A Desk Stand for the Dismal Wizard’s Desk

Desk litter had taken over the Dismal Desktop. It had become time to bring some order to the chaos present. Gadgets had overrun the place and there was no room to put away the keyboard, mouse, track pad, and other magic things that let me drive my Apple Silicon iMac. The reporters at 9 to 5 Mac came to the rescue.

Revisions

2023-02-12 Original

References

The Problem

Yep, he made it, and has survived 9 years of retirement. Upon retiring, one of the first things the Wizard did was to purchase a nice motorized standing desk having a bamboo top. Not because he was a fan of standing desks but because wanted the worktop at the correct height. After many incantations, said desk was assembled and computer bits put in place. Slowly, needed kit took over the place. Doing any actual work involving physical things became impossible.

The Solution

There’s a well known solution to this problem. Two actually.

Call a feng shuei expert
Add more stuff to organize the stuff

Dismal Wizard took the latter approach when he finally discovered something to which he could entrust a $2000 computer. Yep, the stock iMac is inexpensive until you put some storage in it.

GroveMade

Dave caught a 9 to 5 Mac YouTube channel video in which the presenter gave a tour of his studio space desk that appears as a backdrop for most of. his videos. Said presenter is definitely a fan of the Martha Stewart LifeStyle though he may not have minions to help him live it. On his desk were a number of GroveMade kit that he used to hold iPhone, raise his computer display, and make room to park the bits and things needed to write copy and edit video.

So I ran down the show notes, located GroveMade, and liked what I saw. GroveMade is a Portland, Oregon small business designing and making desk accessories that they sell direct. Like Schiit Audio, they design in house, make specialty items themselves, and purchase bespoke product from other small business woodworking and metal working companies. They assemble many products in house from supplied components. Most of the value added occurs in the United States but fasteners, etc come from offshore.

I bought the dual monitor stand and a slide out tray. This let me raise the monitor to a comfortable height and organize the small electronics that were threatening to take over the joint beneath the stand’s center shelf as shown in the featured image. I reserved the central shelf to park keyboard, mouse, and trackpad when not in use. The right pooka is sized for the tray.

GroveMade Designs, Others Craft

GroveMade is primarily a design, assembly, and marketing firm. All product design happens in house. Most items are sourced from specialty manufacturers. GroveMade maintains some inventory, packs, and ships. Receipt of my kit was a week from order to delivery. GroveMade does do some limited scale specialty fabrication and assembly in house but others make the high volume bits for them. The headphone stand is such a product. It is a mix of metal and wood parts suggesting two suppliers produce subassemblies and GroveMade assembles.

Logistics planning and management to keep purchased inventory and orders in balance are a large part of GroveMade’s activities in house. They do this quite well to keep inventory turning.

The Desk Stand

When I ordered it directly from GroveMade, I was expecting the top shelf to be furniture grade plywood with a machined and finished edge. I expected the sides to be wood also. Surprise, they are cork. The metal shelf slips into the cork. Two wood screws secure the metal shelf to the top plate which holds the sides into mortices. Until the screws are in, things are a bit flimsy. The shelf fit is a bit snug and I managed to pop out a bit of cork that can be glued back in place.

The metal shelf is a J-section. A vertical bit prevents things from falling out the back. It also means that electronic gadgets needing power and data cables must be housed beneath the metal shelf as shown in the featured image. There is clearance for my CalDigit I/O dock and my USB Time Machine disk but not the BluRay drive.