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Comment by vonmoltke | Hacker News Reader

I never really understood how these desks were "frugal". I looked into doing something similar in early 2005 after hearing stories about these, but solid-core doors were more expensive than the other options. I ended up buying two two-drawer filing cabinets (because I needed storage space anyway), running two 2x4s between them, and laying two 2'x4' sheets of MDF on top. All the parts, including the filing cabinets, cost less than a solid-core door alone.

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At least where I live, solid core slab doors are $40 at Home Depot. You could almost certainly build a desk top from lumber that would be cheaper, but not by a significant margin.

The cheapest solid core I can find is an $84 Jeld-Wen: https://www.homedepot.com/p/JELD-WEN-32-in-X-80-in-Hardboard...

In contrast, the pieces I mentioned above are $16 ($6 ea. for the MDF, $2 ea. for the 2x4s)

I just had to shop for doors, the only ~$40 doors I could find at home depot were hollow core, like these: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Masonite-30-in-x-80-in-Primed-Sm...

I don't see them on Home Depot's website any more, but they weren't pre-drilled, pre-hung, pre-primed, or mortised for hinges, none of which matter for desk tops, but perhaps that's why they were that cheap. I thought about replacing some of the hollow core doors in my house with them, but I don't trust my ability to install anything more than pre-hung doors. I already had a motorized standing desk, so I wasn't in the market for a cheap desk top, either.

I can buy a desk from Ikea for $40 too, and it even has drawers.

> I never really understood how these desks were "frugal"

Ditto. It might make sense to build a door desk if you happen to have a suitable door in need of disposal.

My girlfriend made a decent workstation out of a 3/4" 4x8 melamine panel ($30), some cheap Ikea Kallax-like shelf units for legs ($20/ea), white corner trim ($1.75/ft) to make the edges nice, and whatever the screws and nails cost. Probably $120 all-in.

I made my door-desk with a used solid-core door purchased from Habitat for Humanity and a set of Ikea legs. The door was under $40 (although it was on sale when I bought it), and the set of Ikea legs was...I want to say around $30 with tax?

> I never really understood how these desks were "frugal".

That's what the article is saying. They weren't frugal, at all. But they looked frugal to investors who were willing to be duped.

You don't really need solid core. Typing this on an old 30" monitor with a bunch of other hardware on a hollow core that I've used as a desk for 10 years.

SF startup I visited in 99/00 had doors with 2 file cabinets as the standard desk. Seems a lot more practical and requires no construction tools or skills.

It depends on where you get the doors from, you could probably get used ones from building recyclers or ebay for very little.

Used doors would make sense. I always got the impression they were buying new ones, though.

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