Awesome Home-Made Wooden Counterweight Desk

On the one hand, its nice that its very fast up and down. However, the motorized units don't just have two fixed positions, and are usually adjustable since everyone is a different height.

Not being tied to a wall means you can put the desk in the middle of a room without running power to it which could be great for many projects, but if you're using it as a computer desk this is completely moot.
 
Ducman69 said:
On the one hand, its nice that its very fast up and down. However, the motorized units don't just have two fixed positions, and are usually adjustable since everyone is a different height.

Not being tied to a wall means you can put the desk in the middle of a room without running power to it which could be great for many projects, but if you're using it as a computer desk this is completely moot.
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Adding multiple positions to this would be simple enough. All it would require is a couple more pieces of wood that have notches cut into them. 1" or even finer adjustments should be possible without hurting the sturdiness of the desk.
 
Pretty slick. I do wonder about those locking arms on the underside of the desk however; don't necessarily look the most sturdy.
 
I don't know, he throws that 72# kettle bell on there and the whole thing bows forward. Not that you'd be putting a shit ton of weight on it, but that didn't look sturdy. Our Director of Quality is testing out a sit/stand desk with 5 programmable positions. Thing is solid, but $700 shipped.
 
The overall plan is great however, some slight modifications to the support structure to use some larger cross pieces is likely all you would need.
 
I wonder what the max weight you can have on it to keep it from slamming down when you try to lower it.
 
Also, you would need to adjust the counterweight for the equipment you had on the desk. A neat idea, but it would surely cost you more to make than to buy, even at $500 - $700...
 
OregonLAN said:
Also, you would need to adjust the counterweight for the equipment you had on the desk. A neat idea, but it would surely cost you more to make than to buy, even at $500 - $700...
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Well, if you're building one out of good quality wood, it would cost even more to buy. But just comparing to a desk with a particleboard top and cheap metal legs, then yeah, likely cheaper.
 
TwiceOver said:
I don't know, he throws that 72# kettle bell on there and the whole thing bows forward. Not that you'd be putting a shit ton of weight on it, but that didn't look sturdy. Our Director of Quality is testing out a sit/stand desk with 5 programmable positions. Thing is solid, but $700 shipped.
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That was the first thing that came to my mind... ok don't ever stand on this desk or it'll break!
 
Pretty cool alternative to those motorized up desks however seems bulkier and fixed height levels. But this thing is probably cheaper too make.. Seems pretty awesome nonetheless!
 
How easy would it be to raise that table with a case, a couple monitors, speakers, and everything else you have on a desk?
 
Zepher said:
I wonder what the max weight you can have on it to keep it from slamming down when you try to lower it.
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I was wondering the same thing, all he had on there was a single laptop. He always removed the weight before adjusting the desk. I have never used one of these adjustable desk, but I would assume you would normally want it to be able to adjust on the fly without taking everything off the desk. moving it up or down, then putting it all back.

Grimspoon said:
That was a lot of flex when he put the weight on it.
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I thought the same thing, might not be breaking, but sure if flexing. Can only imagine the warp if you have it loaded up all the time trying to raise and lower it.
 
but did it cost $10k?
 
i got the plans and me and my dad are gonna build it when we get time.i'm gonna make multiple height points.
 
It wouldn't take much to get rid of that flex that you see, even when he gets on it with the weight at the end. A couple of braces going from the front to the slides, and possibly a slightly thicker main support board.
 
As a cabinet maker I found this to be a cool project but from my experience i would increase the dimensions just a bit to make it heavier. I would also take the vertical support and glue 2 pieces together creating a piece that would be less likely to bow over time and use also making it stronger. I would also add a small diagonal brace to the legs and desk supports because that was a lot of flex in that desk and with continues usage is going to fail.

Great concept just needs more beef. Just be careful working with the hickory and it is hard hard and will give tasty splinters. You could also do this with oak or maple but I would not use cherry
 
I made something like that 25 years ago when I owned a home, instead of just buying a workbench, it wasn't really that hard. Showed a few friends, and basically they're opinions were 'why go through all the trouble? How often do you need a different height workbench?'. When I moved out, I had to dismantle it to get it out of the basement. I didn't put it back together with all the moving parts. I just nailed it together. Haven't missed the adjustable feature. I guess they were right. It's a nice gimmick if you have a lot of free time, but useful? Not as much as I had thought.
 
I am kind of temped to make something like this out of cast iron and steel. I would probably also use kettlebells or similar weights for the counterbalance to reduce the counterbalance size and increase the weight limit. It could be a cool steampunk style desk.
 
TwiceOver said:
I don't know, he throws that 72# kettle bell on there and the whole thing bows forward. Not that you'd be putting a shit ton of weight on it, but that didn't look sturdy. Our Director of Quality is testing out a sit/stand desk with 5 programmable positions. Thing is solid, but $700 shipped.
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A good desk will run $10,000 to make it yourself.
 
His expanding table is wicked cool. NVM the counterweight desk.
 
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