So spent some time in the last couple of weeks playing around with a couple things in my office/workspace and moved some stuff around.
First thing that I did was mount my TV on the wall on a swinging mount. Previously the thing was just sitting on a cabinet that lucky enough happened to be just wide enough. However I wound up having to swing the thing around on there often enough as I moved around the room that it really was not super convenient any more. Lucky, the TV is light, and the mounts are cheap, and once it was mounted it cleared.a pile of crap and cleaned up things a bit.
Next I’ll probably be looking at something a bit more space efficient for the components that are in the cabinet, but that is a project for when I have money and time.
The other big change was that I stopped trying to keep all my systems at my desk. I was trying to keep eight computers sitting at my desk. Before even thinking about the space those take the cables were enough that I was getting irritated with what was going on. The combined cables from seven computers and all the associated networking stuff that was needed to support their use was just kind of silly. The networking hardware alone required 15 ethernet cables (some are bonded and trunked together) just for those desktop machines. Now add in power, USB for data and peripherals, and audio cables and suddenly the cable tray bolted to the bottom of the desk isn’t adequate.
Just by moving a couple of machines away from my desk freed up so much space around my desk that I’m super happy about the change. I’m still kind of thinking about how to mount a slightly heavier computer to the underside of my desk. It’s something larger than a Dell Mini/Lenovo Tiny, so weight may actually be a concern for something 3d printed. I was recently given a welder to play with so possibly I’ll look at trying to use that to make something from scratch, but honestly if I could find a couple pieces of C-Channel cheaply enough that might work.
The biggest improvement however was just getting all the cables under control. I don’t know if you have the same experience I do but each time I go under my desk to clear things out I wind up with more and more cables coming out that were not doing anything and just wound up getting left behind for some reason. Either that or the cables are actually breeding, and if that’s the case I should probably start up a farm.
The other change that was done was putting up some pegboards. Specifically the Skaids ones from Ikea. I used the same thing in my furnace room to mount all the modems and such for internet service into my house, but these provide a spot for my controllers, cables, and other tools that I’m messing with continually. The really nice thing about it is that there are piles of 3d printer models that you can just download and print off for mounting things to these pegboards. In fact I have probably spent more on PETG filament to print off the mounts than I did on the boards themselves.
One of the next things that I’m looking for is some frames for artwork and photos that I want to get printed and put up on the walls, and something for a more prominent display of my pen collection.
Yes. Pen Collection. You have a problem with that?
Funny enough the pen thing is something that may require me to do something bespoke since it’s not something that I’ve seen outside of retail shops and things of that nature. Unfortunately retail type displays aren’t really what I’m looking for and nobody seems to have designed something that I’m able to just print off.
Oh well. Projects for another day.