Several weeks later, I still haven’t cut the legs on my desk. And now I’ll need to clear some space in the garage. However, as I’ve been spending much more time at my home office, the extra height is really becoming noticeable and uncomfortable. As usual, the myriad of projects on my plate all compete for my time and it’s hard to get anything done. This one is important though! Hopefully I’ll have a better status report soon, rather than suffering the consequences of not completing the projects related to comfort and safety!
A slight update to my previous post on ergonomics: when I changed the location of my monitor (by mounting it to the wall) I moved my keyboard closer to the edge of the desk, thinking that was a good distance from my eyes to the monitor. However, after a few weeks of unconsciously moving the mouse to the edge of the desk to match where the keyboard was, I realized that my wrist was hurting. When the mouse is close to the edge, my wrist rests on the edge and isn’t at a good angle. Oops! I moved the keyboard a bit further back and am conscious to keep the mouse even further from the edge, and things are much more comfortable.
I expect that the whole thing will be more comfortable when I get to shortening the desk, but I haven’t finished that yet!
The most likely – yet least opportune time – for tools to fail is in the middle of a project. My old Ryobi 12v cordless drill charger bit the dust in the middle of installing my monitor mount, but I was able to fix it without spending a dime.
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| The drill is less useful without charged batteries |
When I popped the battery in to charge it, the light on the charger didn’t come on. It didn’t work for the other battery, or on another outlet. So, I busted out the multimeter and measured the batteries and the charger voltages. One battery was respectably close around 9.5v, but the other was completely dead at 0.00v. The charger itself was putting out 3v, which wouldn’t do much to charge a 12v battery.
I found a replacement charger on Amazon, but the reviews were overwhelmingly negative. The weak power supply was prone to dying when charging a weak battery, so my 0v battery would probably blow it immediately. Having only a single battery wasn’t desirable – they 12v batteries don’t last long anyway, and many of my projects have been temporarily halted while I charge the batteries. Maybe it’s time to buy an 18v cordless drill.
Of course, with nothing to lose, some other options are opened up. I keep the DC converters from old electronics that bite the dust, and I found one that was similarly rated at 15v. However, it was rated for 800mA whereas the original was 200mA. I want the extra juice to be able to charge batteries even if they’re very low, but I don’t want to overcharge them. I then measured the charger and found it to be almost 20v! This might have a higher risk of destroying the batteries than I had hoped, but it’s the closest converter that I had available.
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| The charger and power supply, along with the donor power supply |
After researching batteries a bit and deciding that there the risk was acceptable, I donned safety glasses and moved to a safe area in case there was a problem. I opened up the charger case and found where the charger was connected to the circuit board. I cut those wires and clipped the donor power supply directly to the charging connectors (alligator clips are color coded incorrectly, but the connection is correct).
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| Testing the direct connection |
Next, I tested with the “dead” battery to see if it could take a charge. I tested for about 5 seconds to make sure I was doing it right.
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| Quick Test |
It showed a few hundredths of a volt! I began charging for longer periods and checking the voltage every few minutes. Eventually I got up past 12v. Actually, I could probably go way past 12v with this new more powerful charger, so I need to be very careful to not burn up the batteries.
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| Success! Over 12v |
I charged the other battery and decided that the charger is good to go. I soldered the new wires to the circuit board, and even retooled the pull-stop to prevent the cord from being pulled out and ripping out of the circuit board.
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| New wires soldered to the circuit board |
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| Reassembled with the pull protector in place |
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| Reassembled – bottom view |
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| Reassembled – top view |
Now, observe the completed product – the charging light comes on again!
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| Charging! |
The bad news is that I have to measure the batteries with a voltmeter if I charge for more than 5 minutes. The good news is that recharges happen much more quickly, and I didn’t have to spend a dime to fix my old drill.
BTW a shorter version of this is available as an Instructable here.
I don’t know why I waited so long to look into the ergonomics of my home office (perhaps is the cheesiness of the ergonomics warnings at work), but when I started paying attention I decided that I needed immediate action.
Part 1: The Chair
I’ve never purchased an expensive office chair, so every couple of years my chair is in poor shape and needs to be replaced. A quality chair might last longer and be worth repairing, but it’s hard to make it past the sticker price. All the same, I recommend checking out a dedicated office chair store to make the comparison, at least to know what’s out there.
So, after owning my current office chair for a few years, I realized that it has always been awful for my posture. The pan (the part you sit on) was way too long. Because of that, I could never sit with my feet on the ground and my back against the back of the chair at the same time. That meant my options include sitting with my feet on the ground but my back curved to reach the back, or to sit with my back on the back of the chair and my feet in some other position.
I recently removed the armrests to prevent me from leaning on my elbows as much, but the seat depth was still a problem. So, on a trip to the big-box office store, I happened to find a chair that felt comfortable. It was even cheaper on their web site, so I went for it. After a few days to let the factory-fresh chemical smell dissipate, I moved it into my office. So far, it has been comfortable, and I’m learning to sit with my back straight again.
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| The old chair on the left has a much larger seat. The armrests have been removed. |
Price for new chair online: $99
Part 2: The Monitor
When I purchased my new 24″ flat panel monitor, I needed a new arrangement. My old monitor had an adjustable height stand, but the new one did not. Even worse, the new one wobbles when I hammer on the keyboard. Time to mount to something more stable!
