PAGE IN PROGRESS
I'm currently considering three options for my final project. I've made some sketches on paper, but really nothing worth uploading here (and I don't have access to a scanner at the moment while I am in Cairo), so for the time being I will just have a written description. I'm interested in creating a better desk, a home automation system, or an indoor aquaponics setup.
I haven't researched this much yet, but it seems like it could be a cool fab-esque final project. My wife and I are
hoping to move into a new house soon, and she and one of our close friends/roommates are very involved in local farming.
I think it would be great to expand the fab ethic of making almost anything to include making food indoors in New England
when it's difficult to grow outside.
Ever since I was a teenager I have been fascinated with building the ideal workspace. Several years ago I made a desk
using a hollow door and a file cabinet. I bought some hollow desk legs from IKEA, used a dremel to cut a section in the back
of one and to cut pathways for cables through the door and made a very neat cable management system built into the desk. I also
snuck in a power cable for a lamp from my grandfather with a dimmer built into the desk and a USB hub for charging devices and
connecting to my computer. It was a really fun low cost weekend project, but I think making a desk from the ground up could be
a good way for me to get the desk I've always dreamed of and integrate more of the systems I hope to learn about.
Here are some links to sources of inspiration/reference designs with details:
Primary Inspiration - A pneumatic desk with a desktop
bed and pull up monitors. This is the structural inspiration for my desk project. I frequently need a lot of screen real
estate, but I also value having a nice empty desk to work on. I'm less interested in the bed on top, but incorporating a
clever pneumatic system like this would be fulfilling a lifelong dream of building the ultimate desk.