This week were tasked with "make something big". I've been wanting to make furniture for years and recently pulled a muscle in my lower back, an annoying injury exacerbated by prolonged sitting. A standing desk seemed like the logical solution. During the course of my research, I came across the work of a previous HTM(A)A student, David Yamnitsky, who make a standing desk that spun into a business venture launched on Kickstarter.

I took a few cues from David's success, most notably the deep press fit joints for the legs. My measurements are a bit different, my desk little taller, a bit more taper to the legs, and no support joining the legs at the floor level.

The hardest part of this week was learning 3D modeling software well enough to build something on this scale. It has to be on point because it takes so much time to cut and the material is limited. I took great pains learning Solidworks and making my design parametric. When I say pains, I mean something like 12 hours. Afterwards, I imported into Rhino to extrude and assemble the parts, only to find a lot of small errors. I spent Saturday night, from 4pm to half past midnight, tweaking my desing in Rhino and nesting a pattern for cutting.

One the HTM(A)A TA's Nathan Melenbrink helped me nest my parts in such a way that they overlapped in non-critical places in order to reduce the number of 4x4 feet plywood panles used (3 total) and save cutting time in a busy shop. As always, Harvard Fab Lab tech Rob Hart was essential, guiding me through the process of creating toolpaths and cutting the panel.