Standing desks seem to be all the rage today — but do you really want to commit fully to always standing? [Jeff Minton] didn’t, and when he found out how much convertible standing desks cost… he decided to make his own.
While brainstorming ways of accomplishing this he started browsing around eBay and found 18″ linear actuators for sale. They were $45 each, ran at 24V and could lift 600lbs each. Bingo. Actually, that’s kinda overkill…
He picked up a 24V power supply, an Arduino, and a 8-channel relay board. The actuators are attached to the desk’s original legs using U-bolts which keep the legs straight and take the load of the desk. The untreated wood supports are there to reinforce the original desk, because they weren’t that sturdy in the first place.
It takes about a minute to fully actuate the legs, so while it’s not the prettiest nor the quickest solution — it does the trick and allows you to easily switch between standing and sitting.
Maybe he should try over-powering the actuators since the load is so small — could make it go a bit faster! And if you’re looking for a cheaper and more permanent solution, extended PVC legs do the trick too.
He should’ve used that time to 3D print a full-size working toilet seat.
Nice work. Although, since you went to this much work…why not just build a complete unit from those legs. You know, actually design a unit around the legs, rather than just strap them onto something. I like the idea, just wish I could see one with a nice polished feel.
Maybe I’ll have to do something myself when I get around to building my workshop off of the garage this summer…hmmm.
That’s an excellent point — might as well go all out! I mean this thing can lift 2400lbs apparently… Might as well turn it into an engine hoist as well!
Basically I was going for a fast conversion. It took me a couple hours to hook everything up. The point was also to use the desk I already had. I didn’t want to build a new one
And leaving a Tower on the floor hello Dust magnets.
I will always be bewildered by standing desks. Just take a walk once in a while man
I walk too but I’m a software engineer so I’m at a desk for hours.
I like standing desks when I do music recording because I can hold my guitar standing and still interface with the PC or when I’m doing multiple things and need to switch stations rapidly. I like this idea, I went with a “kiosk” like desk for recording and transfer it to my comfy desk for mixing.
Nice Leap on the desk
Looking at that picture, I would think that removing the crouch + coffee table and moving the TV up 3 feet would make a better improvement to one’s health.
Hemmmm… Standing desk are just the bullsh*t du jour that lifehacker is making a big deal of when they ran out of idea/crap to splatter on their frontpage.
A little like arduinos here… 1% are real project… 99% are crap shovelled because there was ‘arduino’ mentionned somewhere… Still waiting for the arduinos 3d printed standing desk door stop though…
That seems a bit far, standing desks have their uses; workshops, music, to move between stations quickly, etc… arduinos take the excessive amount of work out of a good idea (or fun), I like fast and efficient. 3D printing is also fascinating and useful, granted I skip over the ones I find non-interesting.
Typical standing desk derision from the ham-planets as usual, nicely done Jeff. Standing desks are awesome apart from the evening of long run day.
I think the speed issue might be to an over-taxed power supply. Each of the actuators are designed to be run off of a 24V supply. Here, he is running all 4 actuators off of a single supply. Don’t know what the specs on the supply is or the requirements of the actuators are but a “top of the noggin” says he is dividing the 24V four ways, reducing the current applied to each actuator, which could reduce the speed of the actuators.
Great – lowriding with office furniture.
I picture the motorized desk from get smart (the Nude Bomb), but with lifting mechanisms, etc..
I bought a steelcase electric desk on craigslist for like $120 and mounted an ikea desktop on top. Works great and its much faster. Its a single screw drive motor that can lift over 200lbs.
Actually its under the name Mayline, look for them on craigslist. Total cost for me was $150 and it goes up to about 50″ and down to about 24″.