Desk mods

[kazper]

The problem with the screws are alignment is key, and parts are 1000x more expensive than the desk is worth. You seem bent on over engineering a simplistic thing that could be solved many ways including a tall stool or chair. If your set on using that cheap desk, and making it function like a $2000 one then we can all move on with why not and give you some ideas to get there. Cost wise I would try the chair, look at the better desks and then by one.

They make Desks like what your looking for, I believe there was a thread here started by Mike from Hairball. One of the IT guys recently gotten one for his job where I work.

 

[mulletchuck]

whelp, i'm not ashamed to say that I am more interested in designing it and learning about building it than actually doing it.  I'm making due with a music stand currently sitting below the slide out tray for right now, instead of getting a new chair.  I like to joke that it cost me $38,000 cuz i stole it from my school when i graduated.  lololol 

 

[kazper]

Take a look at 80/20's tubular aluminum frame systems and specifically there linear bearings.

In there catalog there is some workstation and furniture images that may help you have some ideas.

I'd leave the Ikea desk alone and use it for inspiration with the possibility of using the 80/20 material for the frame and the reused Ikea flat surfaces for your desktop area.

 

[mulletchuck]

An issue i do have with the desk is that the hollow legs hum around a Bb, near 120hz, so if I program bass or something and play that note, then the whole desk goes 'voooooom'.  Suggestions from engineering buddies of mine include filling the legs with sand to remove the resonant surfaces, but the legs have holes in them so that's not an option.  I've made duesince 2007 so I'm used to it now.  This is still being done in a bedroom so its a nice fantasy for right now.  However, I'd definitely like to pursue the idea, but not while it would take away from my 51x budget

 

[sodderboy]

Great Stuff

Use sparingly, test the expansion coefficient elsewhere first over some cardboard or other expendable surface.  It will lower your resonance by octaves.  The resulting consequence is that then you will hear something else rattling, and so on, and so on, and so on. . .

Mike

 

[Gold]

I like Sodderboy's solution to the resonance.

Any McMaster-Carr solution is going to be expensive. They don't sell cheap crap. I am constantly impressed with them. They don't have the widest selection of everything but what they do stock is always good quality. They even have decent pricing. Someplace like MSC industrial supply has less product range but more selection within a category. They stock crap as well as good stuff so you have to be more careful.

I'd price out a rack and pinion like on a floor standing drill press. Maybe replacement parts at Harbor Freight or Grizzly.

 

[riggler]

The ADA tables do it from the top, long worm screw that you crank by hand. If you can replace that crank with a high-torque motor you're set.

 

[mulletchuck]

So, i decided to just lower my desk again and leave it lowered.  And, because i haven't lowered the top half, only the bottom half, there is a big open space that would be perfect to build a rack in:

I measured the width, and it is 47".    So, i thought that it would be pretty perfect to mount my 51X racks side by side (~38") along with the power supplies underneath.  That would be ~9" tall or I could put the PSUs somewhere else.    So, ideas for where to get raw materials/construction guides?

 

[buildafriend]

I would just buy a production desk

 

[mulletchuck]

Where's the fun in that?    And it won't fit in my room. 

 

[buildafriend]

Hm.. Well if I knew you in person, I would probably help you while enjoying modifying it but I would see more logic in buying one that is ideal or designing it from scratch from the ground up.

There is a place near me that throws out returned or demo'd rack mount railing/brackets. Those things give me ideas of doing things like what you are doing but from scratch. Custom studio furniture is a fun endeavor. Building floating rooms is fun too!

 

[Tungstengruvsten]

I've had a Jerker desk as my main desk since I started doing audio in 97 or so  - the sides are scarred from changing it's configuration or moving it from place to place but I wouldn't part with it for anything, best thing Ikea ever made.  2 roadcases sit side by side perfectly on it - 4RU below the shelves and monitors on the shelf a few times in various incarnations.  I actually cut the 'belly cutout' off the front of it and turned the main table top around so it would fit closer to a wall, and I have the optional arms/shelves - they held a pair of Event 20/20's for years and were absolutely solid the whole time.

Funny, just found this post but I raised my Jerker to standing height back in September as well -  sit at my day job and was having some back issues....and coming home and sitting more was too much -

...that lasted 3 days until I really wanted to sit down for a second....

Sooooooo I got a really high chair - usually called Drafting Chairs - like this:
http://www.ergodirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=14192

 

[mulletchuck]

that is awesome!  All of the drafting chairs i looked at were super expensive ($1,000+).  I want something a little bit nicer looking than the road cases that are 4RU tall. 

I am interested in designing something that is angled like this, but it would only be 5RU tall or maybe even just 3RU, to hold the 51X racks: 

and definitely not that steeply angled.  the 51X racks are only 10" deep if you include the XLR cables being connected.

 

[Tungstengruvsten]

Shouldn't be a prob, with the added advantage on the Jerker desk of that square tubular steel supporting the desk surface - stilll 45" between the outside ones... just enough for 2 x 19" racks and the wood around them! 

I would take the Jerker desktop off and set it aside - might want it someday - and build just a custom desktop with cutouts like in the picture - 2 side by side would be fine, and you could set the shelf with your monitors on it just above the top of the angled parts - hmmmm that would be cool....maybe it's time to mod mine!!!

 

[mulletchuck]

I have noticed that the desk resonates around 120hz tho.  that's the only reason i'm not trying to do any serious mods to it.   

 

[mulletchuck]

little update for ya:

horribly built frame with *no* rails lolol.  gravity only.  and, yes, I cut everything using that hacksaw with a "thick metal" blade lololol #ghetto

this took too long and was very tedious

Now my desk is too high again, but here's the finished product.  sort of.  i have a lot of trs->trs cables to build still.

a worthwhile adventure!!

 

[sr1200]

Hey if ya want I can hook ya up with my guitarist who built me this beautiful new desk.  ;D ;D Sturdy as hell.  He can build anything you want, large or small.  It can separate into 2 sections if need be (when i get rid of that clunker of a mixer, he'll make  another piece that fits in the middle there to accommodate whatever I get)