I appreciate the comments. As I said, I'm just getting started with this. I posted it here just to get some initial feedback.
I understand there are other options for standing desks that are both less expensive and more functional. The value proposition isn’t a "better" standing desk, or a "cheaper" standing desk, it is a standing desk that is built by hand from reclaimed, quality materials, sourced from the community.
It allows me to continue to support the deconstruction of abandoned homes and buildings in the Detroit area, which is one of my main focuses.
> It allows me to continue to support the deconstruction of abandoned homes and buildings in the Detroit area, which is one of my main focuses.
This is a good bit of the story, and the value proposition I think, as are the things on the About Us page. I’d suggest you get at least one more of those bullet points on the homepage. I’d go with something that hits: Reclaimed, Recycled and Biodegradable, as those seemed like strong points to me.
Looks good man. Telling your story through some high quality photos and a video would really go far in validating your USP and pricing. If I were in the market for something like this that is the story I would want to support.
I understand totally. Unfortunately steel and reclaimed lumber is not cheap. Each desk is made entirely by hand, so there’s a lot of labor that goes into each one.
There are others out there that do offer a more affordable solution. I even started out just modifying my existing desk to accommodate a standing position. But I wanted something that was much more durable and didn’t look like it necessarily came from Ikea.
For comparison here are some similar desks built from reclaimed materials on Etsy. Typically under 1k. Granted most of them have hair pin legs instead of metal bar; what would you say justifies the 2-3x premium on this desk?
I can't speak to the steel aspect of it, but for the top; it looks like it should be about 25 board feet, which should be about $250 for good quality wood. Add in some labor and consumables for surfacing and finishing, I would guess that a fair price for the top is $500-750.
Assuming the legs come out similarly, I can see how the whole desk comes out to $1500.
I'm still too cheap to spend that much on a desk. I'm sure if I were to build one myself, I'd end up spending more on the wood than $250 and use it as an excuse to collect more tools.
Also, to add, I think a lot of the cost could be eliminated with the reclaimed wood by going more direct to the source. Lots of beautiful furniture can be made out of discarded pallets. If building these kind of desks is a full-time business, it seems like the material cost at least for the top could be driven down (at the expense of more legwork and setting up an infrastructure).
OP here. I've been a developer for 10 years and have used a standing desk for the last 2. When I started, I just used whatever materials I could to prop my computer up higher. Once I was sold on the idea and benefits of standing, I started looking for a more permanent solution.
I wasn't really happy with the options. I wanted something very high quality and unique. So I decided to start building my own using reclaimed and salvaged materials.
Here's what I have so far. What do you think? What's important to you in a standing desk?
I do not know much about the market for the low-end of high-end furniture, but that is definitely the market you are targeting.
This isn't a $4000 table, but it is priced above standing desks with hydraulics that allow you to sit and stand at the same desk. ~$1,200.
Lots of people will tell you that this is priced way, way, way too high and it is for functional stuff. The question is whether the quality of the craftsmanship and the design are worth a $1,000+ premium on the furniture.
One way to find out is to take it to high-end furniture stores and ask them. Another way is to market them on the web and see if you get sales.
Don't take advise from people on pricing who are practical buyers in their mid 20s. Talk to some women in their 30s about what would be nice to have in their house. Talk to some older men who value style as well as functionality.
The idea of a custom height standing desk with excellent style is likely appealing to some customers. The question is whether your's is stylish enough to justify the price.
I built my own standing desk with a piece of pine from home depot, and some white paint, and 4 sturdy 6" brackets. Wall mounted it and now I have a $100 standing desk.
I think making a standing desk is great, but you haven't solved the problem people have. They are all pretty expensive, but don't have to be.
Additionally if I am being honest, the craftsmanship simply isn't there for a $1,500 desk. The welds look awful.
I paid $1,500 shipped for a driftwood dresser, made to order, and to spec. It was about 10x more material and labor, at the same cost, and it was made by an amazing craftsman.
