RE: Roll Top Desk

Watched an old NTW rerun of Norm making a roll top desk

The construction is pretty straight forward, but still would require a lot of man hours to build.

Piece looks good to my untrained eye, but it raises a question.

In this day and age of computers, how would you adapt what is basically a paper handling operation into an electronic manipulation station?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett
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"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:6pB3m.2277$9l4.1007 @nwrddc01.gnilink.net:

The monitor is the biggest issue with a roll top. They tend to sit higher than the roll top rolls, so with a monitor on the desk, it won't close. If you accept a smaller monitor or a taller roll top, you might be able to make use of a roll top as a computer station.

Laptops are another option, but be forewarned that frequent opening and closing can cause the hinges to wear out faster. Technology isn't progressing as notably rapidly as it did in the old days, so old machines tend to hang around longer.

Solve the monitor issue, and the functionality of the pigeon hole system would still work. There's things like CDs and Flash Drives that ideal for small storage holes.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

If you used one of the LCD monitors and left an appropriate size opening in the center of the pigeon holes, the monitor should fit back in far enough that it would not interfere with the top.

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Lew Hodgett wrote: ...

Unless the usage is simply visual interaction rather than actual work, my experience w/ constrained surfaces for computer work stations is "they suck" (professional, technical term :) ).

There's never enough space to lay out all the necessary paraphernalia associated w/ actual "work-work".

Additionally, the work surface may be too high for the keyboard and building in a keyboard drawer may entail much rearranging of the pedestals, etc., depending on the size of Nahm's desk.

IMO, it's one of those "sounds good but doesn't work so well in practice" kind of adaptations. OTOH, if the computer is just to surf the web or such and the idea is to hide it for the most part, it'll serve that purpose.

Anyway, a viewpoint.

imo, $0.02, ymmv, etc., etc., of course...

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Reply to
dpb

It would still have to be designed a little bigger (higher) since most roll tops don't completely slide out of sight with some of the 'rolls' curved over the top.

Reply to
Upscale

You might stroll through some nicer furniture stores. I have seen several rolltops designed for computer use - some pretty slick design. Compared to the traditional desk with nooks and storage drawers, most are a compromise; but you might find some good ideas. Of course you should take a sketch pad and tape measure just to irritate the sales crew.

RonB

Reply to
RonB

...

_IF_ (the proverbial "big if") there's enough space to handle as large a workspace around the computer components there's no reason one can't make it into a rolltop (or anything else, either, for that matter).

I interpreted Lew's query in the roughly equivalent footprint of a standard rolltop desk which I think is totally inadequate for the purpose.

I built the workstation here using a 7-ft solid-core door as the starting point for the top (primarily to speed up the process; I was newly repositioned into being self-employed rather unexpectedly and hadn't much time to get going on "real" work). I wasn't thinking and by the time I had the two bases built w/ sufficient room for printer and set of file drawers in one, the 'puter unit and drawers in another, when set it up there wasn't but a foot or so between... :( So, 10 years later, the one base sets point to the end and the other forward...and I still haven't gotten the drawers built! But, it does have at least marginally sufficient working surface...

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Reply to
dpb

For out right speed in completing the building task, it's tough to beat a 36" wide solid core door for a desk top and a couple of 2 high file drawers to rest it on.

Cheap and fast, if you buy the F/Ds from a used office furniture outfit.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I wouldn't, in spite of how much appeal some of the nicer roll-tops have had for me.

What's worked best for me has been a 3' x 6-1/2' Formica-topped desk, with a 4' x 6' bookcase (for reference books) on one side and a three-drawer lateral file on the other (because there hasn't been any way to completely escape the paper-handling bit).

On one consulting trip I bought a 36"-wide door and used that for a desk top in my temporary digs, and that worked out fairly well. One pedestal was a bookcase and the other held a full-sized tower computer.

After 50 years of "electronic manipulation", my dream setup would be a walk-in, 12' diameter desk with a 6' "hole" in the center (for the most comfortable posture-enhancing swivel chair on wheels that I could find).

