Desk / workstation ideas?

Anyone have a desk workstation combo they like and would be willing to share a picture of? Don’t be shy, messy is fine if you get work done on it.

I am trying to finally set up after the move…at the beginning of the year. I am looking to have the regular computer, monitor, keyboard, plus a spot for the scope, soldering station with some room to work and near the monitor for reference. Some storage either above or below the table is ideal for paperwork, parts, prototypes. Kinda thinking some sort of corner desk or just a long table. I can set it up just like I had it before but you are all pretty crafty people and I know you are bound to spark some cool ideas.

I have a “tool wall” behind my desk with various 3d printed mounts for stuff. I mounted a 3/4" prefinished piece of plywood. I keep my monitor on a wall mounted arm. Which makes positioning it easy, because I don’t have to clear the desk to move it. Just be warned, you can spend hours making new mounts for random tools instead of real work. My wife’s observation was, “It’s very…utilitarian”. I don’t think it’s for everybody.

My desk is an ikea countertop. I cut off 27" or whatever off of one end, rotated it 90 to give a sort of waterfall design. The other side and the middle are held up with shelf brackets. I like it because it is at the perfect height, and there’s not much height between my keyboard and my lap. It’s also a very attractive wood.

See that helps already. Some wall mounts maybe (maybe a folding wall/tool board), I like drawers a lot though, and an IKEA table top sounds perfect.

I was thinking a monitor arm for sure I have one but my dang monitor does not seem to have mount holes so I am going to need to figure out something with the stand screws I hope.

I have one of these above the tool wall for junk:

Just an idea, these are all ikea shelves that they don’t make anymore. All the monitors but the center one are on arms bolted to the shelves. Suuuuuuuuuper messy, that’s why I get my own room, Shaneh doesn’t have to see it. :rofl:

Those shelves are awesome, you can adjust everything. I like the bins as well. That would work, just rotate one of the monitors to face the other desk and slap a small mpcnc on one of the left shelves.

Please excuse the mess. This is where I work (most of the time). It’s focused on software. The electronics/scoping/soldering is too messy, although as you can see I can’t resist using this desk for that sometimes. Try not to look too closely though.

That is about what mine looks like, I get too easily distracted like that. Before I moved my desk got cleaned about every other day and I could get a lot done when I sat down. I am hoping to get a bigger surface, and when I do some software stuff instead of getting a second monitor like I was mentioning before I am going to try the “flow” software that comes with the logitech mx master and use my laptop as a second when needed. That should do what I need.

I just measured and the cut off piece was 27" (yay, brain!). The total desk size is 70"x25.5"

Your conduit is not quite level.

1 Like

I posted a picture of my desk in another post.

One thing I did that worked extremely well is I got one of the Trip-lite 19" rack-mount power strips. I mounted it under the desk using a 1-U wall bracket. The way the power strip is setup is that it has outlets on both the front and the back of the power strip. I use the outlets on the back to run power to the monitors/laptop through conduit under the desktop. By mounting the power strip near the front of the desk, it gives me direct access to outlets for when I need to temporarily plug something in (heat gun, raspberry pi, soldering station).

My laptop stand and one monitor are on swiveling arms so that they’re up off the desk. I’ll be putting the second monitor on an arm at some point. It’s surprising how much room on a desk is taken up by stuff just sitting on it.

I once read that horizontal space breeds clutter. We by nature have a habit of just ‘setting’ things places even if their home is only a few feet farther away. By having a desk surface just big enough to do the task at hand, it forces you to put stuff away when you’re done. I see this in the shop all the time. I’ll go a few weeks with horizontal space slowly building up small piles, then I spend an entire Saturday going around and putting everything up.

Not sure if you have the room, but if you can figure out how to break up some of your tasks into separate work areas, it makes things a whole lot nicer/easier too. My office desk is used for software development and when I work from home. I have ‘some’ space for putting a breadboard and components if I’m working on an electronic project. The soldering station and the rest of the setup is on another desk out in the shop where it’s always ready to go.

2 Likes

What kind of keyboard is that blue-and-white split keyboard?

I actually made my own that is very similar to yours. Designed the PCB, soldered it, wrote the software, everything. It’s just missing a nice case, and I’m planning to use my MPCNC to mill one. I don’t use it that often though, because it’s a little hard to get used to. I made the keymap in such a way that I can do pretty much everything with the a-z keys (never need to move a finger more than 1 key away) and the thumb keys (I made 5 per thumb).

1 Like

It is an iris from keeb.io. the blue and clear wrist rests are my design, on TV. Each side has it’s own arduino and it runs qmk firmware.

I made it because I was geting pinky pain. Now, most of my meta keys are thumbs.

1 Like

:stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like