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Comment by mrgreenfur | Hacker News Reader

None of these "hacks" are adjustable height. I don't get the point of this page. Sure you can buy a table and make it taller, that's not why the standing desks are expensive. Can we have a hack for getting the adjustable part right?

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I don't understand why the height has to be adjustable. If you get a drafting chair then you can sit at the height of the desk anyway.

Standing up is much less forgiving than sitting down. A couple of centimeters either way standing up is the difference between feeling fine and having horrible back soreness within an hour of standing. The chances that the bits you buy when put together will be at the perfect height for you are very low, so being adjustable is important unless you like wedging random books under parts of it.

The vika byske legs in the second build are adjustable 70-107 cm. The utby underframe in the first one appears to have feet that are adjustable at least a few cm.

I've used the IKEA adjustable legs and frankly, setting a single leg to a specific length is a pain. Setting four legs to a specific length would be a larger pain, and doing so without turning the table to its side larger still. Not ideal when you're looking to slightly tweak the height of a table.

I disagree. From my experience as long as the keyboard is at a height so that your wrists are relatively neutral and the monitors are at a height where your neck is relatively neutral, I've had no issues with back soreness.

I haven't experienced this need to be exactly right with measurements myself.

Doesn't "keyboard and monitor at the right height" kind of indicate "desk at the right height"?

Part of the problem is that a quality drafting chair is expensive. If you're going to set up a standing desk to help your posture, and then cheap out on a chair, it might be somewhat counter productive.

As far as I can tell the adjustable height desk mechanisms are several times more expensive than a decent drafting chair. With a desk that moves I'd also be worried about cords being pulled out and similar issues (my desk especially underneath is a maze of wiring).

A lot of us don't have drafting chairs—I'm in a conventional Aeron, for example—and I don't like the feel of my feet not being on the ground.

This is what I used to build my own adjustable standing desk: http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=40573&c...

Note that the description is wrong. It's not a maximum of 20 lbs, it's just that the counterbalance is weighted for 20lbs. If you have 20 lbs worth of tabletop on top of it, there's basically no effort required to lift the table. I'm not sure what the maximum would be, but I was not concerned about my 45 pound monitor at all.

Do you have any pictures of your setup? That frame looks fascinating.

It got replaced with a "real" standing desk when we moved.

Basically all I did was screw a couple of boards to the top of the frame, and then C-clamped the bottom of the frame to a desk. I was always planning on doing it "properly", but never got around to it.

The point of the page is to 1) acknowledge adjustable standing desks are spendy, and 2) provide possible cheaper standing desk alternatives.

Is it really that hard to grasp? Get a drafting chair. Or close the browser tab.

If you build a custom desk for yourself, you don't need it to be adjustable.

I can't imagine working at a standing desk that doesn't transition to something I can sit at as well.

I've been using the ikea standing desk from a few weeks ago -- the lack side table with a shelf screwed to it. I simply put my laptop on top and then use the rest of the normal height desk as a sitting desk. I just move my laptop across to switch. I already had the standard desk and chair, so the whole setup cost me about £10.

I leave the keyboard, mouse and power adapter on the standing side, as motivation to spend less time sitting. So far I can manage alternate hours sitting and standing, which isn't too shabby considering how out of shape I am.

To hack that part, I've seen people mount the monitor on an adjustable stand and the keyboard on an adjustable tray.

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