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| The new monitor with the provided stand |
Obviously the larger monitor has a potential to make the office more comfortable, as I can place it a bit further from me and still see well. This one jumped out at me when I was looking for 22″ monitors, and I was excited to get it since it has the same vertical size as the 19″ 4:3 monitor that it was replacing. This one is very inexpensive for a 24″ monitor, and mine has been performing well and has no dead pixels.
I’ve had great luck with monoprice.com for mounts, cables, and other things that seems to have outrageous markups elsewhere. I selected one that had 3-way adjustable arms, and should be installing it soon. My hope is that the mutli-part swinging arm will let me adjust the monitor to the optimal distance from me. Given that my desk is 29″ deep, there is a minimum distance between myself and the wall.
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| Monitor mounted on the swing arm assembly |
Price for monitor wall mount: under $30.
I’ll post more details and pictures of the mount installation soon.
Part 3: The Desk
Knowing the right height for everything else, it’s time for the desk. My work desk is 29.375″, while my home desk is 28.5″. Neither one seem right for my chair height – I’d prefer the desk be a few inches shorter – somewhere closer to 26″ or 27″.
Desks are commonly available between 28″ and 30″, so I’m somewhat out of luck there. I looked at adjustable desks and tables, but they are generally over $1000, most likely because big companies buy them to avoid work strain lawsuits. Cheaper alternatives such as adjustable height folding tables get awful reviews about slamming down to the lowest height setting – hardly desirable given that I will use this for my daily work and may put things such as computer peripherals and books on the table.
My plan is to take the dremel to my table and remove 2″ of the legs. If successful, that will give me a 26.5″ height. I’m not very worried about the table, as it’s a 72″w x 29″d x 28.5″h folding table and hardly an heirloom. However, if I can fix it for just a few hours of my time, I won’t have to shell out a lot of money for a desk I only like a little.
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| The table leg – lower part is straight and can be shortened |
Expected price to modify desk: $0
Conclusion
With just a few hours of my time and less than $130, I upgraded my home office to be much more comfortable.
More posts coming soon with details of the monitor mount and the table leg modifications.
Update:
Monitor Mount
Table Modification
It took me several years to get around to mounting my projector properly, because I wanted to make it perfect. Also, I was hesitant to go into the attic to drop the mount from the ceiling. I went from using a TV as a stand (it’s hilarious to see people puzzle out why the couch was facing *away* from the TV) to using a cheap shelf as a stand. The problem was that the projector needed to be higher, and I wanted to free up the space below for storing other things.
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| Before – the projector sat on a cheap standing shelf |
I planned to drop a mount (professional or home-made) from the ceiling for years but procrastinated because it would be a lot of work and I wasn’t even sure there was structural support at the top of the arch.
By the way, there’s a lot of support over at avsforum.com for choosing and setting up projectors, as well as selecting or even building your own mounts. Search around there.
I also don’t like the look of L-bracket shelves. They look cheap. I was frustrated at the lack of good options, but a co-worker finally convinced me to look into a suspended shelf, and that’s exactly what I needed. That also provided the push to actually start this project, which is coincidentally the most important part.
Cost was a factor, but finding a suspended shelf deep enough for the projector was the biggest hurdle. I finally figured it out – buy the cables and the shelf separately. There are lots of options for “cable shelf brackets” but I’ve ordered from here before (and this was one of the cheapest options) stacksandstacks.com/cable-shelf-brackets.
So, to get this going I needed measurements:
- Width of the projector, and of the opening the shelf was going into
- Depth of the projector, including space for cables
- Weight of the projector (minimal – under 8lbs)
- Optimal height for the projector
I found that I needed about 15″ of depth to give room for the cables, which fit perfectly within the 16″ maximum depth of the shelf kit. You can go any width, so I went with 22″ to leave room for the projector between the cables, and a few inches on the sides. I put the height exactly where I would have put the mount from the ceiling, so that the top of the image is near the ceiling and the projector pointed straight ahead without an angle adjustment.
The expensive part was the glass. You could do wood with the kit but I like the look of glass. I needed something deeper than most pre-made glass shelves, so I got this and got a custom glass piece cut. That came out just over $50 for the 15″ by 22″ cut since I got 1/2″ glass. I suggest calling them first and getting quotes (and maybe even seeing if they sell the cable kit too). I think the spacers provided with the cable package would make 3/8″ glass fit snugly in the brackets.
If you found a different kit that handled 3/16″, you’d find places online that would ship the glass. With the 3/8″ and 1/2″ sizes the weight makes the shipping cost prohibitive and you are best off buying local. I researched the load that each thickness could carry with the width of the support cables, and all of them could handle well over the weight of the projector.
Installation was pretty simple with a drill and screwdriver (plus pencil and measuring tape of course).
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| The freshly installed glass shelf |
And here’s the shelf with the projector (it looks cleaner than it should, since the cables and entertainment center aren’t in there yet).
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| The initial placement – success! |
BTW that’s a Panasonic PT-AE700U projector. I bought it because the lens allows zoom from 1.0 to 1.2, which gave me the range needed to make it not be far too large (and spread thin) on the wall 17 feet away. I swear that projectors are designed for people in apartments or tiny homes.
Soon after I installed the shelf, I put an entertainment center to fill the space below which helped with storage quite a bit. The cables are fairly inconspicuous – I cable tied them together into a single cord that goes over the side and behind the entertainment center below.
This project wasn’t really that difficult once I was on the right path.