Building a treadmill desk

Moonliner · 03-05-2008, 10:00 AM

As I have mentioned in two other threads now, I have started the process of building a Treadmill desk.

It's a fairly simple concept, you take a standard treadmill and build a desk on top of it so that you can walk and work at the same time. Walking at a very sedate .07mph can burn a lot of calories in a work day. I am hoping to be able to walk up to 5-hours per day but we'll have to see how that goes.

So far I have completed step #1. I purchased a treadmill and brought it home. Damn those things are heavy.

Now all I have to do is figure how how to secure a desk to this thing. Plan-A is to use the huge cardboard box this thing came in to create a template that lies on top of the handrails. Unfortunately the handrails are not at the correct height for a desk so I'm going to have to devise a way to raise the desktop and still keep it stable.

blueerica · 03-05-2008, 10:17 AM

Somehow, I didn't notice your previous mentions of the treadmill desk, but it's an interesting concept. I wonder if anyone did a bike desk. I wonder if I'd get sick of walking.

I think Plan A with the cardboard box for a template is an excellent idea. You can even use it, along with helpers, to determine the right height. I don't know how low the handles are to your body, so is it possible to use a thicker material. Or, could you have a special mount to raise it up higher? I keep picturing a mount that is attached on both arms, one on each 'corner' of the desk, with joints that would allow it to go forward and back, then lock into the position you like. At the dental office I used to work at, we had keyboards with a similar functionality, and I think using a similar 'locking' concept could be stable.

Keep us updated!

catfiend · 07-25-2008, 12:27 PM

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Originally Posted by blueerica

Somehow, I didn't notice your previous mentions of the treadmill desk, but it's an interesting concept. I wonder if anyone did a bike desk.

Yes. It's called the Geek-a-cycle - http://www.slimgeek.com/ Unfortunately it looks like they've stopped production. Note that they also said that it doesn't work well with a mouse - they recommend a trackball.

blueerica · 03-05-2008, 10:19 AM

Or, what about doing something similar to the blog image - where you could have an external structure that acts as an overlay?

Moonliner · 03-05-2008, 10:25 AM

Space is an issue so I am attempting to make it fit the confines of the treadmill itself.

I'll set the thing up tonight and take some initial measurements (Note: the photo in the first post is from Google images, mine is still mostly in the box)

I'm thinking that the back of the desk can rest on the top of the instrument cluster or on the arms where they attach to the cluster and the font of the desk on the arms (with some type of extender)

Chernabog · 03-05-2008, 10:36 AM

Two things though that I am sure you thought of -- you are going to have to see the control panel to get the treadmill to start, and putting a desk on the handrails cuts the actual treadmill underneath in half (at least thats what it looks like from that picture), which can be kind of dangerous - you need enough space to actually walk (you don't want to be concentrating on carefully shuffling and not falling off, you actually want to concentrate on work, lol).

Are you wanting to put your computer and everything up there like the photo? I was just curious

(And I'm curious to see how this project will turn out, its a cool idea!).

In the meantime... are you using the treadmill?

Kevy Baby · 03-05-2008, 10:41 AM

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