- Are you tired of reaching down to plug in a USB stick?
Do you hate that mess of cables under your desk?
Are you sick of hard to use phone charging cables?
Meet the LTT clean desk V2.
It's our meanest, cleanest desk setup yet,
and it was completely scratch built
for the ultimate in cable management perfection.
Thank you LG for sponsoring this video.
And now why don't we all take a closer look
at what you guys paid us to build.
(dramatic music)
LG's Ultra Fine Ergo display features
a 32 inch 4K IPS panel which is great
for watching videos,
getting work done or whatever you want.
But it also isn't its most interesting feature.
The ergo in the name
is because the included adjustable monitor arm
foregoes the traditional large base
and instead uses a much more compact desk clamp.
The arm gives you the ability
to move the display 180 millimeters,
or seven inches away from the stand
and swivel it 280 degrees in addition
to your typical tilt, rotate and height adjust.
That made it the perfect candidate
for a project that one ups our last cleanness desk setup.
In its pushed back position,
the monitor has a distinct asymmetrical look to it.
And the goal was to complement that look,
rather than build just another basic rectangle desk.
We ended up choosing the single bump design
to keep the integrated USB hub out of the way
of the chair to give artistic users a larger work area
and for aesthetics.
For our material, we chose Baltic birch plywood
for its light color, strength and great layering pattern.
Did I mention this is a scratch build by the way.
Nicholas is gonna put all the plans in the description
if y'all wanna follow along.
For dimensions, we settled on the five foot width
of our sheet to save a cut.
And for depth, we felt 28 inches allowed
both comfortable computing thanks to the Ultra Finer Ergo.
And with a quick transformation,
ample space for hobbies like drawing,
model building and the like.
Now the main innovation of our table
is it's invisible cable management.
High Performance wireless keyboards and mice
have been staples of clean setups for years.
But the problem is that we don't have the technology yet
for wireless high speed USB
or high resolution display connections.
At least not with low latency.
So we came up with the idea of routing channels
on the underside of the table to tuck our cables into.
And then we chose legs that are both aesthetically pleasing
and hollow.
The idea here is that our desktop
and the floor underneath can be totally free
of rat's nest cable mess.
We laid out the potential cuts
then set up the desk like it was intended to be used.
This actually ended up helping us choose the hump
as the home for our USB 3 hub.
I mean no one likes bumping a USB stick and breaking it off.
We've all been there.
As for our wireless charging chi spot,
the left side keeps it out of the way
and maximizes usable space on the right.
Lefties may actually prefer to mirror the entire design.
Marking the final cut lines, cable channels,
and where our legs will attach was next.
A quick tip by the way,
mark an X on any areas to be cut.
This will make it easier to remember
which side of the line you wanna stay on
and provides a quick reference to what should be cut off.
We then used a jigsaw to remove most
but not all of the material.
This was to make sure that when we went back
and cut with our handheld router,
the cutting kind of router
not the networking kind of router,
we'd be able to get a clean smooth surface.
Using long rulers and some of our filament spools
as guides for our flesh trim router bit,
we were able to clean up all of the edges
of our table to its final shape.
For those of you wondering what a flesh trimmed it is,
it's a router bit that has a bearing at the bottom
or the top that matches the diameter of the cutting part.
The bearing rides along a template or guide
that you wanna cut and the bit then cuts that shape.
Next, we drilled out the holes for the legs,
and instead of using a normal wood screw
we went with these threaded wood inserts.
They allow us to easily install
and remove the legs without having to worry
about the screw holes wearing out
and becoming unusable over time.
Make sure you choose a good quality insert though.
We had a couple that didn't want to install all the way in
before breaking.
And when they break,
well, they are a royal pain in the tush to remove.
For cutting the cable channels,
a combination of freehand routing
and using a straight edge as a guide was used
to make multiple passes down to the quarter inch depth
that we needed.
Then for the wireless charging pad.
The hole was cut freehand to just inside the marked circle
with multiple very careful passes
to get down to just one and a half millimeters
of material left.
That's about the thickness of a grain of rice.
