Cheap/Quick/Dirty Standing Reading Desk

By hobieguy213 in Workshop Furniture

1,609

Though I am an avid reader, I never read at home because either the lure of Netflix is too strong to resist or I grow sleepier and sleepier by the word. Normally this isn't an issue as I go every afternoon to a coffee shop to indulge my habit, but after being trapped in my apartment for a few days by recent winter storms I resolved to develop the ability. Though I knew it wouldn't help with my television addiction, I thought standing to read might help with the tiredness. So, I decided to build this so that I could read standing up and hands free.

Parts List:
(1) clipboard - I had this laying around
(1) stainless steel door hook - dollar store
(2) 3/4" square dowels - Lowe's
      -the bottom slot on the door hook was 3/4" that's why I selected that size dowel
(2) M4-10.7X60 bolts - Lowe's
      -these were the widest M4 bolts I could find and a just a mm or 2 wider than 3 widths of the dowel
(3) M4 wing nuts - Lowe's
      -I chose these so that the desk would be easily disassembled
(2) #10X1-1/4" wood screws - Lowe's
(4) #10X3/4" wood screws - Lowe's
(1) champagne cork - saved from New Year's celebration

All of these parts were chosen to be as inexpensive as possible (I had the clipboard, the dowels were only about $2.50 each, and I spent about $6 or $7 on hardware with a few bolts and several wood screws left over). Without the M4 hardware you could probably make this cheaper, but I wanted to disassemble this desk and put it under my bed when it wasn't in use.

The pictures and picture captions will take you step by step through how I made it.