Designing an Overkill workbench for home office | Hacker News Reader

Designing an Overkill workbench for home office

techprowd.com

147 pointsgcds99 comments

Glad to learn about cutlistoptimizer as I looked casually for something like that in the past. I’ll have to figure out how to feed it from Fusion360.

Also interesting to learn that Japanese “2x4”s are in that ratio exactly. In the US, they’re 1/2” under nominal size (so 1.5” by 3.5”). Makes it awkward to stack pieces together at times. (2 2x2s next to each other in the US are smaller than a 2x4.)

I knew about the smaller 2x4s, but now I have a sudden irrational anger that the 2x2s are not also smaller...

How 2x4s depreciate according to Twin Peaks: [0].

It appears in the US they start out at 2x4 and are trimmed down to make them look more finished.

[0]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=txPcLOtbG3s

EDIT to ask if OP means 'bigger' rather than 'smaller'?

I meant smaller. A US nominal 2x2 piece of framing lumber is 1.5” x 1.5” (for the same reason a 2x4 is 1.5” x 3.5”)

If you still want to have anger, you can take solace that 2 1x2s do stack up to be (very close to) a 2x2, but 2 2x2s do not make a 2x4.

https://www.archtoolbox.com/materials-systems/wood-plastic-c...

Actually, 2x2s are often or usually 1⅜" x 1⅜", which is rather annoying at times. I'm not sure if that has always been the case, but these days they're mostly only available in finger-joint spruce/fir/pine (presumably from offcuts of larger sizes), which might have something to do with it.

(Unlike solid 2x2s, which tend to twist and warp so much as to be completely useless, finger-joint 2x2s are super stable, and always come dead straight.)

Is there a sane explanation for why 2 = 1.375?

Just a guess, but it's probably because the finger-joint boards are made from short offcuts from the manufacture of larger boards like 2x4s joined together with long zigzag joints. Saw kerfs and finishing sanding probably account for the ⅛" difference in size.

It's usually not a problem, except when it's used beside a 2x4 on the flat, in which case the 2x4 needs to be thinned down on the table saw.

Lumber mills used to separate sawing and milling, so the roughsawn 2"x4" might have been about that (+-5 mm or so), but if you mill that square and (relatively) flat you're loosing a bunch of material. The milled lumber probably still got called 2"x4" since it was made from that. And then things shifted to milled lumber only, and the dimension change stuck.

Mills cut 2x4 to whatever size close to that then machined it to dimension. Some did a final dimension of 2x4 exactly (within tolerance), others did other sizes. Once you started building something you had to buy everything from the same mill. In some areas this wasn't possible as the yard you bought from changed suppliers.

Eventually they decided enough and standardized on the current size. The standard is more important than the actual size.

I'm curious how the difference came about. It seems likely enough that a standard was written and then processes improved to the point where essentially everything was at the small end of acceptable. But maybe it is just the drying and trimming.

To address the various questions about the origin of 2x4 sizing, Here’s a brief article on the topic (TL;DR: incremental reductions over decades until standardization was imposed in 1964): http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/45/nominal-versu...

I had been told it had something to do with WWII but could find no actual evidence.

When we remodeled our house (built in California in 1920j We found all the 2x4s were 2x4, all the 4x6 were really 4x6 and all had been cut from the center of old growth trees (no knots and no warping after 80 years. We reused them all of course.

The quality of lumber in early 20th century houses is incredible. You'd go broke trying to build a modern house out of lumber that good, assuming you could source it in the first place.

Meanwhile, my 6x6 deck posts are actually 6x6 and a 2x6 railing won't cover it.

Use 2x8 ripped to size :-)

You must have either bought some kind of fancy 6x6 or something. A standard 6x6 is actually 5 1/2 on each side, same as a 2x6 width.

I’m also in Japan and finding the right materials can be really tough when you’re mainly learning from US-based makers and woodworkers. The fact that space is also very limited here (no garages or lawns...) also doesn’t help with DIY stuff!

I've been working on a workshop workbench, also using 20 series aluminum extrusion. Here's a picture of 2 of the 4 pieces: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AMaBwa5pRBQfqDPQ7

Aluminum extrusion is pretty nice to work with, though in retrospect I probably wouldn't do it again for the workbench. I was able to source it from China via Alibaba, and even with $200 shipping the pricing is way less than you can get it in the US. It was so inexpensive that I ordered a bunch extra in case I want to build a custom 3D printer or CNC or something. The extra was nearly free.

