We’ve been making adjustable height desks and tables for 8 years now. We call them crank tables and they have a manual crank to raise and lower the top. The mechanisms were industrial quality, and at the time, electric actuators were not up to the task to lifting our heavy solid wood tops. But technology has caught up and now we’re manufacturing electric sit stand desks of the highest quality.

After reviewing the sit stand desks on the market, we were surprised as they were all unattractive and cheap looking. Our original Crank Desk was the perfect design to revamp with electric actuators. Most of the sit stand desks on the market weigh under 100 lbs, while our original design weighed in over 400 lbs. We thought that was a little too heavy for the average consumer to move around, so we lightened it up some to 250 lbs. It’s still pretty substantial, but not impossible to move. The dual actuators are rated to 540 lbs total. We stress tested them and they held up flawlessly, like the mechanical actuators. They also have a Piezo sensor which detects obstructions, then halts, and reverses to avoid collision while adjusting the height, and the lifts have a 5 year manufacturers warranty.

Vintage Industrial has been making furniture for 10 years now, and the most common thing to fail in our experience, are wood tops. If they are not seasoned or constructed properly, they often crack, split, twist or bow. And the subframe that attaches the base to the top needs to allow for seasonal changes like humidity and temperature. That’s why over the years we’ve continually updated the engineering of our tops and subframe (over 100 changes).

Three of our employees in the mill department have a combined 117 years of woodworking experience. Jef (in the middle) has 50 years and apprenticed with the Amish back in Ohio. We take what we do very seriously and consider our furniture to be heirloom quality. That’s why some of our clients have gone as far as to put the furniture in their wills.

All of the sit stand desks on the market we saw had thin cheap looking T legs. We built ours with 4″ structural steel tubing instead and finished them with a commercial grade clear coat. This is our Natural Steel Finish and we plan on adding painted finishes soon like our red Glossy Crank table.  Underneath we added heavy duty levelers rated to 3750 lbs each. The levelers work great for uneven floors which many people have, or you can take them off if you prefer.

One of the changes we made in the construction of our tops is to go from a small biscuit to a large dowel, for joining the solid wood planks. The standard in the wood working industry is to use biscuits to help join planks together, and wood is surprisingly strong with seasonal changes, and it can actually break them. We make the wood dowels out of various hardwoods and they are pretty much indestructible. This means the planks in the top will stay together and not move down the road. We also use breadboards on each side of the top and these perpendicular pieces of wood prevent the tops from bowing.

The controller for the electric mechanism is pretty impressive. It has Bluetooth which enables your phone to connect to it via an app. This allows you to customize and adjust the height settings wirelessly. Or push the button to go up or down, or double click it to go to your favorite height. The control panel also has a screen which displays the height in tenths of an inch (ie. 30.0).

We also offer an optional battery as the power source. It’s rated to last 20-30 days on stand-by mode, so if you don’t want to plug the desk into the wall, this is a great option. To charge it you can either remove the battery which takes a few seconds, and plug it into the charger, or use the supplied cord to plug the controller (under the desk top) into a wall socket. Batteries come with a 12 month warranty.

Some people make the mistake of going straight to a standing desk. To illustrate we made a standing desk for our admin and within 2 weeks she threw in the towel. Standing all day was too much for her. So we switched her back to a regular desk. We work 10 hour days and suddenly adding 40 hours of standing a week to your regimen when you are not used to it can cause all kinds of problems.

Having the option of sitting when you feel like it is extremely important in my opinion. I’ve suffered from back problems ever since I was 16 (32 years now). I found out that my lower vertebrae was fused on one side and not properly formed, and my left leg was 10mm shorter than the other causing all kinds of havoc with my posture.  I’ve switched to a sit stand desk several times now as my desk keeps being sold out from under me. Each time my back gets worse going back to sitting. Today I am sitting at the new Electric Crank Desk as I type this. I noticed I stand for about an hour to two a day, and that gradually increases to almost full time standing within a few months. My body seems to get stronger over time and my pain subsides. I spend a good 40 hours a week at this desk, so it is absolutely worth every penny to have something comfortable to work on.