A few months ago, I uttered some famous last
words temporary desk setup.
This is it right here.
This plywood workbench that I meant to hold 3D
printers is where I've been doing all of my 3D cad design work,
my video editing, my business management since January.
It's now May. (WAS) That means it is time that we
use 3-D printing to create the ultimate standing desk setup.
We're going to turn this disaster of a space
into this masterpiece.
Here in front of me is my butcher block top workbench
I've been using in the studio for quite some time,
but this is going to become my new standing desk
in another part of the studio, so I need to get it off of here.
But I'm not going to subject you to cleaning and all of that.
Let's just jump right into how I'm going to use 3D printing
to make this my ultimate standing desk.
The largest chunk of parts are a jigsaw puzzle
that is a template to create a swept edge to the front of this desk.
I want something like this style of desk, but I'm going to create it myself
with this more rugged butcher block top. I’ll assemble the puzzle
then I'll clamp it to the desktop and that'll give me a guide for my router
to use a flush trim top bearing router cutter.
Simply put, this is a straight cutter that goes into my router
and has a bearing at the top edge of it that's meant to guide along something,
whether it be another object
you're trying to reproduce or a template like I have here.
When I designed this in Fusion 360, I created Interlocks
that each locked into place exactly where they need to be.
Before I ran off and printed all of these parts,
I printed it. Just the section where the interlock was.
It's always something I do if I have an interference fit or a threaded design,
I print that section of my design first to confirm that it's good.
Before I go for the full prototype. If I had a CNC router or a large enough
laser cutter, I could have cut this out of plywood
or some other material to use as a guide in a single piece.
But I don't have those tools.
I do have 3D printers! So I had to print these in six separate pieces,
but that's really not that big of a deal.
There will be more 3D printed stuff later in this video,
but there are some things to show you that a laser cutter, or a CNC couldn't
do. Such as this router that I'm going to be using
didn't have a vacuum adapter for the shopvac.
I designed and 3D printed this one here. And the base plate was missing
off of this thing rather than seeking out a replacement
one for this probably 15-20 year old Craftsman router,
I designed and 3D printed my own and had it the same day!
Before we start throwing woodchips and make it a mess in the studio,
Let's take a look at what we're building, a top of, the standing desk itself!
In front of us is
a Flexispot E7 standing desk base.
And I want to thank FlexiSpot as
they are the sponsors of this video
and they're helping make this project, this much needed office update, possible.
Let’s get this thing unboxed and assembled.
We'll discuss the specs of it as we go, and then we'll move on
to the rest of this project.
This desk base is crafted
with a robust, welded steel construction that meets my standards
as a former professional fabricator.
Heck, it's got the Jean seal of approval,
you know it's top quality!
Assembly of the FlexiSpot E7 is a breeze
thanks to the straightforward instructions that it comes with.
You'll be up and running, experiencing the health benefits of this adjustable
height desk in no time.
The legs on the E7 are a 3-stage, dual motor designed for maximum stability
and power.
This can go from all the way down at 22.8 inches, all the way up to 48.4
inches and lift 355 pounds while doing it.
That's two and a quarter of me!
Controlling your desk is done through a touchpad interface
that's user friendly and has 4 Programable presets on it.
It also has a USB charge port on the side, which is great
for keeping your devices both powered and close at hand.
Are you ready to upgrade your workspace?
Well, check out FlexiSpot at the link in the description to find their extensive
range of desk pieces, tops and accessories.
With the desk base assembled and ready to go
it's time to put together this template and start making some sawdust.
First things first, I need to measure out and mark out the center
line of this desk so I know where my template is going to go.
I need to be sure to mark my line further past where I think I need to go with it
So when I cut away material or I put the template
on, I can still see that line and know when I'm in the right position.
Once I know where the template is going, I can put it togethe... smack it together...
I'm not going to jump into using this as a router guide immediately.
First, I'm going to just use it
as a template to mark out on the top where my line is going to be,
so I can then come in with a jigsaw and remove the majority of the material.
The router is not going to be at all happy about digging through an inch
and a half of wood right off the bat, whereas if I jigsaw it out, I'll
have a much better go of it.
TADA!
