Stop screwing your monitor arm into the bottom of a hollow desk

I see people posting builds where they mount monitor arms straight through particle board desks. Did that myself 8 months ago and woke up to my screen face down on the floor one morning. You NEED a steel plate or a thick piece of plywood underneath to distribute the clamp force. I grab these 1/8 inch steel plates from Home Depot for like $4 each. Anyone else have a monitor crash story?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinross14d ago

I still say "woke up to my screen face down" is the waking nightmare of desk setups. My buddy's clamp ripped through a crappy desk and his arm swung around like a medieval flail, took out a coffee mug and everything.

taylor17414d ago

oh man, that medieval flail description is way too accurate. i had a cheap ikea desk a few years back and the clamp just slowly crushed through the particle board over like 4 months. one morning i heard this horrible crash and my second monitor was dangling by the VGA cable, which somehow saved it from smashing. the desk had this perfect circle of crumbled sawdust exactly where the clamp used to be. ended up getting a 1/4 inch steel plate and a piece of 3/4 inch plywood as a sandwich under there, now it's rock solid.