Organization

I'm better at the physically doing things part, than the writing/talking about them part. So for my second post (two weeks later...) I'm gonna talk about my workspace, organization, and being prepared. In the first couple of weeks of "being busy" I've been doing a lot of brainstorming, and significantly less doing. Not to say that I haven't been up to shenanigans, because I have. Two pretty critical agenda items for me was a working desk, and a better toolbox, so this post is going to be split into talking about those.

Desk
My old desk was old, decrepit, falling apart, and just bad. Icky. Not capable of my desking needs.

So I started drawing up some plans for a new one. I had some very specific design features in mind for this one. It had to be a standing desk, almost workbench like, and it also had to have a whiteboard surface on it.

V1

V2

V3

And surprise surprise the actual version is much
simpler than the plan.

The whiteboard top certainly isn't unheard of, but definitely different, and it'll be nice to just grab a marker and doodle out my problem. It'll also be good as a backdrop for an overhead camera that I'm going to use in the near future for some kind of project. Still brainstorming on that.




All in all it's 78" long by 26" deep (to match the concavity of the room), and 36.5" tall (personal preference. I pretty much went around to all the different surfaces we had in the house, pretended to type on each one of them, measured, and went from there. I settled in at 36.5" knowing it was a little on the tall side, but I could shave down the legs a lot easier than adding risers.

The shelves aren't anything special, just a simple cantilever design. They won't hold people, or cinder blocks, but they definitely work. I have the one big one on the right for my printer, and originally the two below it were shortened for my computer case, but in the end I didn't really need them, so I left them off. I still have the support along the back should I choose to add them later.

I knew going into this thing that I would need some kind of stand for the monitor, but didn't really know what I wanted so I decided to build everything else, see how that goes, and figure something out later. I ended up taking the spare 4" x 4" wood, and cutting them into risers, laying a couple of extra 2" x 4"s and putting some of the residual whiteboard to top it off. Works for me.

The desk gives me more space than I could ever really use, and it doubles as a giant sheet of paper! I love it, and don't think I can go back. I'll definitely keep tweaking it as I see fit, but this is definitely a solid platform to start from.

Materials list

• 2 - 4" x 4" x 8' (legs)
• 4 - 2" x 4" x 10' (top frame, and shelves)
• 2 - 2" x 3" x 8' (horizontal support)
• 1 - 4' x 6' x 1/8" white panel board (white board)
• 1 - 4' x 8' x 3/8" ply wood (shelves)
• 1 - box of deck screws

The assembly is pretty explanatory from the CAD drawings above, which I will attach to this post somewhere (I attached the drawing here... It's the V3 design which is what the final design is, minus the extra shelves). I will however hint to a couple of challenges I encountered. I took the assembled from and mounted the legs the legs, but when I stood the entire thing up, it was not even remotely close to level. I ended up taking it all apart, and just holding it up, and manually leveling it. I knew I should've done that to begin with, but that's my own fault. MAKE SURE THE LEGS ARE FLUSH OR BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE FRAME, otherwise the whiteboard will be raised in the areas where the legs are. It's not the end of the world, but it's incredibly annoying.

If I had to do this again, I would definitely use some kind of bolt, or maybe lag screws to hold the frame together. It's sturdy the way it is, but peace of mind can be nice. Also, taking into account application, I would add more support for the shelves. Again, already sturdy, I don't think I could go wrong with some more support.

All in all, this thing comes in at around $70 and an afternoon!

Toolbox
This write up isn't going to be as long as the desk, but I thought it could be nice to highlight what I'm working with. Not in a materialistic sense, but just for reference.

I used to keep all my electronics in four stacking tupperware containers with some dividers in them. It worked pretty well for a while, but as I've been acquiring things over the past few years, I've outgrown it. It was also really bad at holding bigger tools.







But earlier this week  I said enough was enough, and dragged my poor siblings to Lowes to see what they had. While the selection wasn't extravagant by any means, I ended up settling on a 22" toolbox by Kobalt. It's nothing crazy, no Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, but I think it'll be a nice womb for my tools.

It is incredibly spacious on the inside. While I was at Lowes, I got a couple more cases with little sectioned compartments for different components, screws, or whatever my heart desires. On top of that, I still keep two of the old tupperware containers in the bottom.




















I'm incredibly pleased with my new toolbox, and hopefully I'll be more organized and be able to get things done faster. Now if only I'd write about that stuff...