The big chunk of wood is out of my way and now I can start to actually
route this out.
With the wood chips flying, it feels like a perfect opportunity
for a little slow motion!
The guide is doing a beautiful job
of getting this bit to follow along exactly where I want it.
But there are some areas where I definitely left
a little bit too much material and I had some tear outs at each end.
I probably rushed this a little bit, but it could be worse.
I'm not only
doing the swept recess in this, but I also want to round off the corners.
So I created a template for that as well.
Once again jigsaw all off the chunk of it and the router to clean it up.
This butcher block top is and inch and three quarters thick, but
my bit is only an inch and a half deep. It is just what I was able to get.
So I had to come UP from underneath with another router bit
to clean up that last quarter of an inch.
This is also a flush cut router bit, but it has a bearing at the top edge,
meaning it can then follow off of what my other router bit just cut. At this point
I've got the recess cut in, I've got the corners rounded off,
I am now done with that flush trimmer router bit.
It didn't go perfectly, it dug in a few places more than I might have liked,
but that was user error as much as anything.
It's good enough for what I was trying to achieve.
I'm going to move on to some finishing details.
Usually to finish off something like this.
I would use a round over
bit for a nice soft radius edge all the way around this top,
so that you don't have any sharp corners cutting you or anything like that.
And I will do that on most of this butcher block top,
but this area where my arms are going to rest, in this recess
where I will be sitting, I want something more gradual, something tapered.
This is a one inch deep, 30 degree taper.
Now, normally
I would put it into my router like this and run all the way along the edge.
But that's not the direction I want to go with it.
This is where using a 3D printer to create this baseplate for this
router shines, because I can do some more custom stuff with this!
I created a radius baseplate for that router that follows the radius
of this recess in the desktop.
It also has a fence on it that's going to allow me to set this down
on the desktop and run this tapered bit,
well, the way it's not really intended to go,
With my guide and tapered bit assembled
I can get to cutting on this thing.
I'm going to go in a couple of stages, cut one pass, then push the bit out
a little further, cut another pass along the entire length,
and then push the bit out further till I get to the point where I want.
I don't want to try and remove all of this material in a single pass.
That one inch 30 degree
taper would remove a lot of material in a single go.
cWith my Cuts made, I now have a 60 degree angle off of the top of this thing
for a more subtle transition to where my arms are going to rest.
But I want to come back through one more time with the flat plate
on the router and use the 30 degree angle the way it's meant to be.
So I have like a step angle to this.
This is going to allow me to come in with a sander
and create a more gradual transition to this edge.
It's time to play everybody's favorite game sanding, sanding, and more sanding.
The only 3D printing involved here is my shop vac adapter on my orbital
sander unfortunately, so I'm not going to bore you with that whole process.
We'll jump right to the stain and the poly already applied on this desktop
so we can get to the next thing
that's actually going to be interesting.
Which is a pile of properly printed practical parts!
Starting with these hockey puck things.
These have to do with what's down here,
the floor. The studio is a garage,
and as such various sections of the floor are not very level.
This desk does have adjustable height feet on it to help you level it out,
but this wall behind me, that I built in a previous video you can check out
here, is hiding a garage door.
So it's an especially out of level spot.
As such, I jumped in a fusion 360
designed up these spacers that are going to go underneath three
out of the four feet to give the desk a better starting place.
Then I can use its existing
adjustable feet for just fine adjustment to level it in.
I've had to do this on a handful of pieces of furniture
and another desk in the house because the house was built in the 1800s
and the floors are not even close to level.
I also printed up a couple of actual shim pieces to go inside of those spacers
so that I can do some fine adjustment with these instead of the feet.
Again, just providing myself all the options I can.
Now that the desk is nice and level and beautifully finished,
it could probably stand another coat of poly,
but I don't want to keep dragging this project out
beyond the months that it already has been.
I've got a couple more prints that I'm going to use on this,
but I need to get the computer set up over here so I know where
things are going to be to put those in place.
Now comes the time of moving the computer that I use to make my livelihood,
which is oh so stressful, even though it really shouldn't be.
IBut it is! It's time to just do this.
