Standing desks have become pretty huge lately. They are said to be a great way to avoid the long hours of sitting that accompanies many jobs. After using one for a few weeks when I was working in Germany I understood the hype and when I got home I had to have one for myself.
The first thing I thought was that I didn’t want to just make a tall desk. That would have made it so I was always stuck with a standing desk. Sometimes you need to just sit down. When I looked for pre-made convertible standing desks I found out that they were ridiculously expensive. I knew I needed to make my own desk or modify the one I had.
I racked my brain for a while thinking what to do. I thought of some ideas that would put a new top on my desk that could be lifted but that seemed like a big task. Then I came across an eBay listing for 18 inch stroke linear actuators that run at 24 volts and could lift 600lbs. They were being sold by surpluscenter.com. Each actuator was about $45.
Using 4 linear actuators, a 24V linear power supply, an arduino, a relay board with 8 relays, and a few other components I created a convertible standing desk.
Check out the video below for a tour of the desk.