You can cut aluminum on woodworking tools. I went slow, and the cuts I got looked nearly as good as the factory cuts. They are quite sturdy.

My idea was that I could use the extrusion channels for mounting accessories or clamping. For example, mounting rollers when using it as an in/out feed table. A jig for flattening some raw wood using a router. Channels to lock the 4 into a 4x8 assembly table, but split it apart to store along the back and sides of the garage.

Looks good! What’s the reason you say you wouldn’t use aluminum next time?

Having built stuff with it before I assume weight. If you buy decent tools aluminum is about as easy to work as wood. Maybe easier, because it warps less.

I meant to go into a little more detail about that, got sidetracked. Part of it was cost/ease of obtaining. Part of it was COVID delays, but it took months to get the extrusion. Part of it is that it's an extra step; I had to build the extrusion frame and then build the panels and tongue them to fit the extrusion. As opposed to just putting together a simple cabinet and top. And if I damage it, it may involve significant disassembly to replace.

I kind of wanted to use it for stiffness and straightness, but in retrospect adding T track to wooden carcasses probably would have been a better option. Especially as 20 profile isn't the same size as typical T-track and associated tooling. It is stiff and strong and straight though.

You might find this interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/ir9cv2/slabolo...

Yes, very, thank you.

> ...even with $200 shipping the pricing is way less than you can get it in the US.

The worst part is that the US extrusion isn't overpriced. For someone who wanted to start a small business making and selling this extrusion, dies would be $xx,xxx for each shape, and getting 6061 through those dies from a local extruder would run around $3, maybe $4 a pound for the more detailed shapes. Prices presented to individuals are $4-$5 per pound.

I went back and looked at the details so we could talk apples/apples. I calculated it out as $1.30 per 20 series foot, so $2.60 for a foot of 2040, landed. It was $190 in extrusion, $336 for shipping. The only available shipping was air because of the "small" quantity. They recommended that trying to ship it would likely lead to delays and possible loss because it was so small. But if you were buying a ton or more it would decrease the shipping component.

It seemed like an opportunity to get a bunch in and resell it, but that's not something I'm looking to do.

Something that bothers me a lot with desks: The legs sticking out and cutting into your foot space. Especially when you have an "L" desk and the legs stick out to block the entire "inner corner" bit.

I have a custom designed desk for my office that I had somebody help me fabricate. During that time I realized that, if you use a thick piece of hardwood, you can completely skip the inner legs. In my case it is 1.5" cherry wood.

Knowing that now, I've realized there are other benefits like my monitors shaking less because the desk is so rigid. I'd definitely recommend a solid, hardwood surface to anybody looking to get a custom work desk setup!

One of the best home-brewed desks I have used was fabricated from a large, and thick solid-core hardwood-veneer door. It rested on a two-drawer file cabinet at each end and was rock-solid. I used the pre-cut hole for the doorknob to pass the cabling from the workstation to the monitors, etc. I used it for a video-editing setup.

I've got that setup right now, but I find that the door on top of two-drawer HON file cabinets is just a bit (about 1.5 inches) too high for a normal office chair, and isn't doing my wrists any favors either. What I really need is a very thin desktop that's just as solid.

One thing that might be an option is to suspend the desktop/door from above rather than support it from below. Attach the rear of the desk to the wall (you can use blind shelf supports, french cleats, piano hinges -- so many options!), and the front of the desk can be anchored to the wall or ceiling with some cable and eye-hooks or the like.

Pardon the delay. Check out something like this and it might fix your problem!

I love this w/ my desk because I can adjust my height all day :)

Rise UP Electric Adjustable Height Width Standing Desk Legs Frame Base. Ergonomic Motorized sit to Stand up Home Commercial Office Table. Dual 2 Motors. 4 Programmable Memory. Gray https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B072XCVYVX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_...

I had a similar setup 15 years ago when I still lived at my parents. My dad had brought home a couple of retired ginormous workstations (32" high). I put a door on top of those, one became my main PC, the other a server running Windows Server 2003.

I have an L-shape butcher block setup between two filing cabinets. It's hard to skip the inner legs completely without extensive metal bracing but the supports you need are technically minimal if you do minimal strapping. I integrated a swivel foot rest that sits 45degrees to the corner. It's about 36" wide and the posts going up from the swivel points support the back end of the L.

This is a common Ikea hack popular for making desks.

