First thing popped into my head was pipe clamps. Most of them have holes to screw through, don't they? If you don't have 4 of them, they're useful later, at least. Put the fixed end down on the ground, screw the plywood to the moving end, and adjust the height as required.
Alternatively, take 4 tubafours that are more than long enough. You might want to join them together somehow to add some stability to the mix/mess. Then clamp support pieces at your experimental height, keeping all 4 pieces in sync with each other. Should work "good-enough" to get an idea of what height to use.
Sorry, I apparently mis-understood. I thought you were looking for a way to play with the height to get it right for you. Didn't sound like it, from your followup post.
WRT a collapsible setup, I'd do it with 2 H structures supporting both ends of the bench/desk. Some stretchers in the mid-section to hold it steady (along with being attached to the top), and you should be good to go. That's the structure of my work-bench, and it seems fine. Should break down into two H sections, the stretchers, and the top. All of it should be about
6" thick, when folded down. And since you can make the stretchers out of tubafours and the plywood top, cost should be minimal.
A 55 gallon drum is 36". You could make a square or rectangular top that friction fit in the rim recess, cut away the top, or screw through he bottom into the wood top. If you make it work with the top cut out, you could use the interior for some type of storage. It would be possible to just have a top and buy, beg, borrow, or stxxxx an empty drum at your college town. Throw it away, give it away, or sell it and get another one next year. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
As I compose this , my laptop is sitting on a piece of 3/4" MDF about 18" deep and 36" wide.
I have a series of old kitchen cabinets lining one wall of my shop and have opened the doors of a 36" wide cabinet and set the MDF across them. I'm seated, of course, by the approach could easily be adapted to your situation.
In your case, the "doors" could be two frames made of Two By Four lumber about 18" by 24" each joined at the corners with half-laps and each hinged (two hinges per) to the wall. The top, with the addition of two small holes at one end, could be hung on the "closed" frames from two "no head" screws (cabinet shop or HD) when not in use. This configuration would require less than three inches by 24" width and whatever height you required when not in use and would take up the width and depth of the "top" when in use.
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