The Upstanding Desk

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sccarmichael/the-upstanding-desk

by grosales • 12 years ago

38 45 12 years ago

jcutrell2• 12 years ago

I have a standing desk, and this is a fantastic idea. My wife and I are moving into our first home together.

My only qualm: it looks a bit like lincoln logs or tinker toys. We would probably paint it, but the links kind of stand out. Makes it feel a bit like a woodshop.

Perhaps some customized sides would make it look a bit more streamlined? Certainly would cost a bit more though.

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

Totally agree, we wanted to keep the price low to let people like you customize it to their workspace. It's really hard to match color so we wanted to stay away from custom paint jobs.

jcutrell2• 12 years ago

Good call.

I'm probably still gonna be in for one either way. Maybe we can work together to figure out the "sleek" upsell? :)

anonymousDan• 12 years ago

Looks great, but can't see a price anywhere? One minor thing I've noticed from my own hacked together setup is that I prefer having the mouse 1-2 inches lower than the keyboard.

mfkp2• 12 years ago

Prices in the right column: standard desk is $200, double-wide is $250.

r00fus• 12 years ago

The minimum pledge is $200 for the actual desk, $25 if you are willing to cut your own pieces.

Seems a bit steep, but then again, it's got some nice thought and design behind it. Before I back, I'd want to measure my desk(s) and see if the heights they offer would provide good work positioning for me (using boxes/phonebooks)

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

Hi all, I'm one of the creators of the project! We love to get feedback, and because we've got 21 days of funding lined up we might add tiers based on your comments. Please let us know what you'd like to see!

Thanks,

Sam

mfkp2• 12 years ago

The $200 price point seems a bit steep. I have the feeling I could build something similar for half the price using standard Ikea parts.

binarymax• 12 years ago

You could give them $25 and get the specs to make your own. Based on the design in the video, it looks like it would be fairly easy if you already own a jigsaw.

--EDIT-- After messaging the team, they say a router, some wood, and some elbow grease is all that should be required.

vkjv• 12 years ago

You definitely could. In fact my Ikea standing desk is essentially the same thing. Lack end table with a shelf as a keyboard tray and an extra monitor riser on top. Set me back less than $25.

joebo• 12 years ago

It looks like it doesn't take more than a 4x8 sheet of plywood. Could this be cut with an inexpensive router? If so, the materials and router would probably be like $40 + $80 = $120?

giarc4• 12 years ago

Add $10 for a router bit, but you are exactly right. This could be done by anyone with access to the tools and equipment. And that's ok. Not all ideas/products need to be so complicated that an assembly line needs to produce. Sometimes people just don't want to put in the work to make their own, or can't. I believe there is still a market for this product. They need to pitch this to large occupational health groups. As the creators said, proper standing desks available to most organizations are incredibly expensive and therefore probably not adopted as much as they should be. If you can provide a cheaper option, you will likely find a very successful niche market.

bananas• 12 years ago

I've got enough O'Reilly books around to make that without any Ikea bits :)

jordan0day2• 12 years ago

You're not wrong, but like many of these sorts of things, how much is your time worth?

This sort of "I could do it myself, cheaper" reaction is pretty common for a lot of things posted on hn. I think it's natural for people (and especially hackers) to have this sort of reaction, I think we must be a lot better at analyzing dollar figures than time investments.

And frankly, it's not a bad impulse to have. We're not all generating income every waking moment. People do have free time they can use to build things for fun.

I'm not even really that big a fan of this design (doesn't really seem to have the ability to switch to sitting without disassembly), but I just don't like seeing things pooh-pooh'd because they cost more than something some of us could do ourselves.

Zelphyr• 12 years ago

For me, its not a matter of pooh-pooh'ing it because it costs more than something I could do myself. It's more like; damn! $200?! I don't really want to do it myself so I would pay for it but definitely NOT at that price point!

Detrus• 12 years ago

It is steep when you can buy an IKEA LACK table for $10-20.

http://www.fatjoe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Coffee-Ta...

http://www.fatjoe.co.uk/diy-stand-up-desks

Works for people around 5'9.

tobinharris2• 12 years ago

I totally LOVE the idea, seems far easier and more 'reversible' than buying a dedicated desk.

