots of tension in the mechanism.  Enough to bow the 1x3s upward 1/4" in the middle when fully raised.  When moving, there can be a shift front to back that is easy to steady with a hand.

In the raised position, you can see the drill I'm using to move it.  It stays in that position, not moving left or right.  It's quick and I can't imagine how long it would take otherwise.

I'm pleased with this.  When seated or standing, everything is at the right height.  

 I'll have to add something to hold the keyboard & track when standing.   Perhaps something I can remove when sitting.

I might eventually wear the holes the bolts go through, but I can make the holes bigger and put some kind of bushing in if it matters.  They're only pine.

The 1/4-20 rod might not hold up.  I think the paste wax lubricating it will keep it from overheating.  The tension might fatigue it.  I'm going to put a rope around the crossbars as a safety when it's raised.  That will give be time to look for a thicker rod with coarser threads that will move quicker.

 

Is your laptop vertical?

 When I showed this picture to my coworkers, people noticed the laptop is vertical.  One of my office mates (my coworkers are remote) had a commercial stand for his laptop.  When we switched to work from home for covid, I made a copy.

The bottom is a 4x16 scrap of 3/4" pine.  More or less.

2 dowels and a knob

I was practicing turning spindles on the lathe from pine branches that fell in my backyard 2 years ago.  Pretend they're 1/2" ish dowels.

10" long sorta

Maybe the medium one is 10".  The short thing at the front was practicing making a knob.

They holes are 1" to 1-1/2" from the edge with a slight angle.  If your laptop doesn't fold flat, you'll need a flatter angle.  Your board will probably need to be wider than 4" too.

I've been reading about staked furniture (https://lostartpress.com/products/the-anarchists-design-book) and decided to try it here.  I drilled holes smaller than the dowels through the board.  Then I tapered the end of the dowel and reamed out the hole to match the taper.  Saw a slot in the end of the dowel, put the dowel in the hole.  Line the slot up so it's perpendicular to the grain of the board.  Put a wedge in the slot to lock it in.  You can see it above.

Or just drill a round hole that matches the dowel & glue it.  You could drill it slightly smaller and get a friction fit.  There isn't much weight involved.

Finally, there will be a bit of dowel sticking out because it's angled.  Cut that off so it's flush.

Action shot

Maybe this is a good view of the angle?  You can see the standing desk's adjustable legs sticking up too.

Furniture of necessity

My back has been hurting from all the sitting I do (I am a computer geek!)  I'm finding that standing doesn't hurt and it gets better until I sit.

So, someone suggested I get a standing desk.  I have some 2x4s...

The monitors should be about 20" higher.  The keyboard should be about 12" higher.  I have 2 monitors and a laptop taking up around 48".

I had some 2x4 that I previously cut in 1/2 and drilled holes in.  They're ~ 24" long.  I have a 2x8 that's longer than 55". 

I didn't take pictures of the process.  Last night I trimmed the 2x8 to be square.  I traced the end of my 2x4s (2x2s?) onto it.  Then I cut square holes into the 2x8 for them.  With bolts through the holes, I now have a platform to put my monitors on.  I can raise or lower it.

The end result

The legs need feet.  During my lunch break, I cut a 17" 2x4 in half and created a mortise in the centers for the legs.  I put a tenon on the end and drawbored a dowel to keep it tight.

Mortise & Tenon with dowel

Not bad for an hour's work!  I'll have to drill out the dowel to disassemble it.  No glue so I could use it right away.

The bolt to make it adjustable.

The square mortise is tight enough not to wiggle.  It's stable enough.  If I need more, I could put a stretcher between the legs.  Or even a rope. 

I had some filing boxes that are 12" high.  I just put the keyboard on it.  I use a trackball so that goes on too.  After 1/2 a day, I might want it shorter.

Eventually, I'll make a stool for it.  Maybe it'll be adjustable.  Maybe I'll just make it shorter & cut bits off it.

1st thing from the log

 The 1st goal is a coffee table.  But 1st, what did I want it to look like?

I wanted to replace the stack of books under my monitors, so  I made mini coffee tables.

My wife saw them & wanted one for herself so I made one with live edges with the bark.  Here you can see 3 tops and the 3 bases stacked underneath.  The tops are about 1/4", maybe a bit less.

You can see a mallet I made from a maple tree that fell on my neighbor's yard.  I made one for him too.

At work.  You can see the 2 different styles.  My wife's one has dowels holding the stretchers and aprons to the outside of the legs.

This is from a pine branch that fell in my backyard 2 years earlier.  The post & the holes it goes through are tapered & staked.

Woodworking: Wood from a tree (green!)

This is recalling a project I started 2 years ago.

I was given 2 8' Red Oak logs by my father-in-law.  I'd been interest in starting something from a tree instead of getting milled lumber. 

I had been reading up about riving, splitting the log so I decided to try it.

Axes, wedges, a small sledge hammer and ear muffs make it easier than sawing.

I did try the chainsaw to slab it.  It definitely takes longer.  Riven wood is much stronger too.

I ended up making a bunch of slabs that are probably too thin.  When you rive, you should always split down the middle.  If you try to get a thin one off the edge the split tends to wander off.

I still have 1/2 a log.  I also have other species and shorter logs.

Next up are things I have made from the wood.

Woodworking: tool tote

 When there is something to do around the house i usually need a drill, lbits, evel, screws, stud finder and pencil.  Some I want screwdrivers, sockets, wrenches, a ruler.

I was using a fabric bag that came with my drill.  It barely fit the drill and all the other items would gather in the bottom and mix.  Changing the contents for different jobs (plumbing, appliance fixing vs hanging things) meant emptying everything out & restarting.

I decided to make a wooden tool tote with an opening in the end for the drill to stick out.

I used pallet wood because it's free and often is good quality wood.  I think the pallets I had included southern yellow pine, spruce, maybe another pine?, walnut and oak.

The shell is spruce or the other pine, glued to make wider.

The ends are rabbeted as you can see.  There is also a dado the bottom fits in.

The sides are grooved and the bottom slides into it.  then the sides are nailed to the ends.  Simple.

The handle is made from a white pine branch that fell in my backyard a few years ago.  It dried out and the bark fell off.  A peg holds it in and can be removed if it ever breaks and I need to replace it.

Inside I have 2 boxes.  They are dovetailed and made from pallet wood also.  The bottom is rabbetted and fits into a groove in the sides.  One is walnut, the other (shown) is southern yellow pine.

 

When they're both on the bottom, the drill can't slide back.

So far it's worked really well.  I can add tools easily. Swapping out tools is easy too.

The boxes let me arrange things when I'm working on the floor or lawn or wherever I work.  I might make more.  If I don't have things sticking up, I can stack them which is very handy.

Starting up again

 I guess i stopped blogging about the garden.  I have kept gardening, modifying my approach.  I stopped with the plastic.  I've too labor intensive.  I switched to lots of straw (not hay).  It only takes an hour with a 3 tine hay fork to get it all off the garden to rototill.

I still get squash bugs and I still haven't gone a year without planting squash.

We put an addition on the house and lost 1/2 our garden too.