Moving to a standing desk has been awesome. After my trial Rube Goldberg desk, outlined in my Week Standing post a month ago, proved successful I updated the legs on my desk to an adjustable frame from Multitable.com. Now my entire work surface is 43" or so off the ground - which exposed a new workplace terror... the headphone leap of doom! So what is the headphone leap of doom? This phenomenon is brought about by working most of the day with headphones on. In my case, I wear them so our dog, Vicki, doesn't hear the music/radio and think it's time to start barking incessantly. But that is beside the point, the leap comes in when a headphone wearer begins to mill about and inevitably lays their headphones down on the corner of their desk. What happens next is that ever-present unwitting moment when the oblivious headphone owner knocks those headphones off the desk. At 23" high, this is cause for alarm - but from a 43" high desk this induces the dreaded headphone leap of doom!
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| Gravity fail gives headhphones a sad :'( |
To remedy this heinous condition I headed to the Google - which provides some pretty good feedback when searching for "under desk headphone hook" and I quickly came to the conclusion that Tinkering Monkey's headphone hook was the one for me.
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| This really neat hook is available for $20 from www.tinkeringmonkey.com/headphone-hook |
Unfortunately for them, I have more time and building materials than money or good sense - due in large part to living in a state of permanent home remodeling/restoration - so I decided to construct my own headphone hook. Below are my schematic and some scrap wood I found in the garage for the project:
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| Where have I seen that headphone hook before? |
At this point I'd like to say please don't sue me Tinkering Monkey - this design was only largely influenced by yours and not copied exactly - in that it is all wood and was hand cut? Ok. So this post isn't really a "how to" because I don't have the patience for that - if you are interested in the tools required to knock out this project they are shown below:
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| Coping saw, tenoning saw, some screws, a chisel, some sandpaper - blend thoroughly until wood reaches headphone hook consistency. |
After much sawing, knuckle gouging and sanding my hook was ready. Below is the hook with some satin spray polyurethane applied - because that's all we had laying around the house:
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| I love it when a plan comes together. |
And last but not least, the hook mounted in it's position of glory beneath my desk, protecting me, my floor and most importantly my headphones from the headphone leap of doom!
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| A crisis averted and an office safe, for now.... |