Sitting to Standing Desk Converter

I recently had a serious back injury resulting in a prolapsed disc near the base of my spine, I work a primarily office based job these days and spend many hours sitting in front of a computer. My physiotherapist informed me that sitting at my desk would do me no favors.

The problem is, I was only recently supplied with a very expensive new sitting desk and couple that with the fact that I can't stand for very long either, I needed to come up with a solution...

Eureka, an adapter. Something to go on my desk when I stand, come off when I sit and be light enough that I can move it without doing further damage to myself.

Step 1: The Design

I wanted something easy to make up (in my incapacitated state complex builds are out), something cheap and something adjustable.

I never had something like this before and I don't know what height will be comfortable for the keyboard and mouse, I'm 6'3" so I reckoned any of the guides on standard stuff might be a little low.

I made the design and my father fabricated it for me (as I am a little less than mobile at present) so I have no images of the fabrication stages.

The whole unit is constructed from 6mm MDF and is designed to slot together, this make it easy to dismantle and move and each piece is very light for me to lift.

Step 2: Cutting List

You will need the following cut from 6mm PLY, this worked out to just over half a full 8x4 sheet so cost around E18

All dimensions are in mm

• Sides 2 of 600x500
• Top 1 of 300x800
• Shelf 1 of 200x800
• Front 1 of 605x170
• Back 1 of 605x430
• Front Hooks 2 of 100x80
• Rear Hooks 2 of 430x105

You will also need some 15x20mm batten for supports and positioners

• 3 of 605mm
• 2 of 30mm

Step 3: Add Hooks

The hooks are smaller sheets machined and glued onto the read and front plates.

The front and rear hooks are slightly different so have a look at the images for details

These hooks then go into the slots on the side panels.

Step 4: Supports

Some batten supports were added as the unit is quite wide and it has to support my laptop and a second monitor on top and me pounding a keyboard and mouse on the shelf.

A batten was also added to the front plate for additional support.

Finally 2 small blocks 30mm long were glued to the underside of the top to allow for easy positioning and to lock it in place.

Step 5: Assembly and Population

Please have a look at the assembly video, even nearly putting the front on backwards it only took about 40 seconds to assemble.

The image shoes the full setup, the third monitor (on the right is on a mounting point.

Using the Intel monitor setup tool I set the relative positions of each monitor so that the mouse flows across as if it were one continuous screen.

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