[rescue] [Slightly OT]: Desk/Tables for multiple computers

[Phil Stracchino]

Peter Corlett wrote:
> Andy Wallis <rawallis at panix.com> wrote:
>>I'm now looking around for a heavy-duty table that I could put about
>>200 pounds on without worrying if it will crash to the ground or
>>warping in a few years.
> 
> My desk is cheap crap made of laminated chipboard bought from MFI who
> were not known for quality at the time. It can easily cope with over
> 200 pounds because I can sit on it and it doesn't complain.
> 
> It's 14 years old and doesn't seem to be ready to fall apart quite
> yet. It's looking a bit battered from moving house too often, but then
> again, so do I :)

I'm using a piece of workstation furniture that I bought from an office
furniture place about 11 years ago now.  I bought it as a discontinued
model at some absurdly deep discount from a list price around $1200.
It's roughly L-shaped, 78" on the long axis by 66" by 24" deep, with an
inch-thick particle-board top in three sections on a steel cantilever
frame.  I've been planning to build a new top for it, not because of sag
(it's had a Sun 24" GDM-W900 and a second 21" monitor on it for five
years now and hasn't sagged), but because the granite-printed paper
surface on the desktop started peeling a couple of years after I got it
and it looks ugly.
(Also, when I build the new top, I'm planning a redesign that'll add 12"
to the shorter arm and six inches of depth at the ends of both arms,
giving me more usable space and room for a third monitor if I want.  I
may possibly add built-in overhead bookshelves at the same time or later
on, if I can decide on how I want to do the bookshelf frame -- ideally
welded square-section steel tube to match the existing frame, but right
now I don't have access to a welder.)

Not that this helps your question as far as specifics of what to buy
now, but furniture of this type will pretty much just go on forever.  I
suspect I could probably rebuild engine blocks on it.  I avoid that
Sauder crap like the plague -- they're totally useless, flimsy garbage,
mostly rickety student desks for high-schoolers with the hutch
rearranged to cram in a 14" monitor, a keyboard tray screwed on
underneath because there's no room for a keyboard on the desk top, and
relabelled as computer desks.  They don't even make good firewood.


Ceva had some workbenches in the former lab that they were using as
storage that were of similar construction to my desk, but even heavier
guage.  (The frame is welded 2"-square steel tube instead of 1".)  I'd
have loved to snag one.  Unfortunately, following the recent Israeli
coup and the new CFO's plans to sublease half the office space, they're
probably in a dumpster or a landfill by now.


-- 
 Phil Stracchino       phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
    Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker
 Mobile: 603-216-7037         Landline: 603-886-3518