Building A Large L-Shaped Desk For Accommodating Plenty Of Computers

[Michael]

what are the flanges you talk about?
I'm very surprised the whole setup is not super wobbly with those few and skinny legs when you apply a bit of pressure from any side!

https://www.google.com/search?channe...ck+pipe+flange or threaded floor flange

Nope, very reliable so far... If I was having issues with it, I would have easily added in more legs.

[schmidtbag]

If you need to save more on space, I'm sure you could vertically mount some monitors.

[creoflux]

This is pretty cool, I like this and it turned out really well! You have nice flooring as well.

I expected someone to have made an Office "mega desk" joke.

[Michael]

This is pretty cool, I like this and it turned out really well! You have nice flooring as well.

I expected someone to have made an Office "mega desk" joke.

Thanks, the flooring is actually just some laminate planks I installed.... I think it was only like 88 cents per square foot from Home Depot. Holds up pretty damn well for 6 years now aside from a few areas where I have dropped graphics cards or 4U cases and caused noticeable damage.

[bridgman]

You're going to have to stop dropping 4U cases if you're going to have the next generation underfoot

It does look great, and not having any posts in the area where your legs go is definitely a bonus, but I have to admit that my first impression was also that it might need another leg or two for worst case scenarios like a toddler swinging from or trying to climb on the inside of the L.

After thinking about it some more my conclusion was that IFF the joint between the two panels really is as strong as the panels themselves (ie the "if it breaks it won't break at the joint" criteria) then it should be perfectly stable as is.

If the joint did come apart the forces on it would pull the bottom edges apart so it really comes down to those two metal straps... if they are big hefty plates and have lots of screws then you have pretty much an optimum design already - strong enough but no wasted material. If the straps are just a few square inches of sheet metal with a couple of screws per strap then I guess I still end up in the "concerned" camp.

Anyways, very nice work and thanks for writing it up. We all learn something every time you write one of those "infrastructure" articles.

[elatllat]

What's you favorite chair?

[sdack]

Where is the L-shaped desk? All I see is Michael's crib/play-pen!

[andyprough]

That certainly helps, but one can produce significant torque about that single end leg. As a physicist I would never allow a workstation like this in my lab, but I guess for controlled home use it is probably fine.

You'd never be allowed in my lab if you couldn't build it with complete stability with only 3 legs.

[f0rmat]

You'd never be allowed in my lab if you couldn't build it with complete stability with only 3 legs.

A triangle table - nice thing about that is that it will never rock (unless you seriously mis-cut).

[f0rmat]

Really, really nice design and construction you have there. Appears imminently practical for your use.

I do also very much enjoy carpentry work - when you work at a computer all day, it is nice to build something with your hands that is physical and "touchable." I recently built a writing desk out of reclaimed oak and yellow poplar (tulipwood) with 3x3 alpine fir for legs (the oak and poplar came from pallets and the alpine fir from a recycle point). I can see that the structure is well done - but I have to put four corner legs on mine because I do tend to lean heavy on any desk (I am old and sometimes have to squint at the screen). It is also entirely glued together - and strong as all hell - but time consuming to make.