This clever DIY convertible standing desk costs just $29 to make

If you've got a spare $29 lying around, Scott Rumschlag has a proposition for you.

Instead of sitting at your desk for eight hours each day, consider channeling your inner carpenter to build a totally convertible standing desk from scratch. You could be saving your life.

A mechanical engineer by trade, Rumschlag is the brains behind the popular expanding table unveiled late last year. Now he's back with his latest creation: an all-wood hickory desk that is smooth as silk because it goes back to basics.

"A lot of the standing desks out there have motors that grind away as they go up and down," Rumschlag says. "Mine has counterweights."

Thanks to two 42-lb. wooden boxes on the back of the desk - each filled with heavy-duty nails and sand - the user only needs to apply a light amount of force to lower the standing desk back to chair-height, and even less to raise it back up. 

As the desk moves up and down, greased-up wheels slide along a small block. These wheels give the counterweights the freedom to move with the desk.

"Life is short," he says. "I don't want to spend it waiting for my desk to catch up."

A discreet locking mechanism on the underside of the desk helps keep it in place.

"And it's strong once it's locked in place like that," Rumschlag says.

To demonstrate, he puts a 71-lb. weight on the very edge of the elevated desk, which flexes slightly but holds steady.

Then he puts all his body weight on it, and still the desk holds. Then, as the grand finale, he puts both the 71-lb. weight and his full weight on at the same time.

Still, standing desk prevails.

If any home woodworkers are feeling adventurous, Rumschlag has made the plans for his desk freely available on his website, Mechanical Lumber. 

Here's the full demo:

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