The working from home thread: tips and advice

interesting looking structure. is that otp or bespoke ? are those glazed panels ? and what's the 'roof' ? a shade sail-like material?

It’s this.

Panels on the side are like screen door material. Roof panels are more like a heavy canvas material so blocks the sun. They also move / come out if you want sun.

How do you rate the quality/sturdiness? And how well do you think it would stand up to strong wind?

Just looking at the Louvre 3×3.5m one as it doesn't have sides and like that you can open the flaps up.

We leave the panels on between Feb and October and we’ve never had issues; even in very strong winds.

It does require being fixed down and ours is bolted down with a single bolt at each corner. We just drilled a hole and set threaded rod into the patio with resin…

In terms of quality, it’s powder coated aluminium so light but perfectly sturdy enough. Had no issues in the 18 months we’ve had it.

Cheers.

Does anyone have use for a wall mounted dual gas powered arm? Can be mounted as a single or double, has Vesa 75 and 100 mounting points. £50 collected from SE13, if anyone wants.

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I'm starting a process of kitting out a small box bedroom as an office space and figure I should document some of it.

I'm spending about £3k in total for full shelving system, cupboards, sit-stand desk, new mounts for monitor|camera|lights|mic, lighting, and the painting and DIY needed.

So far... sold the bikes I didn't use that were in the room, and this is how this work is being funded too. 4 bikes sold, and the budget is pretty much the value of the bikes sold so this isn't touching savings or disposable income... just needed me to be honest about which bikes I was not using (a Brompton, a mountain bike, a track bike, and a smaller audax bike).

The shopping list is roughly:

• String shelving https://stringfurniture.com/ to cover an entire wall (3 sections, floor to ceiling)
  
• Humanscale Float desk https://www.humanscale.com/products/standing-desks/float-table which is a mechanical sit-stand desk
  
• Elgato Multi-mount for the lights and camera https://www.elgato.com/en/multi-mount-system
  
• K&M microphone arm https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_23860.htm
  
• Some kind of monitor arm
  
  

Goals are a fully sit stand environment with a clear desk. The sit-stand should be able to be executed in seconds, and silently. The shelving will create a backdrop and enable me to move books from my front room as I need that space for other things.

As I buy the things, do the work, and set it up I'll document major milestones here.

sold the bikes I didn't use that were in the room, and this is how this work is being funded too.

Peak forum

• Some kind of monitor arm
  

The Ergotron LX (or HX, if you have a silly big screen) are pretty damned good. And come in white or black. I bought from Insight.com, who provided pretty good customer service too.

In home working set up news - I've just picked up (second hand) a set of Logitech Z906 5.1 speakers.

I've been blowing out my 5 year old's ear drums by playing THX's deep Note as loud as I dare.

Peak forum

Hah... sell 4 bikes, but it's OK... I still a couple of others that are the nice ones I actually ride.

Still loving the Robin Mather after all these years. The paint is chipped in places, there are a few small scratches and a little dent. But still it's my favourite bike. Met the criteria I had when building it perfectly... a bike for life.

The Ergotron LX (or HX, if you have a silly big screen)

27" screen which is almost 9kg.

I've been looking at a few, Ergotron HX, CBS Flo Plus, Humanscale M8.1, and just simple Wali arms that aren't adjustable but are very discreet.

I'll be leaving the monitor arm until last as I want to see what space I have and get an idea of where everything will go before I commit to a particular arm.

Also... the desk frame is black! As are all of the mounts so far... so I imagine I'm going to buy a black monitor mount / arm.

The hard thing with all of this is that my entire setup of camera, monitor, lights, microphone... it all needs to move with the sit-stand desk. So everything needs to be mounted to the desk and also have virtually no wobble. So on the monitor arm I imagine I'll be going OTT to ensure wobble is minimised.

it all needs to move with the sit-stand desk.

Budget at least a day for cabling 😜

The thing about small rooms is you’ll find sound bouncing around in odd ways. Have you thought about sound insulation panels or similar?

Ergotron MX here.

Recycled from T-800 arms. Not sure if they do black tho'.

The thing about small rooms is you’ll find sound bouncing around in odd ways. Have you thought about sound insulation panels or similar?

This is part of the reason for moving books and doing a full wall of shelving... deflection and absorption of sound.

But I am considering sound panels for the side walls if it becomes an issue at all. Thankfully my microphone (Shure SM7B) has a very tight polar pattern and is unlikely to pick up peripheral noise and echoes, but the character of the sound in a small box room will still be affected.

I'll consider all of this stuff only after I'm in there as sound is too finickity to predict ahead of being in there.

Humanscale Float desk https://www.humanscale.com/products/stan­ding-desks/float-table which is a mechanical sit-stand desk

"
MODELS START AT $1749
"

Fuck me that's moneygun.gif

We paid ~£250 for our Flexispot EC1 with a 140x70cm worktop. It's not silent but it goes from my sit to stand height in about 15 seconds and isn't that noisy, it's trivial to hit mute for 15 seconds whilst it's lifting.

The manual Flexispot desk is probably near silent but you won't be hand cranking 40kg of desk/legs, desktop, monitor(s), monitor arm(s), laptop, keyboard, lights/etc up by 30cm by hand in a few seconds.

So everything needs to be mounted to the desk and also have virtually no wobble.

Why not mount the monitor to the wall behind the desk and move it manually between sit/stand? That'll eliminate the wobbles

Genuine question: Is the Human Scales desk really stable? Must be some chunk in those legs if so

Also this, looks very ergonomic

I too only use a standing desk when in high heels.

It's extremely stable, and uses an internal counter-balance mechanism to make the movement really quick, effortless and silent - also very servicable so should be good for more than a couple of decades and there are no electrics that may fail. The frame is predominantly steel and is very rigid.

Yeah... but hand-cranking means I'd never do it.

Electronics means the desk comes with higher fragility and I'm not ready for a desk to need a firmware upgrade, and the ability to service/maintain is reduced... so it's not just speed and noise, it's also whether I want to own and live with a desk with electrics in it.

Whereas the float is a counterbalance and spring, and it moves quickly and silently. No electrics, no motors, just a simple mechanism.

Their promo video covers the basics https://s3.amazonaws.com/humanscalemedia/float-product-video-2018.mp4 but you can just go to John Lewis and see them in action there as many of the larger stores have them.

Why not mount the monitor to the wall behind the desk and move it manually between sit/stand? That'll eliminate the wobbles

Where I am placing it there's no wall behind this desk, and a window to the left against the wall.

The monitor is on the desk or mounted to the desk, or the desk has to be elsewhere.

Budget at least a day for cabling

And then another for re-cabling.

27" screen which is almost 9kg.

I have a 14kg screen at full extension on a standing desk* - No wobbles with the Ergotron HX.

* Flexispot L-desk. Because human scale is bonkers overpriced.

As I buy the things, do the work, and set it up I'll document major milestones here.

Pics or it hasn't happened

Can someone let me know when the rip-off versions of this at 1/3 the price are released? Thanks.

Actually I do really like their bins so maybe I can treat myself, given my desk is currently outside drying.