Writing Desk

For me personally, writing on a flat surface is unergonomic and uncomfortable; the flat surface inhibits my view of the page, forcing me to bend over the page in a way that encourages slouching, fatigue, and an unhealthy posture. I thus thought it fit to create a slanted writing surface for all my handwriting needs; I do quite a lot of writing, whether on notebooks, in the margins of textbooks, or on my iPad. This writing surface, which I designed with these devices in mind, is slanted 40 degrees upwards and has a size large enough to accommodate anything I can think of to write on.

This tutorial will teach you to make such a writing desk with dimensions of your choosing. Let us define several "variables".

Let us measure the horizontal length of the main writing board to be L. Let us make the width of it W. The angle of slant for the writing desk will be θ.

Supplies/Materials

• A sheet of 1/4 Inch Plywood
• Wood Glue

Tools

• Pencil
• Square
• Ruler
• Meter Stick
• Chalk line
• Clamps
• Miter Saw
• Band Saw
• Table Saw

Based on the variables, you will need to make 3 cuts for the basic structure. One will be a rectangle of size W x L, the other a rectangle of size W cos θ x W sin θ. You will cut this second rectangle on the diagonal.

I also recommend cutting a small piece of W x 5cm to act as a ridge to hold any iPads/notebooks you may be using with this stand.

Based on these dimensions, you can draw an outline of how to map the cuts onto your sheet of wood. For this project, a wood sheet at least L x W (1 + sin θ) will be desired. The cuts will be mapped out as shown in the picture above.

Copy the outline onto the piece of wood, with all components conforming to the dimensions you decided for W, L, and θ. You can draw lines perpendicular to the surface of the wood with a square. Use the ruler and/or meter stick to confirm dimensions. The longest edge of the outline should be on one edge of the wood to minimize cutting time. See the picture above for reference.

Your diagonal will be difficult to draw with just a ruler. You have two options here:

1. Draw the diagonal with a meter stick (easiest).
2. Use a chalk line to clearly mark the diagonal (most accurate).

You will be cutting along this line to make one of the two legs of the writing desk. Above, see a demonstration of the meter stick method and what your outline should look like.

Use a miter saw, table saw, or band saw to make these cuts. I recommend a table saw/band saw for the horizontal/vertical cuts and a miter saw for the diagonal cut.

Apply light wood glue to both sides of the surface you wish to glue together and clamp. To glue the triangle to the rectangular panel, apply wood glue alongside the hypotenuse of the triangle and on the underside of the rectangular panel. This will take some creativity with clamps (see the picture above for how I did it,) but after waiting 30 minutes for the glue to dry for each side, the glue will hold solidly.

If you have chosen to do this strongly recommended step, apply glue to the underside of the ridge, attach to the wood, and perhaps get someone to hold it on there for you while you clamp it. Wait 30 more minutes.

Thanks for reading!