We then slowly clearance cut
until the charge pad fit perfectly.
To hold it in place we used some scrap metal flat bar,
cleaned it up and gave it a slight bend in the middle.
So that once screwed down,
the bend and the flat bar would push against the pad,
holding it in place.
To make the desk look thicc,
that's what to seize Of course,
but still have it be light enough to move around.
We added a one inch skirt to the entire outside of the desk.
Now to make the skirt,
you could take the time to make an exact copy
of the tabletop that's one inch thick.
Or you could go the faster route
of using the scraps and off cuts
from making the table in the first place.
We cut down the scraps to an inch and a bit,
the exact size doesn't really matter.
You just wanna make sure there's enough material
to give you a strong glue bond.
You don't have to worry about overhang
at this stage by the way,
because that's gonna be taken care of
with the flush trim bit.
Do make sure however that there is no undercut.
Because it'll look like there's a chunk
of wood missing from your desk.
The skirt was then glued down then routed
to match the skirt to the tabletop, looks tiring.
Good thing we have these huge 40 ounce water bottles,
lttstore.com.
Now we chose a five and a quarter inch bay USB hub
that has five type A ports and a Gen two USB type C port.
Power for the hub is handled via SATA connector,
and data is handled by
this 16 foot optical USB 3.2 Gen two cable.
Oh and then also this male to male coupler,
because the pictures on Amazon for the hub weren't great.
To fit the hub and not have to cut a giant hole
into the side of the desk,
we had to strip the hub down to its PCB,
and grab a drill bit that's about as tall
as the components on the hub.
We use the drill to remove the majority of the wood,
then a hammer and chisel to open it up the rest of the way
with frequent test fits and clearance checks
until the hub fit correctly.
Then the faceplate that came with the hub
was trimmed down and an inlay was cut
so that it would be flush mounted.
Some more cuts were made
so the cables could clear the legs
and fit into the channels.
Next up was making the past through holes in the leg
for our cables.
One in the top drilled out with a step down bit,
and then filed until it was big and smooth enough
to pass our cables through.
Then for the bottom same procedure,
just a lot wider to make grabbing the cables easier.
To smooth the table for final assembly.
We started with 120 grit sandpaper
to knock down all the sharp edges on the table,
and round the corners a bit.
And then next was 220 grit.
Then after a wipe down with a damp cloth,
the table was sprayed with it's first few coats
of satin clear varnish.
These coats need to dry for about 24 hours
after which you'll notice the wood grain
becomes more pronounced or it tends to pop out
a little bit more.
This is called grain rise
and it happens when the wood swells a bit from the varnish.
All you need to do to fix it
is lightly sand the top with 320 or 400 grit
to it smooth again.
And after that give it another wipe down with a damp cloth
to get rid of all the leftover dust.
Spray another couple coats of varnish,
let it dry overnight
and come back to admire your wood in the morning.
Now that the table is done,
all that remains is to see if it functions as advertised.
This is actually my first time being close up with it.
First order of business,
I guess is to take advantage of the main benefit
of the approach we took here.
So this is sick.
The only area where there's any cables visible on the desk.
Okay, there's a small wraparound at the back
where the monitor arm comes down.
Then it goes into our built in cable channel.
Then there's an umbilical cord that comes out here
along with the there you go,
power brick for the monitor.
And that's it.
Those are heading off next to your super sexy,
clean looking PC.
And the entire bottom of the desk is unobstructed.
So mission accomplished as far as that goes.
Obviously, using a hub instead of dedicated runs
for each of these USB ports means
that you are limited to the maximum speed
of the single tether connection that goes back
to the main computer.
But given that the just
for like front peripherals or whatever.
Realistically, I don't think you're gonna
wanna plug in too many high speed devices at the same time.
So this is a type C Steam library drive.
I'm just gonna pop in there
and I'll see if it works I guess.
What a wonderful question.
Yes, I can turn the brightness down.
Sorry, we need to turn it down to the camera.
But for your eyes, you might want it pretty bright.
It does 350 nits peak brightness,
and it is HDR 10 compatible.
