The telescoping screw that makes standing desks work
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- FlexiSpot Amazon Black Friday, Up to 70% off.
Also 20 randomly selected buyers will get their purchase refunded (free orders) on November 29 an December 2ndOn November 21, 28, and December 2nd the first 20 buyers of a standing desk will receivea free drawer Also On November 28 and December 2, the first 30 buyers of a standing desk will receive a free keyboard tray
The E6 desk in this video: amzn.to/3NVBdvC
US Amazon Site:amzn.to/3YxJNWg
Canada Amazon Site: amzn.to/48Cjlzh
The fact theyre cool with you showing how it works internally is a huge selling point honestly.
Wdym cool with? He owns the desk, he may be sponsored not to speak badly of them but there's no law stopping him from taking apart his own property
@@daylen577 A sponsorship is a little more complicated. Of course he can do whatever he wants with his property, it's not an apple or Sony, but they can cancel the contract if he does something they don't like, or just don't pay him for this video.
So sad those tables are just to expensive, I always build my own desks so 500$ or more is (pardon the pun) off the table for me
@@daviniusb6798FlexiSpot E2 is 120 bucks right now for just the base with no top. I got one a few months ago and it's decent. I don't need the extra range or weight capacity of higher models so it's working for me fine.
FlexiSpot is insanely expensive, you can get an IKEA desk WITH top (albeit veneered MDF) for less than their frames alone cost, and IKEA is still quite expensive.
@@daviniusb6798 If i had the income for it id go with flexispot, but for now i have two standing desks with tops that i got cheap off amazon and they work fine. A 40in wide for around $150 and a 59in for around $180. sure they wont have the same weight capacity and one motor drives both legs, but it does what it needs to do.
This is how you do a sponsored video. Let a geek pull your product to pieces.
Very neatly designed! The brake in particular is very cunning.
I was surprised by the brake mechanism, so simple but it works great. I wanted to comment on it but wasn’t sure what to say, you said it perfectly, thanks.
Usually I get tired of "sponsored" videos, because the TH-camr often ends up being just another salesman and talks only positive blah blah blah about this and that product. But I like this one a lot, Matthias as always hunting details/explaining, and that Flexispot send over a set of standing desk legs saying: " you just open them up and show the inside mechanics", a sort of we-have-nothing-to-hide-and-stand-100%-behind-our-product-and-the-quality policy I think is really cool. Thanks Matthias and Flexispot
I also love how he's honest about flaws and his own opinions ❤
Very nice that Flexispot provided a complete desk rather than just the leg Matthias needed for his dissection and inspection. But it may have been easier for Flexispot to send the entire product package rather than unpack it to find and select out just the needed bit - once we saw how intricate the assembled packaging was from his getting and repacking video segments.
Matthias, what would have the higher entropy the package or the fully assembled desk?
I like the spring design.
I bought a Dreo fan based on one of his vides. This was 2+ years ago and we've been very happy with it.
I love that you went through all this effort in pursuit of the truth.
Which is the nice way of saying, "I told you so!" 😂
"I informed you thusly. Oh I SO informed you thusly!" :D
to me that makes this "ad" worth is because its basically a 7 minute long "told you so" while showing these things are actually build properly and are good value.
I appreciate a brand that is willing to send you stuff, knowing full well how honest you will be, while also pushing things past expectations.
Getting into a sponsorship with Matthias as a Company must feel like you have been out for some time with that new love and day over day you realise he is asking for the wierd stuff....if you catch my drift 🤣
I just loved they rengineered the legs so that Matthias could open it easily to show us how it works ❤
Right. They did that just for me :)
Seeing the internals and seeing how they all work and the engineering gone into the design really tells me they're worth the money.
Couldn’t ask for a better advert… I plan to order 1 tho I don’t really need it ;-)
No wonder they were ok with you taking it apart. That's an impressive mechanism and a high quality product.
Your video is an advert that Flexispot could never make and have as many interested eyes as you have.
Kudos to you and Flexispot.
0:35 this is the kind of mechanism I am searching for my DIY standing desk
Thanks a lot, Sir!
Woah, using standing desk for a sewing machine is brilliant. This will save me so much hassle, not only is this more comfortable but I won't obscure the light as much.
That's what I did. I just bought a set of manual legs from Ikea and made a custom top so my sewing bed is flush.
I understood the 'screw inside a screw' concept, but until now I didn't understand how the movements of all the sections was coordinated. Now I see how that works- Thanks Matthias!
Props to the manufacturer being OK with the [potentially destructive] teardown.
This is brilliant engineering! Me being a ham radio operator, I starting thinking about meters-long threaded rods and telescopic antennas. :)
The internal keyways are the hardest bit!