I've even fantasized about building a round room to put it in. :)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Naaaah! You're missing all the fun of woodworking. That's where you modify as needed to fit your working requirements. My plan would be to design the desk with enough traditional layout for the work-work paper part of the equation and then add the integrated computer components. That means a slide out keyboard (could even slide out from the side of some slot), a slide out or swing out monitor and the rest of the system is hidden with relatively easy access to the case for cdrom/dvd use if necessary. Not much else in the way of access is needed except maybe a USB hub for plugging stuff in and an easy to reach power switch for turning it all on.

I've long dreamed about building an entire wall unit/desk unit/computer system integrated setup for myself. Closed up, it would like simple finely polished, panelled doors. Opened, it would look like the bridge of the most recent starship Enterprise. The only thing lacking right now is the space to build it all.

Reply to
Upscale

No need to irritate them. You just say that you need to measure for fit (fit for internal components *and* placement of entire unit). Digital camera images taken for wife's approval.

It's all in the wording.

Reply to
Upscale

Two questions:

1) You paid for milk crates? 2) How do you hang Penteflex file folders in milk crates?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

That would be pretty, but I'd rather have two adjacent rooms for electronics - a rack room for "stable" electronics, and a lab for circuit work to (as much as possible) keep the clutter out of the "think space".

As long as I'm engaging in a fantasy, I suppose wastebaskets could be connected up to a dust collector/trash compactor through a 2hp shredder

- which should be enough to handle the usual paper, PC boards, wire ends, solder splats, cats,...

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Lew Hodgett wrote: ...

I had the door from a "couldn't resist" trip to the salvage freight store one time ($10 for unused exterior oak slab w/ no penetrations) and built furniture-looking pedestals. Used 3/4 ply instead of panels for the sides, but has shaped solid base and (nice enough, anyway if relatively simple) fronts so it does look like a piece of furniture (or would, anyway, if I had ever finished the drawers and built another narrow pedestal so both could face the front)... :)

Point I'd make is if you want a rolltop desk, I'd recommend building a rolltop desk for a desk and use something else as a computer workstation _unless_ the computer function is a sidelight not the focal point. I think it's doubtful you'll be completely satisfied w/ the functionality of the two together for either if it's to be a "real" workstation.

Then again, if there is essentially unlimited room to deepen and lengthen, sure...

Or, if you want simply the appearance when closed, dispense w/ much of the normal entrails (but what's the fun of a rolltop w/o all the cubbyholes, etc.?) as they'll end up getting blocked and not being all that useful anyway in a conventionally-sized desk.

Again, just some viewpoints/considerations, reject at will... :)

Reply to
dpb

Hah, got you beat speed wise and money wise there. My first unit was a hollow core door with two stacked on their side milk crates each end. The door was scrounged from a demo job and the milk crates were $2.29 each from a local dime store.

Reply to
Upscale

Oh yeah - I just remembered how it happened that I never did get around to building any of that...

...and you know, it /might/ be more fun to make in Paris. ;)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Similar to my dream setup with one overriding criteria. That criteria would be that when it was all closed up, it would look like a simple panelled piece of furniture with absolutely no hint of the vast array of electronics contained therein.

Reply to
Upscale

Neighbours had a pair of viscious Dobermans protecting their milk crates. It was either pay for milk crates or use concrete blocks from the demo job. But, it did lead me to wonder how the milk man managed to make his deliveries unscathed. Maybe he bribed the dogs with milk bones.

I wasn't worldly enough to know about Penteflex folders. Standard cardboard folders for me.

:)

Reply to
Upscale

Hey, this is fantasy right? Might as well go with the French maid in long black stockings handling the trash. :)

Reply to
Upscale

Which is the basic reason I asked question with this thread.

A roll top desk would be, in the words of Norm, "a fun project", but after it was done, would probably go "wanting" for a job to do in this day and age.

Maybe a bit of immortality desire hidden in here someplace as in 2110, someone would say, "Great grandpa built that desk over a hundred years ago."

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

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