As I’m mounting up the
monitors, I found another 3D print that I want to show you.
This VESA adapter I made a long time ago.
I didn't make it for this video. It's a 100 millimeter offset,
so it moves the VESA mount down lower because I mount this monitor mounts
in portrait orientation.
With that puzzle piece in place, you can probably see the vision here.
This monitor and the portrait monitor are on the same mounting plane,
so that 100 millimeter offset raises this monitor up.
Otherwise it would be hitting the desk right now.
It puts it in a much better positioning.
Link in the description if you want to find that file.
The folks at Beacn sent over the Mix Create
so I can, “Be Heard” through the Beacn Mic that they also sent.
Something I'm not changing is how I mount my stream camera to my desk.
I've done an entire dedicated video about this mounting system before.
I've also been running a Voron desk mat for quite a while
that Fabreeko sent over, and I just like it.
In an effort to improve ergonomics, I decided to throw in a Kinesis Gaming
split keyboard. At this point I've got most of the stuff on the desk
there’s only a few more details
and that's where a couple of more 3D prints are coming in.
This here is a headphone hangers just going to get screwed underneath
the desk to hang my headphones on.
And this is one of two speaker stands.
It's going to clamp to the desktop at each corner of it so I can get
my studio reference speakers in place and get them up off the desk.
So there's a little more desk space and maybe a cleaner look.
I also printed this TPU piece to act as a gasket underneath
that stands so it's not digging into my desktop.
With the final piece added to this, my Voron 0.1
living up to its destiny as a desktop 3D printer,
it's time for the oh so fun task of cable management...
I 3D printed some pieces for this already.
I've got these designs that I already had for VHB taping
cable management pieces to 3D printers, but I added a hole in the middle of them
so I can use a screw underneath the desktop that allows them
to be more secure.
And I can always print these as I go.
I know you can buy a big tub of these for a couple of dollars,
and I'm probably spending as much on filament to produce them,
but I can make them as I need and the color that I want
and just have them at hand and not have to run to the store.
Which generally takes an hour plus out of my day.
And it's time I could be being productive. Cable management is rarely fast,
but it was fairly easy here because I was able to put the desk up so high
I could sit on a foot stool underneath of it
and work really comfortably, which made a big difference.
As did the cable management tray that Flexi Spot included with this desk.
That really helped me achieve what I think is probably the best cable management
job I've ever done.
Not that that's a very high bar to clear.
And with that, I have a beautiful, NOT temporary workspace that I can
edit these videos,
do my 3D design work and
prototype print right here with the Voron 0.1 on the end of the desk.
It needs some updates, but that's coming in a video soon.
And I’ll once again have a setup I can use, dedicated for streaming
or maybe tutorials here at the computer.
Don’t look at the mess the studio is behind the camera back there...
All of that, a top of the FlexiSpot, E7 standing desk base.
Yes, they sponsored this video, but I am legitimately
impressed with how stable and solid this desk is.
I used it as a workbench on the other side of the studio for a couple of weeks,
while delays in other projects came up, and I am going to miss having it over there.
I'm loving it as my desk, but I'm also really going to miss it as a workbench.
all that to say thank you to Fleksispot for sponsoring this video.
There's a link in the description to them
and let's take a look at the final result of my ULTIMATE standing desk
that 3D printing helped me build!
And that is my new
ultimate work desk, facilitated by 3D printing.
I have to say
I've been working at this desk for a couple of days now
and it is everything that I hoped it would be.
It's making my work experience so much better than that plywood table
was, and I gained space for two more 3D printers in the shop.
Because I really needed that. Aside from that, I am loving having my 0.1 here
at the end of the desk. It's kind of what I always intended
for this machine and never got around to doing.
So I'm really glad I've finally done it.
Does mean I need to fast track the repairs and upgrades on that machine
however.
That's going to wrap it up for this one folks.
Maybe let me know in the Comments whether you got some ideas out of this
or you think I should have done something differently.
Or maybe
check out one of these previous Videos, the one where I built the wall here
behind me, or the one that YouTube thinks is best for you.
And consider getting Subscribed to ensure your 3D prints don't fail!
It's not a guarantee, but I can’t hut. See you folks!