You use two or three Alex book shelves and a large wood veneer countertop. (Karlby commonly).

If you don't want a leg in the center you can use metal angle bars screwed into the bottom of the counter top (which also double as a place to secure cables).

Lots of examples of this configuration if you search on reddit.

It looks nicer than standard desks, is often cheaper, and works better.

My favorite design idea: move your computer out of the room. My PC is in the next room / closet and the room is completely silent. In my case all I needed was a small hole for an HDMI and a USB cable.

Looks like this person has a triple monitor setup, so that'd be either three DisplayPort/HDMI cables or a single DisplayPort cable if they can daisy chain them (only possible if these are all 1080p monitors). It is an appealing idea, though. I wish there were an easy thin client solution where everything from your actual computer just goes over cat6. Unfortunately cat6 can only handle about 10 Gbps, vs. a single DisplayPort 1.2 cable that handles 18 Gbps. Wouldn't work for multi-monitor 4k setups.

> Unfortunately cat6 can only handle about 10 Gbps

What is the main limitation for cables regarding transmission rates? Do we just need to move to fiber?

I was surprised recently looking into wifi options that apparently the new wifi 6 claims to handle 2400Mbps.

I assumed a wired connection would always trounce wireless (and I guess cat6 can do 4x that), but it seems like people are moving mostly to wireless setups. Is it solely because of the inconvenience of wiring things through a building?

You still need to have multi gigabit switching and cabling to supply those WiFi6 points though!

> I was surprised recently looking into wifi options that apparently the new wifi 6 claims to handle 2400Mbps.

The entire WiFi network can handle 2400Mbps.

While a 10Gbps CAT6 cable can handle a 10Gbps connection up and down stream per wire.

In short: 10Gbps CAT6 vs WiFi6 on "apples-to-apples" terms is 20Gbps (10Gbps per direction) vs WiFi 2.4Gbps.

Note that each additional CAT6 cable you add to the network increases your aggregate bandwidth by another 20Gbps (10Gbps duplex). A 8-port 10Gbps switch can be organizing 80Gbps duplex (80Gbps to, and from, every port), or 160Gbps in WiFi terms.

If you don't need a high-end GPU, it's pretty easy to make a PC essentially silent. And even for a GPU it's possible if you're willing to sacrifice some performance and lower the power target. My desktop is not specifically designed to be silent, but the CPU and case fans are not audible from a typical distance.

This requires either a low noise sensitivity or a willingness to replace fans every year or so. I've put a ton of research and work into building silent PCs over the years. They inevitably start out silent, but as the fans wear they become audible around the year mark and annoying around the two year mark.

Honestly I find people claiming something is "inaudible" or "not audible" on the internet extremely dubious, because every time I buy some cooler that people claim is "inaudible", I find it very audible. Either I have good ears, or people have very bad ears or loud environments. I assume in many of these cases people simply live in loud cities and have lost any feeling for what the word quiet means and regard PC fans whirling around at 20-25 dBA as quiet.

And in any case, with air cooling and components that aren't bottom-of-the-barrel, the quiet part ceases as soon as load is applied anyway. But that's what I'm here for, so a PC that's only quiet as long as I don't use it - pointless.

I have a standard computer without an extra video card (only the one on the MB) that I use as my main server running 30 services or so on docker.

It sits in the living room and I honestly do not hear it ever, except when it starts to vibrate for some reason sometimes (I will hunt that down someday)

This includes the time I slept a few times on the couch that is just next to it and I was annoyed by a small wall clock 5 meters away (I took the battery off and it is 11:15-ish now for 2 or 3 years, nobody noticed I think)

So that really may happen.

EDIT : I just checked and the clock is still off :)

I have done precisely this. Though my cabling needs were a bit more significant. The computer sits in a separate room, behind a wall. I cannot hear the multiple fans or coil whine or anything else. Beautifully silent. The computer stays cool, and so does my office. Four or five monitors, couple of USB hubs/peripherals, speakers, and so forth. It is unfortunate though that I spent more on cabling than most people probably spend on their entire computer.

After I gather all electronics tools I need to build electronics, I will be working on Centralised cooling with 0 fans inside the room :) Keep tuned

I recently purchased an adjustable height workbench from Home Depot. I'm in the process of designing a subblememtal top so I can use it as an adjustable height desk (standing desk / regular desk).

I opted for with drawers but that might have been a mistake. I'll know soon.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-46-in-Adjustable-Height-Wo...