It is so satisfying when you build a mental model and then are able to confirm that model by actually seeing the mechanism.
Thanks, FlexiSpot! (And Matthias 😁)
Great video, and thanks for also demonstrating how versatile the humble Robertson screwdriver is -- which I also routinely use as a punch, nail set, and boring tool. Peter Lymburner would be proud!
Next video. Alarm clock linked to the standing desk legs at the head if your bed to help you get up in the morning. Top tip - silk sheets for a more graceful exit from the bottom of your bed
I think colin furze's bed is much better that way. It needs to come up further and with a good amount of speed.
@@matthiaswandel As I recall Wallace had a good solution in "The Wrong Trousers".
It's so cool that you finally got to make this Video.
Awesome how you predicted the internals of the leg and where able to confirm it now.
As a bonus there are no broken Table legs or scrap metal for the dump.
That's a cool mechanism. Simple but effective.
Some years ago I did much the same thing by putting two linear actuators in series with each other. Basically, a second actuator was attached to the first such that, as the first is reaching it's most extended point, a microswitch is tripped removing power from the first actuator and powering the second one to keep the overall extension of the two combined going.
Good on FlexiSpot for lettin' Matt "destroy" this thing for science.
I was wondering how you'd solve the issue with the two telescoping segments now being out of alignment since the center and ends were allowed to spin. I probably would have taken it all apart again, not recognizing that letting the end spin by taking the screws out would fix the issue. Thanks for addressing it in the video, it would have confused me.
My first thought was that I'd need to take it all apart again too, but then I remembered with the end spinning in there, only one segment gets moved, so just took out those screws to adjust just one segment
@@matthiaswandel Presumably that's how it got screwed up in the first place.
Honestly, been loving my Flexispot
Had it for going on 2 years now. Hasn't missed a beat
Congrats on the sponsor! I'd love to see more take apart videos. It's the best way to learn how things work.
I’m up to 4 of these, of various configs. Affordable enough and very solid builds so they compete with fixed desks.
I love this. Keep up the fantastic work. Incredibly, they will let you show all of this and still be a sponsor. Keep up the fantastic work.
7 minutes of proving people wrong on the internet 🤗, top tier youtube Matthias.
Notwithstanding that I may be seen as grandstanding, I'll comment that I now have a better understanding of this outstanding freestanding standing desk.
Kudos to flexispot for letting Matthias tear down their product in a sponsored video. You can tell he really enjoyed this one. Nice video!
1:04 Ah yes, the old "through the magic of having two of them!" trick 😂
Technology Connections!
Thanks for the video, they are doing this without limit switchs or encoders, if the table has more weight on one side it may become unbalanced, the break may be to protect the worm gearbox .
That was good. Those things are built better than I thought.
Big Standing Desk finally bought him out. Never thought I'd live to see the day.
Seriously though, I hope the sponsored videos are profitable enough to make it worthwhile. I prefer woodworking & household maintenance, but I assume you're at a point in life where it's nice to be paid to work on projects you're personally interested in.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
There is a lot of clever engineering going on with those desks.
Yes, but a lot of mechanical things contain clever engineering when you take them apart and analyze them.
Thanks for the demo opening and showing inside the legs. I am actually looking for this to understand whether I can cut these legs to make to lower to sit to the floor level. Looks not easy. Thanks
Fascinating! Thanks a bunch, Matthias! 😊
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Kudos to Flexispot for this. When I need a new desk, these are the ones I'll be looking at, I won't even bother to make one.
Clever of Flexispot to let a talented engineer critique their product. Free engineering!
I prototyped something like this for an unrelated product a few years ago, it would've been nice to have this for a reference! I was working off an idea I had but without knowledge of any similar product I could get my hands on.
Years ago, I used the same mechanism mounted in a 1" (25.4 mm) ID pipe to raise and lower a Halloween skull from a shrub by the front door. The desk sounds like a more productive use.
Pretty cool for them to send you a desk to tear apart. And you were able to get it all back together. Seems like a good product.
How nice of them to change the design so you can show how it works without destroying it.
I saw a video guy that used a flexispot for his assembly table in his workshop. And he could raise it to the height of his planer or his table saw to be an out feed. Or he could raise it higher when he was assembling things. Seems like a good idea.
I use mine as a 3 position outfeed tablet. The three presets are the heights of my jointer, planer, and table saw.
I assume its on wheels then?
@matthiaswandel yes.
standing desks also work great as outfeed tables that double as work areas...!
I already have my router table for that job
Brilliant! Thanks for giving me an excuse to buy one of these to play with - er, I mean to use as an outfeed table!
It could also be a ridiculously over done router lift…
Seems made really well! This made my decision now
Taking apart the sponsor’s product is a thumbs up from me!
matthias has finally found a product that genuinely likes and that is willing to advertise!
