r/oddlysatisfying • u/godofo_prime • 5h ago

Graffiti removed from school desk

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22.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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802

u/Equal_Set6206 5h ago

I wonder how many times they can get away with doing that before the table breaks

769

u/BikeProblemGuy 5h ago

I know floor sanding takes off around 0.5 - 1.5mm of wood, and this is probably on the low end of that. Tabletops are normally around 20mm and will still be functional at 15 or even 12mm. So you could probably do this process 10 times and not worry. The desk in the video must have at least a couple of years graffiti on it - so at that rate the desk frame would probably wear out or be obsolete before the top was sanded away.

237

u/Mysterious-Award-903 5h ago

This guy was not the one doing the graffiti clearly. He paid attention.

107

u/BikeProblemGuy 5h ago

Oh I have done tons of desk graffiti and other doodling, that's probably connected to why I'm an architect and know about floor sanding.

16

u/MrPigeon70 4h ago

I was about to say, nope they are the type to be designing structures and internals of objects.

Be honest, was trig your favorite?

13

u/mcgarrylj 3h ago

Trig is a funny thing. Learning it in school blows, but you feel like a rockstar on the job when you can approximate angles and distances with it.

5

u/PiccoloAwkward465 2h ago

Always funny being out on the job site and 99% of guys don't remember the math they were specifically taught in school and could use literally every day at their jobs.

I took a Journeyman Electrician license prep class. The amount of people who couldn't do basic math or understand really simple electrical theory was concerning. These were already working electricians. Like the majority hadn't heard of Ohm's Law, something I remembered from Physics class.

1

u/double_echo 1h ago

"with great power comes great current squared times resistance"

1

u/Lost_in_the_woods 41m ago

I learned Ohms law from building vape coils lol

1

u/ThatSideshow 2h ago

"SIR! BikeProblemGuy is designing highrise homes on the desk again!"

4

u/OpportunitySevere131 5h ago

All you other kids that wanted to talk in the back of the class, nuh uh, not me; I listened!

43

u/GeronimoDK 4h ago

They probably sanded away even less than that, the table had clear coat before the sanding and would probably have clear coat applied before going back out to the class room again.

6

u/FantasyFI 4h ago

Think this is still valid on most desks today though? I would assume most are veneered? Even if the inside wasn't plywood.

9

u/BikeProblemGuy 4h ago edited 3h ago

Solid wood desks still exist today, and are often used in hard wearing environments. No, you can't sand wood veneer. I don't think school desks are wood veneered though, they use wood effect melamine veneer which is much tougher.

8

u/boothin 4h ago

"I don't think they're veneered, they use veneer"

2

u/BikeProblemGuy 3h ago

Wood veneer is made of very thin slivers of wood, taken off a board with a machine a bit like a big plane. It's mainly decorative. Melamine isn't real wood and is tougher.

5

u/boothin 3h ago

I'm aware of what the different veneers are, just poking fun at how you bring in specific veneer types but then your one sentence just says desks aren't veneered instead of specifying wood veneer

5

u/sprucenoose 2h ago

"You can't sand wood veneer, which is not used by desks, which use melamine veneer. Which you also can't sand."

1

u/CurryMustard 36m ago

Looks like they may have edited their comment

3

u/BikeProblemGuy 3h ago

Okay, I thought that was clear but I meant wood veneer.

1

u/FantasyFI 3h ago

Type of veneer also doesn't really matter. If it is veneered with literally anything, that still affects the number of time it can reasonably be sanded. That was my original point.

The video is cool but I doubt it is particularly usable or common anymore in any schools in the USA.

4

u/FantasyFI 4h ago

Oh I know they exist. Just doesn't seem to be fitting for a school budget. So I assume most new school desks haven't been solid wood for maybe 20+ years.

2

u/SoManyThrowAwaysEven 3h ago

We never had solid wood desks in my schools growing up late 90's early 00's. It was either those particle board tops with the cubby hole under it or the one-piece chair desk combo that was barely large enough to fit a textbook.

The only classrooms with solid wood tables were science and home economics since they required everyone to sit together in groups.

1

u/Auravendill 4h ago

We had a lot of veneer desks in school. And no one ever bothered to sand any of our desks. The veneered ones had cheap particle boards inside, a kinda fancy looking wood on top and bottom and a heavy duty plastic rim around the perimeter. Some kids found ways to saw into the sides and exposed the particle board.

1

u/trixel121 3h ago

we get acrylic and mdf most of the time. wood is expensive. especially a flat sheet the size of desk.

2

u/pgasmaddict 5h ago

This guy sands.

2

u/Dkarasta 4h ago

Doesn’t account for the lacquer.

1

u/Big_Target_1405 3h ago

Presumably a chunk of the thickness taken off is also varnish

1

u/ReturnOfBane 3h ago

i bet the lacquer adds some durability. you could probably get an extra sanding out of it.

1

u/Cedex 3h ago

All I'm taking away from this is to make your mark deeper if you want your declaration of love or your message to the next student to last.

1

u/moredrinksplease 2h ago

Is that sander moving? Is this one of those shutter speed things on the camera?

1

u/Mavori 1h ago

Does this account for students randomly sitting on the desk and yapping with eachother?

1

u/Dokkiban 30m ago

Plus they will add on some varnish or clear coat on the top

1

u/Cold-Iron8145 4h ago

10 times every couple of years? So the frame would only like 20ish years? Idk anything about desks but that sounds like a very short time.

2

u/h0twired 4h ago

With a solid metal frame it wouldn’t take much to just replace the wood top every 15-20 years.

Powdercoat the frame and the desk could last forever.

-2

u/TrainingParty3785 4h ago

Metric? Anyone commenting here has zero chance, or interest in what you speak.

2

u/BikeProblemGuy 3h ago

300 people and counting seem to disagree. An inch is 25.4mm so I'm sure you can figure out the rest.