I have two without the drawers. They are wonderful.

I think they will have a much longer lifespan than the electronically controlled sit/stand desks.

Yup. I have no interest in electric. Sooner or later they'll breakdown. On the other hand, this thing is sturdy and well made. It will always be work bench worthy. My only issue is that at full-height it's a bit short for my taste as a standing desk. But I knew that would be the case. That's where the supplemental top comes in.

If anyone is wondering, the hand crank is easy to turn. But if I had to I could trick it out so it's longer to add leverage and make it easier to turn.

The issue with the drawers is one of leg room. I would love to be able to use them but it might not workout that way. Give me a couple days for design. Then a buildout on the weekend.

Could you take off the hand crank and fit a battery-powered drill in its place? A drill is almost a necessity to own for me, but is not something I use all that often, so if its storage place is chucked onto my desk, that would work just fine.

Con - It would have to be a drill with a lot of torque. The handle on the crank is approx 6". That's adequate for manual, but less would take significant effort. A knob would be tough (and would take too long). Of the drills I own, I'm not sure any of them could do it. But I also do not own anything super-duper top of the line.

Pro - Yes, the hand crank is removable. The socket the crank sits in is maybe a 3/8" hex (female). That is, getting the drill to interface w/ the socket should be straight forward. The concern is the drill being powerful enough.

-- What if the crank was larger? Say 12" or more, like a wheel? Would that help you? Perhaps the drill could leverage that somehow? But my recommendation would be - if you are physically able to use it - to extend the crank to 2 feet (or more). That should help.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

An impact driver could probably handle it fine, but I can't imagine the hammering action would be good for the mechanism.

Physically I would be able to use a hand crank just fine, but if it's anything like reclining the seat in my Volkswagen (a 3" knob on the seatback hinge, rather than the typical lever), I'd hate to do it more than once a day. If it's not convenient to use, I would likely just leave it in the down position permanently out of laziness. I really like the idea of a motorized adjustable desk with one-touch memory buttons, but the cost and usual implementation is not to my liking.

I had this problem with a hand cranked ikea standing desk, it was miserable to do regularly. Especially after I was moved to that from a convenient and fast spring loaded system.

It's not a knob. The crank helps. Worst case, just extend the crank if the drill can't cut it.

Ideally, once I get used to standing, I don't intend to sit, sans the weekends.

It's not the effort that would be a problem, it's the time. I like the crank seat adjustment on my VW when it comes to fine adjustability, but if I want to recline the seat back all the way it ... just ... takes ... way ... too ... long.

A longer crank handle would just make it take longer. And I don't want to stand full time. I tried that for a few weeks with a makeshift standing desk (a bunch of boxes stacked on top of my filing cabinet to the correct height) just to see if I would like it, and it was great for an hour or three, but I did not want to stand all day. Ideally, I'd be able to switch modes 2-4 times a day.

To clarify, I trying to mindful of the fact that you might have a disability of some sort.

The longer handle would make it faster because the same amount of energy would move the "dial" further.

That said, your actual question is: How many total crank rotations to get from lowest to highest?

These things are great. I'm using one (with a pegboard) as a baby changing table of all things. Everything you need is easily accessible with a crying child in one hand.

It looks like this guy plans to do a lot of jumping up and down on his desk.

The copious amount of joints that are held together by the fasteners only and the non-structural deck are not going to like that long term.... but it's also a home office so it really doesn't matter what sins you commit, it'll all survive anyway.

What would be the proper way to do something like this? I've made a couple desks myself, but I've never been able to figure out a good way to do joints.

Dovetail and pin it all old style. A good rule of thumb is to not rely on friction for primary load bearing (e.g. nails in tension are bad but nails in shear or a peg being held in by friction are fine).

That said, a plywood deck that is glued and screwed down like a subfloor pretty much absolves all sins.

Dovetails are easy if you have the right tools. But that's a $100 minimum investment, so you're going to want to have multiple projects in the works to really make the investment worth it. Doing them by hand is completely possible, it just takes a lot of time and practice to get right. Mortise and tendon or lap joints are much easier to do with hand tools and are a staple of classic wood working. Plus they are really forgiving. Took off too little: grab some sand paper; take off too much: add more glue and sawdust.

For most projects, glue & screw is fine. It's cheap and low effort. I use it in every utility project because speed > looks. I've never tested it, but I'm pretty sure that connection would be stronger than the wood itself.