The problem you should be solving isn't 'making another standing desk' it's making an affordable, quality standing desk that is accessible to people.
Excellent ergonomics first, affordable price second. Table height, monitor stand height, and distance from keyboard to monitor all needs to be adjustable.
Keyboard and monitor stands that sit on an existing desk could be an affordable option. A monitor stand that has a drawer for keyboard and mouse would be nice as well. Push in the keyboard drawer and you have more available desk surface. An extra shelf in the monitor stand could hold books, chargers, and other items.
I don't completely get the concept of it has to be dirt cheap no matter what. People are paying $500+ for a TV which is next to worthless after a couple of years, but don't want to pay more than a couple of bucks for a solid table which will most probably outlife them.
> a TV which is next to worthless after a couple of years
Oh, wait, you won't get it, you expect to throw away perfectly working devices frequently.
The desk looks like there is maybe $50 worth of materials and maybe 2 hours worth of work there (I'm taking for granted they know what they're doing and can do a lot of it pretty efficiently). So that's what, between $100-$200 material and labor. Where is the other $1300 of value coming from?
Please restrain from hyperboles and strawman arguments.
There is a significant gap between dirt cheap and $ 1495. Somewhere in between there is a zone which makes it affordable for many customers and is still a good deal for the producer.
I am asking because I am considering building one myself, I don't have money to buy one, but I have time to build one (also I cannot buy yours anyway, the shipping alone would cost more than the desk), so I am wondering if I DO manage to build one, if it will end costing a lot too.
We've been using sit/stand desks at our office since the start now. At first I was the only one using them, but now every developer seems to be using it more and more. To me, the most important feature is to be able to alter the height of the desk as I want to sit or stand during the day. I find myself switching positions 2-3 times a day. Couldn't work without it anymore. Awesome product!
I used the built-in Quicktime Player to do a screen recording. Then I used an online mov-to-gif converter. I had a hard time getting it down to a decent size, though. Hope that helps!
I was actually going to do this at first. Something as simple as openURL:"ssh://username@example.com", then let OS X handle opening the default terminal. But I wasn't able to easily specify things like a different private key (for AWS or Vagrant). This at least gives the user the ability to specify any option that they could also specify on the command line.
Right. Nevertheless, this tiny little menulet might be a nice starting point for all those people who are not too experienced with secure shell sessions.
"Our idea was to build a bare minimum boilerplate Node.js server that scales; we did not want to bloat the application by introducing a framework. The first four node modules we added as dependencies were express, cluster, request, and async."
I'm curious how you're using Express if not as a framework.
That doesn't really change what MatthewPhillips said. "Framework" can mean everything from Rails to startup.sh that boots up your node process. Express really doesn't do much, and is closer to middleware than a full framework.
Not to stop there, it's in the page title too, so anyone coming in from Google (for example) is basically required to click on the phrase "web application framework" and acknowledge that the creators, at least, think that it's a framework.
in a quick blurb on express v restify:
"I get asked this more than anything else, so I'll just get it out of the way up front.
Express' use case is targeted at browser applications and contains a lot of functionality, such as templating and rendering, to support that. Restify does not."
FWIW I am a backend guy and have enjoyed prototyping and working with restify a great deal ( dtrace ftw :) ), just a user and YMMV of course.
Issue aside, I'm curious about this site itself. The first thing I noticed is that they're running a pretty old version of WordPress. They're on 3.0.3 (December 2010) when the latest version is 3.4.2. For security purposes, I'm surprised they don't stay on top of that.
Also I was really confused if this was an official Yahoo site. No real mention anywhere on it. After some quick digging, it appears to be. But I'm surprised it's not hosted under the Yahoo.com domain somewhere.
I understand there are other options for standing desks that are both less expensive and more functional. The value proposition isn’t a "better" standing desk, or a "cheaper" standing desk, it is a standing desk that is built by hand from reclaimed, quality materials, sourced from the community.
It allows me to continue to support the deconstruction of abandoned homes and buildings in the Detroit area, which is one of my main focuses.