So if you have an HDR signal coming into it, that will work.
Is that better Brandon.
Theoretically, this should be fast enough for me to use
as a game library here.
So let's go ahead and add another library in Steam.
Monitor's got speakers, one moment please.
Turn those off.
They're loud.
There we go.
So we're running off there just fine.
If we had a lot of high speed stuff plugged in,
it could be a problem.
But if it's just like USB key
and then something like this for Steam library,
I don't expect it to be an issue.
Am I in a real match right now?
That's fine I can win this.
This isn't the fastest panel that I've seen.
LG advertises a five millisecond greater response time.
So it's not exactly like the ultimate gaming monitor,
but the colors look great.
No come on.
Why is this game so hard?
This is cool though.
Check this out.
I'm like oh yeah, time to go more immersive.
Look at that.
We actually did a video recently
where we took a gigantic TV also from LG,
and then surveyed our staff to see
what viewing distance they felt was optimal.
And what we discovered was that depending
on the type of content,
people actually felt pretty differently
about viewing distance.
Got all of them adjustments.
Oh, yeah.
So if I'm like, you know what?
This is how I wanna game right now.
Oh, it's not gonna make me good at it.
But it's definitely sweet.
I could blame it on the keyboard and mouse
but we all know that's not what's happening here.
We can just figure out more of the ways
that I can appreciate how hard I'm getting owned right now.
So if you wanna have more of like
a top down viewing experience,
that's totally cool too.
It's like, whatever is ergonomic for you.
There's actually a ton of range of movement here.
Alternately, if you're doing something else entirely,
you can just like have a movie on like over there.
It's kind of out of the way.
I like this, this is sweet.
What do you think Brandon?
Traditional monitor arms, lame.
Yeah, pretty much.
This looks so much better and takes up no space on my desk.
So I can be like, you know what?
Screw this game, 'cause I'm terrible at it.
Put all this stuff away.
And I'm gonna get off to something else entirely here.
Yeah, thanks for nothing Rocket League.
Like obviously monitor arms existed already,
but this is just a less wasteful approach.
Why bother buying a junking arm that you're not gonna use,
that's gonna have to sit on your desk
and just go in a closet somewhere.
When you could just have it come with the right thing.
Great, Love it.
Sorry team.
Hey, I blew up one of the bad guys though.
Well, maybe were the bad guys.
We're definitely bad.
Man, I remember when 30 inch monitors were like,
crazy, crazy expensive and no one had them.
Because it's like ah, that's totally unnecessary.
Now it's like,
yeah, 30 inch, this is a good size.
30 inch 4K is not only big,
it's also sharp enough that no matter
what distance you are from it,
it doesn't have any kind of noticeable pixelation
or screen door effect.
let's fire up like a premiere project.
Oh yeah, and of course you're at the native resolution
if you want to work with like High Res video content.
The Ergo also offers 95% coverage
of the DCI P3 color space.
So it's perfect for something like photo editing
or video editing as long as you're not expecting
to master HDR content.
And of course, we could just watch movies.
Oh, I'm gonna switch it into a HDR mode actually.
Oh wow, well The HDR in this is definitely kicking in here,
we just really did not do a great job
of mastering this video.
The term for that,
according to the kids is big yikes.
- Big if whyness.
- What the monitors working as we expected.
In conclusion, I think we achieved what we set out to do.
Which is absolutely no visible cables
from a user perspective and nothing to interfere
with your feet when you're sitting at your desk.
But I do think there are things
that we could do to even take this to another level.
Maybe drilling out the bottom of the Ergo stand
so that the cables can go right down into our table
with the integrated cable management channel.
Or maybe integrating one of Logitech Powerplay mouse pads
like into the desk or something.
So that you never have to charge your mouse.
But that's a project for another day.
For now, if you guys enjoyed this video,
check out the link down below
to all of the materials that we use to create it.
And if you wanna watch something else like this,
get subscribed because we're gonna have
the ultimate desk PC version two coming as well.
Where the actual PC is integrated into the desk
and it's not much thicker than this.