I want to start by rolling the clock all the way back to March 6th of this year. It was Friday and I had just returned from a business trip the night before. That afternoon (Thursday) my employer had decided that everyone was to start working from home immediately. Not wanting to try performing complex engineering tasks with only a laptop screen, I immediately ordered two nice high definition 24″ monitors. But the question was where to put them. The “answer” was, on my office desk where I usually do tube work, including prototyping and assembly. This gave me a good spot to do my job, but with two large monitors and their ample stands, it left little space for power supplies, oscilloscopes, signal generators, and other such trappings of my vacuum tube amplifier work.

Well, this week I finally grew so frustrated at not being able to use my desk that I decided to make a change. I did a little research and ordered up a dual arm VESA monitor mount. This unit will allow my to be rid of the oversized monitor stands taking up space on my desk and will allow me to reposition monitors depending on what I am doing. Best of all, it was only $40 USD. Here is my work desk now.

This picture is with the monitors pushed back and out of the way. I have regained most of the desk surface for doing my tube work again. Now when I start assembly of the Zebrawood 6CY7 V2 amp, I’ll have ample room to work.

It is truly amazing how a such a little change can make such a huge difference. Now instead of dreading trying to do some prototyping or assembly, I am actually looking forward to it again. This makes me much happier.