I think the "brake" you're looking at is actually used like a slipper clutch. It'll allow the desk a slight "give" in case something is jammed or other unintentional stoppages happen.
I've seen this design used in something else I saw taken apart recently, but I don't remember what it was lol.
Nope, its not in line. The drive torque doesn't go through the spring, it just adds drag.
Yeah, I don't understand why it was referred to as a brake. Even with a table fully weighted to what the company claims it can hold, there's so much friction on that screw, due to backlash and gravity, that it won't magically slip and slam the telescope down; unlike what hydraulics can do if you pop a seal or hose. Couple that with the non-backdrivability of the worm screw and the slow speed of the worm spur, and it's entirely a non-issue even if the telescopic trapezoidal threads could somehow be a runaway slope during descent, that worm and motor will have enough holding power to prevent a runaway issue. Matthias should outright know this with the knowledge he has, quick judgement without thought I suppose. It's clearly a clutch for if anything does happen to snag, and the forward-bias indicates it's likely for when desk objects may hit a low ceiling or shelf; whereas there typically won't ever be anything under the desk that will cause an issue plus the minimum height allows things to sit under the table top itself, anything in the way will just get pushed and if there is ever a solid object issue the legs will raise themselves to where the table top is. Though, I wonder at what resistance force the clutch will likely disengage the screw; I'm surprised marketing doesn't mention the clutch at all, nor has anyone actually taking the leg apart as that seems to be the current marketing campaign.
@@xaytana i think the idea is so the weight of the stuff on the desk doesn't backdrive the motor(as much), and allows a smoother decent
Thats a great teardown and sponsor video. Good endorsement for a product from knowledgeable favourite.
That's a clever mechanism.
Really interesting to see the point on it being useful when working with the sewing machine - I might have to check one out (and maybe extend the pedal on the sewing machine too)!
Bearings are the best so many useful ways”
Just the threaded bars are worth having.
Now THAT is a really well designed and made piece of kit!
Its gotta be solid to some degree to not break under load!
That’s really affordable for what you get. Thanks! Pretty cool.
You told us so!
Interesting that its driven by a standard power window motor. Ive got a few of those lying around. I might try and make my own standing desk,
Thank you! The challenging aspect now is to measure the force needed to operate manual handle ! electric motors are to easy ........
Excellent teardown Matthias!
Definitely some economy of scale for flexispot to make these and still make a decent profit. Looks like car door window motors, basically all thread (are they acme threads?), Nested tubing, and the top. It would be fun to build though.
Have you considered an adjustable coffee table? having something that could be low most of the time, but was able to rise up for board games could be really handy.
at its lowest, its still a bit high for a coffee table
Interesting! Clever engineering. Thanks for showing that to us, Matthias.
6:34 Matthias sews too! 🤯💕👏👍
u can use the spare legs, to make an electric wise for woodworking :D hope it has enough clamping force
Very interesting to see the teardown like this, I've often wondered what was happening
I love that you get sponsored mostly because you were curious
It seems like a pretty good brand
Those would be great to make a DIY pop-up camper.
Not enough height range
If you get 2-3 more of those kits you could make yourself a sturdy Mike Farrington-esque adjustable height Paulk workbench.
They have a standing desk with four motorized legs. Could take one of those apart and put a leg on each corner. Except I don't really want that, cause sometimes I really whack something on the bench, and that impact could break a leg.
Would there be any value in a power-adjusting drill press table? Seems like it could be slightly more convenient than unlocking and manually cranking it, at the cost of sturdiness and precision. Or how about converting them to independent, power-adjustable, auto-locking outfeed roller stand? Or combining a few other of your projects, integrate the desk leg with a rotary encoder and the screw-advance box joint jig, run by a rpi with a laser beam brake sensor for automatic advancement each pass of the sled.
set the legs to that bandsaw behind you and put it on rails (angle iron?), so you can do milling, and the legs do height adjustment :D
Height adjustment for a sawmill -- now that could indeed be a good use!
Very interesting video. I’m surprised that the quality of all the parts. I just ordered one for myself. Look forward to your next video.
Nice desks, but I noticed the wires are hanging loose on the back. I'd love to see what you can come up with in terms of cable management (with wood of course).
The legendary old Magic Of Buying Two Of Them!
How excited do you get when you see that shiny new worm gear motor you get to put in your "random project" pile?
Those motors could be handy for other stuff indeed. But probably most useful in combination with a standing desk screw, which in turn is most useful as part of the leg assembly. So together it stays until I really need a motor like that for something
Looks just like a windshield wiper motor, different voltage use though.