I wouldn't accept a desk that wouldn't hold my weight on top of its usual load anywhere close my home. When we were building a custom workbench in a Hackerspace, I put it in as requirement. You don't want your table to collapse when somebody sits on it.

Does that happen a lot?

It's enough that it happens once. When it does, you'll have a broken desk, and possibly a medical emergency on your hands.

Is there is link for his old UK desk build? Those steel tubes look boss, great look, and might be something I could tackle myself.

This new Japan project looks a lot more ambitious, good luck xD.

Looks like this: https://simplifiedbuilding.co.uk/kits/desk-tables.

That's perfect, thanks friend XD

There's a US site as well: https://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/

If you're ok with a slightly rougher finish on the casting but the same material properties as Kee Klamp, you can get cheaper store-brand variants of many of the common connector types from Global Industrial, Grainger, and other industrial suppliers.

Also, structural pipe is usually pretty dirty from production and I've found it's worth the cost to just have a local metal fabricator take care of the cleaning.

https://www.globalindustrial.com/c/storage/fittings-framing-...

It, looks innocent I was struggling with the frame as it weighted aorund 90kg in total was fun to tryo flip it from tabletop on the ground back to legs. But yeah there are many options to get those tubes in the West. Just my suggestion to grab impact driver otherwise you will cry :D

Looking forward to the follow up!

I have a question: what CAD software do you use? Would you recommend it to a beginner?

I'm desperate in that software space, everything seems either clunky, too complex (as a beginner) or overly expensive...

Writing follow up from home depo store. The CAD I use is Autodekst Invetor I got license from family company as I sometimes help with some CAD designs so its basically free for me, but if looking for cheaper/free alternative is probably Fusion 360 is really limited compared to normal Inventor but its pretty good for beginner

I'm really liking Onshape, which works in the browser.

As a beginner (have been learning CAD since a week ago), I tried OpenSCAD then FreeCAD and found FreeCAD to be simple enough to get started. I followed the tutorial in FreeCAD Wiki[1], particularly the Toothbrush Head Stand[2] one (since my primary use was 3D printing) and could get comfortable with the software within a day or two.

[1]: https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Tutorials

[2]: https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Toothbrush_Head_Stand

For anyone else reading this:

The key thing to know in FreeCAD is that you almost always want to use the "Part Design" workbench. Then the workflow for creating a part starts with creating a "Body". The "Body" represents a single solid. The major features of your part are created with 2-dimensional sketches (either on the base planes, or on flat surfaces of the part, or on datum planes that you can define). The sketches are then "Padded" up to form a solid bit or "Pocketed" down to form holes in the solid bits (although there are other operations as well - Pad and Pocket are the most important).

Knowing that much should be enough to help you mentally plan your part, and then looking at the tutorials should be enough to learn how to use the UI. If you are reading this and are having trouble with FreeCAD please feel free to email me (address in bio) and I will try to help you.

I love FreeCAD and I wish it was the "default" hobbyist CAD instead of Fusion360.

That's the difference between freecad, sketch, and blender? I often see these names thrown around but not sure if each is used for a different purpose or if they're all the same but different people just prefer different software.

FreeCAD is a parametric CAD program. A Sketch is a type of thing within FreeCAD. Sketches are defined using constraints and dimensions, not free-hand drawing.

Blender is polygon-based 3D modelling with (pretty much) free-hand drawing and no constraints or dimensions.

FreeCAD and Blender can both export to many of the same formats (notably STL, for 3d printing), but their internal data representation, and supported workflow, is completely different.

FreeCAD is more appropriate when you want mechanical parts, and Blender is more appropriate when you want something artistic like a figurine.

CAD is operated based on constraint, e.g. make a square box and say "I want this to be 30mm x 45mm with this point, add a fillet (rounded corner) then make it coincident with this point" and let the software figure out how to shape/position the object. While Blender is more of a free-hand drawing, e.g. make a square box, make it certain size, make a corner rounded, then move it to the a certain point.

Blender has ability to do simple constraint, but it's not its primary uses. FreeCAD can also be used the Blender way but the software will warn about being under-constraint. Both FreeCAD and Blender can export to STL file (used by CAD softwares), but Blender's STL usually need to be scaled to real world measurements. In case of 3D printing, this STL file can be imported into a slicer software such as PrusaSlicer, which outputs GCode to control the printer (e.g. X, Y, Z coordinates, extrusion temperature, etc.)

