Ikea SKARSTA Sit/Stand Desk

This is what met desk, in slightly cleaner times, looks like right now.

First a review of the Ikea SKARSTA Sit/Stand Desk and then a detailed assembly.

As a desk it works great. Despite have two monitors and a lamp all weighted to one side of it there is little or no tilt even when lifting the desk to max height. The surface seems fine, if not particularly to my style. And, having bought the larger of the desk surfaces for this there is quite a lot of real estate. The metal frame is solid and works great.

My only complaint about the desk is that when cranking it up, it makes an awful racket. My wife’s is much quieter, but still noisy as you get toward the top of its extension.

As you can see, I use two desks that my dad and I built long ago to give me a nice surround surface and place storage and peripherals.

Now into construction and assembly.

Tools used for normal assembly were a Philips head screwdriver, a wrench (whose size escapes me at the moment, the included hex keys, and sleeve, a rubber mallet, and white lithium grease.

Unfortunately on the day we went to Ikea the store only had one of the SKARSTA tops of the desired dimensions available, so we picked out another desk surface of same dimensions (except thickness) and decided to drill the holes ourselves. Basically, while not ideal, we didn’t want to pay for shipping, were moving, and our new place was going to be much less convenient to access an Ikea from.

Tools for assembly while drilling my own holes further included carpenter pencil / marker, painter’s tape, C-clamp, glove (as padding for C-clamp), two different drill bits (necessitated by two different holes) a drill, an adjustable square, and a tape measure.

The metal frame for this deck is substantial and heavy. Great for a desk, a bit of a bear for assembly. First, using my wrench and hex key I put together the main beam.

Torqued them well.

Then you apply these cushioning pads that the desk surface will rest on.

You then put on the leg. The leg is heavy and awkward. The holes for the leg, if I recall correctly, were threaded and so there is no need for nuts to accompany the bolts.

Again, torque these well.

Next you add the support which the desk surface will be secured to. These were also threaded, so no nuts.

After that it is four bolts for the leg’s foot, which is both hefty and wide adding stability to the desk.

Make sure to torque these well.

Last step for the legs is to screw in the pads. Keep in mind these can be backed out for leveling if needed.

Now, with the legs and feet on the floor you add the connecting rod which connects the lifting mechanism in each leg to one another. I recommend using white lithium grease on the end.

The connecting rod is composed of two pieces. I used the white lithium grease on all ends and the middle. You need to put the two rod pieces together and then extend it while keeping it aligned into the receiving holes of the lifting mechanism.

Then you screw in the pass through bracket and holding clip for the cranking rod into the desk surface.

And in order to mount the desk surface you place in these expanding plastic holders.

They have a pin that pushes out the sides, which I used the rubber mallet to hit in.

Once everything is assembled you and the cranking rod, I suggest using white lithium grease here as well. One of the complaints I saw was that for some people the cranking rod had been scraped over the life of the desk and it had made stowing the rod difficult as it did not slide back and forth well. I used white lithium grease because it is water proof and acts as a lubricant.

Final piece is a retention slip that prevents you from pulling the cranking rod out of the lifting mechanism.

This is the pre-drilled hole pattern on the bottom of the SKARSTA desk surface.

As you can see it does not match the second surface we bought (explanation above), and so drilling was required. I believe the desk surface I had to drill was from an Ikea BEKANT.

Much measuring followed.

And as you can vaguely see I drew a grid using intersecting lines to determine where the holes needed to be measuring from the pre-drilled desk surface.

A close up of the grid and markings.

In an ideal world I would have had a drill press. In a less than ideal world I had painter’s tape.

I started drilling out the necessary holes going no deeper than the painter’s tape hitting the desk surface.

Unfortunately I was not very good at depth control doing this free hand and this desk surface was around an 1/8^th or 1/4^th inch thinner than the one that is meant to go on the desk, so I ended up breaking the surface and punching through. I am not particularly good at this.

Here is a picture of the desk at max height. This is great for working while standing, or gaming. Also great if I need to swap out a graphics card or power supply on my desktop as I can just crank the desk up and have plenty of head room.

In the end I have a U and my wife has an L and we both have an absolutely wonderful amount of work space and really like the office setup.

I am writing this up April 23^rd, 2017 but posting it with the project completion date of September 21^st, 2016. I have some thoughts in further review after long term usage.

I like the legs. I may try and take them apart at some point and reduce the noise when transitioning between sit and stand. For the price though this product does exactly what it said it would, does it well (though noisily in transition). I may very well end up making a much nicer hard wood desk surface with a better mounting method to the frame and keep this a good long time. Even without the sit / stand feature this frame is great. So overall we are both quite happy with the purchase.

As always, questions and comments are welcome and I am glad to answer to the best of knowledge and help in any way I can.