Big problem for me is it would look a bit naff with our glass desks and iMacs. Can you make a sexy version :) ?

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

We're considering Lucite as a premium option. Or alumin(i)um. Your thoughts?

tobinharris2• 12 years ago

Yes, both good would be better for our office.

tmikaeld• 12 years ago

For me it wouldn't work since i need to rest my arms on the desk and there would be too little space to do that.

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

Go for the double-wide!

wnissen• 12 years ago

Note that the "double wide" is not twice as wide. 29" vs. 38" is less than one third wider. It is a great idea, though, as long as it's sturdy.

bradfa• 12 years ago

MultiTable makes the ModTable with a manual crank for about $650 including a "large" tabletop. We have a bunch of these in my office and they are awesome. You can get discounted rates when buying more than 1 direct (but they also sell on Amazon).

$200 for this Kickstarter isn't a horrible price but you don't need to spend thousands to get a very good standing desk.

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

Totally true, we just figured since a lot of people already have a desk this would let them keep it!

joshcrowder• 12 years ago

I was about to moan about it being US only but then I found the $25 pledge to build your own! Much better. Backed!.

WimLeers• 12 years ago

No ability to switch between sitting and standing? No thanks.

Sitting all day is bad. But so is standing. Switching between both is best.

pgrote• 12 years ago

Are there any studies demonstrating this? I've always wondered about the long term effects of standing at >4 hours at time.

stronglikedan• 12 years ago

Varicose veins, for one. I think it messes up your feet too, but that's what the standing mat is for.

ajcarpy20052• 12 years ago

You could use a stool when you get tired of standing.

jordan0day2• 12 years ago

That's commonly said w.r.t. standing desks, but I have to think there's a reason we don't use shorter stools as normal desk chairs. I presume they're just not as comfortable.

gatekeepr• 12 years ago

It wiggles from left to right. You can see it from 1:44. The monitor constantly wiggles when the guy is using his mouse. This is bad design.

cowpow• 12 years ago

Not sure how useful it will be for gamers.

jseliger• 12 years ago

This is tangential, but I have a Geekdesk (http://geekdesk.com/) and would find it very hard to go back to a normal sitting desk.

mrinterweb• 12 years ago

I recently put together a great sit stand desk at home for considerably less than other alternatives. The desk looks good and functions perfectly.

Product list:

* desk base unit ($479): http://heightadjustableworktable.com/index.php/manual-modtab...

* table top ($79.99 - I treated the table top with polyurethane): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50106773/

* monitor stand ($21.26): http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=...

* mat for standing ($53.99 - optional but highly recommended): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BYRDK2/ref=oh_details_o...

Total: $580.25 (with mat: $634.24)

Here's a picture of the finished product: http://imgur.com/UW8CvWz

felixgallo• 12 years ago

wish these guys all the success in the world, but this is radically cheaper, high quality, and works great from personal first hand experience:

http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Ikea-Standing-desk-for-22-dolla...

upstandingdesk6• 12 years ago

Bah, censored by commenting limits!

Totally true that you could make one out of IKEA parts, we just wanted to build an option for people who didn't have the desire/tools to do it themselves. And we wanted to keep costs as low as possible too so lots of people could have access!

Thanks for the feedback, all, please keep it coming and share the link if you know anybody who might like one!

kolev• 12 years ago

Standing up reduces typing precision by 20-30% and puts pressure on your spine. Best would be your body to be at 135 degrees. I've tried Asian squatting style and it's actually pretty good - I dare to do this only at home though.

benrhughes• 12 years ago

The problem with all of the standing desk additions I've seen is that there's no way they'll fit 3 large monitors. I got bored of trying to convince work to buy me a sit/stand, so I built this:

https://www.flickr.com/x/t/0094009/photos/benrhughes/1082833...

Total cost about AU$40. I have a stool for the rare occasions I want to sit.

I've been using it for 4+ months and it has been brilliant.

The Upstanding Desk

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