I didn't put your recommendations under test, but that sounds like solid advice. Thanks for sharing!

I've just spent the last few hours going through some FreeCAD tutorials. I love it. This is so much fun. I've been hesitating to get a 3D printer because I haven't touched CAD since college... but I could definitely get into this.

Fusion 360 is free but has a certain clunkiness that is hard to get past if you’ve used other CAD products.

There are many sneaky ways that people get expensive CAD licenses (I use Solidworks) - many organizations offer an educational license if you are a member. For example, check out the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Do you like command line interfaces? If so I'd highly recommend Rhino. Any CAD suite is going to have a learning curve to it, but Rhino is as intuitive as any you'll find, while being incredibly powerful in it's features. It has a demo version (with limited save capability) so you can dip your toes in.

There's something great about having the names for things be their commands: you want a line? Just type "line".

I wonder what CAD software has been used. What I find most limiting is lack of good free / open source 2D and 3D software. I know there is FreeCAD and Blender, but the former doesn't have many features that exist in AutoCAD, and the latter doesn't really cover precise modeling use cases.

Sketchup is good enough for projects like these. It's a little awkward because it doesn't have the concept of a body, only faces. But that's only relevant if you're doing simulations on the design.

The biggest issue is that the web version is lacking but the desktop version hasn't been updated in like a decade. So be sure to have a shortcut list handy on another screen because you have to use shortcuts if you're going to be remotely productive.

Some thoughts: You'll probably want some decent light under the hanging cabinets (plus some shading so you're not looking into them while sitting on your PC). Now is a good time to plan for the necessary cabling/switches/...

The overall intent of the structure seems to be "make it sturdy", and yes, overkill :P If you're like me and your monitor(s) are wobbling while typing (=programming = working), a simper solution is to get monitor arms and attach them NOT to the table. So either screw them directly to the wall, or (what I'm doing) to a piece of wood clamped to the window ledge, or something like that. (That's more a hint for the general HN crowd).

Have fun with the woodworking :)

Regarding lighting, I will have some led white and of course some RGB strips too with overhang so no eye pain, and rgb under the small shelf too and etc :)

Check the weight rating on those Northern bayous. With a big monitor they won't hold the weight.

That looks like a ridiculously cozy desk. I recently just moved myself and am in the process of designing my office, and might go with something like this instead of a flat, boring desk. Thank you for the inspiration.

This is really impressive documentation, though I comment only that this reminds me of many objects I have constructed inside a room without thinking about how to remove it =)

Luckily yours does not appear to be concrete...

I have part 2 already written just waiting for youtube to process video, going to post a link to part 2 about shopping all the materials!

Here go, part 2 of my series with Hyperlapse video. Enjoy! https://www.techprowd.com/home-office-project-overkill-workb...

Cool project. You really put some planning into it.

As others have mentioned S4S lumber in the US is not standardized in size. It can vary. If your using a softwood like Pine, it will also not be strait. This is going to cause your tight tolerances to be off. You should build this with lumber that has been fully dried, and fully straitened and taken to a lesser tolerance, something that can be plained and jointed down to.

S4S lumber is the most straight variety you can buy with the lowest variance in size.

Yeah, the SxS system typically isn't used for construction lumber, but a 2x4 is technically S4S.

I guess the room does not leave many options, but he picked the one with one window from behind where he sits.

Watching this with interest. I’m living in Tokyo and would like to undertake a similar project.

I built some really nice lab benches using the laminated “butcher block” tops. One has a 48”x72” work surface to accommodate deep test equipment and still have 24” of working depth. A 24”x72” shelf on top of that for more equipment. With the butcher block you don’t need additional framing for support. Just sturdy legs at either end.

https://www.globalindustrial.com/g/work-benches/components/t...

These are great. I kind of regret my ikea karlby.

Ikea and Lumber Liquidators (in the US) both have very reasonably priced Oak and Birch butcher block. It makes for great table tops.

I believe Ikea stopped making solid wood butcher blocks years ago. They are all veneers now.

They definitely still make solid wood tabletops/countertops, but they're not comparable to "true" butcher block since they're A. Not endgrain, and B. Not as dense as hard maple.

Looks like you're right about their countertops, they only have veneers listed. Too bad.

They do still have tabletops, although I incorrectly remembered it as Birch it's actually Beech: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/gerton-tabletop-beech-50106773/

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