Can you incorporate some of that tech into one of your tools, like a vise? Also, when I worked in the typewriter division at IBM, that gizmo was called a spring clutch. A Selectric typewriter has 3 different versions of it. Pick one up and take it apart; they're fascinating.
I suppose it could be a tail vise, but I think hand cranking a vise makes more sense. In which case, I'd just be usingthe outer screw from the mechanism. Would be kind of a waste.
You could have 3 benchtop machines in a stack/rack and use those legs to bring one to a good working height. Or you could just make a set of shelves to keep the heavy stuff on, so you never need to bend down to get to the bottom shelf.
Bending down is WAY faster than waiting for some shelf to lift up.
Flip the brake spring mechanism around and have it come down from your workship ceiling. Storage? Keeping rarely used tools out of the way?
If upside down, a lot will hang off of small screws in tension, not a good idea. Also, the spring thing would not easily flip
*I'm impressed with your knowledge about desks. I have an older desk that's experiencing some issues. When I raise the desk, it pulsates and vibrates the entire surface. I'm wondering if the problem might be related to a lack of lubrication.*
Very likely, and if its a 3-segment leg, good luck to open that up to grease it. A previous one I opened up, the larger screw was entirely inaccessible.
I wonder if you could repurpose the mechanism for some sort of precise XY coordinate controller for an entirely different machine or some sort of tracking telescope controller/motorized timelapses.
I would think that, if FlexiSpot is sponsoring the video, that they could just send Matthias a mechanism without all the extra bits outside of it. But I guess maybe Matthias wanted to have the fun job of taking it apart. 🙂
It is cheaper for them to just ship a whole desk. I'm sure they got a warehouse of the things.
I've considered making one into a outfeed table / assembly table.
That was a real nice "tutorial" , I learned something new at 73 years , well done Matthias 🙂
It would be a good workshop table… to be an outfeed or extra hands for sheet goods or for long pieces on any tool. You could also use it to lift things, depending on the weight rating of it?
Make a lift on wheels instead of a standing desk.
A friend of mine has this hydraulic bench on wheels to move heavy machines from one place to another. We used it to move a dryer that was sitting on the washing machine out of the way in order to work freely on it.
Bonus points if you make the top foldable.
If the legs have independent motors, how do they stay 'in sync'? I'd have expexted manufacturing tolereneces to lead to motors that turn at slightly different speeds or at least for the legs to require slightly different amounts of torque to move them at the same speed. Is it purely the frequency of the AC supply?
You are standing desk rich, my friend!
!!!!! new build: outdoor garbage bin shelter with a raise/lower anti-pest lid
You guys should make one with a work bench set up because there are times while I’m in the garage I need something at eye level
I'm trying to think of what else could you build with those parts... Maybe a CNC machine? A 3D printer?
Thought about it, but they aren't designed for continuous operation
Amazing they can make the outer/hollow screw for cheap, must start with a pipe right? How is the outer spline attached to the outer screw?
It slides in the outer screw. The inside of the outer screw has grooves cut into it that the little thing at the end of the screw engages with
I honestly can't see it working any other way with the ranges they are able to achieve, our little crappy sit stand desks at work only go 2x
You've got the US amazon link messed up in the description.
Missing a space between the US link and "Canada"
The one way spring is a really interesting design that I'm not sure I would have ever come up with.
I've seen those also in laser printers and photocopiers that I cannibalized for shafts, bearings, steppers etc.
How about repurposing the mechanisms to build a clamping press?
The break is smarter than that. It's not that it has extra torque to go down
The load will always be applying torque in the wrong direction, clamping the spring down, while the motor will always be applying load in the opening direction. Regardless of which way it's rotating.
It's the same mechanism used in roller blinds
Who else is anxiously awaiting the next cool tool or toy that can be designed and built using the leftover parts from today’s demo?? 🙋 ❗️
You could always give that desk to a lucky viewer.... ; P
Time to mount something like the planer or sanding stations on a heigh-adjustable bench?
Why? I never use those sitting down.
@@matthiaswandel I suppose it depends on if you work with larger pieces, you can find the optimal height for the tool. Then again, I’m working in my father’s workshop, he’s a foot taller than I am, and all the benches are significantly above “standard” height, so many tools are mounted at an awkward height.
@@matthiaswandel Useful if the device has to be lowered to fit under storage shelves.
For example, being able to lower my planer to a lower level would be super helpful for it to fit under my 36" high storage shelves.
(I leave the bottom of my storage rack shelves open for my table saw, jointer, wide belt sander, etc to fit under)
@@vaalrus just fyi as notification as an addition to your answer
It would be fun to see you make something horizontal like big drawers or some other wild idea you have.
You need to fix the description so there is a space between the US url and the word Canada. Unless it's just my browser removing that space for no reason.