******
- Verified Buyer
I was warned by other reviewers that this keyboard tray was very difficult to install. As I was moving everything around in my office, turning my custom desk upside down to install seemed like a small deal compared to everything else. It was a bear to install. My husband was less than thrilled at the process required. The disappointments began when I realized that, although this is a fairly good-sized platform, most of it remains under the desk and is not usable. You get barely enough room for a standard keyboard exposed when the drawer is fully extended. There is more. The product description says the thing will lock in place. Not really. When you push the drawer under the desk, the left side sort of locks in place so that it doesn't open on its own. As our floors are reasonably level, I doubt that would have been a problem. When the drawer is pulled fully out the right side sort of locks into place. Sort of. The left side has a lot of play in it, as that side does not lock at all. When typing, it is ok if you have a light touch. Don't get agressive with it, though or it will rock out of its location and start rolling away.It is when you grab for the mouse or lean forward to turn on a light or whatever that the problems really manifest. If you bump the board, even a little, when reaching for the mouse, the whole shebang comes unlocked and slides under the desk. Similarly, if you reach for anything on your desktop and bump the "drawer" even slightly, there goes the keyboard. When I read that something "locks" in place I expect that it will be pretty much unmoveable until I UNlock it. I find that I waste a lot of time pulling my keyboard back out and jerking the right side so that the lock engages. It takes so much more oomph to lock it than to unlock it.The pros are that I can have my desktop at the right height for drawing or sorting papers, with the keyboard neatly tucked away. That part works nicely. I really appreciate coming into a tidy room and a clean desk to begin work. It starts a work session off nicely. The keyboard stays neatly tucked until I need it. The surface coloring/pattern also works well for me as it blends well with some of the dark cabinetry that I have under my desktop. The dark color also helps in hiding it and the keyboard when it is recessed.The cons are that there are no adjustments of any kind that you can make to the keyboard. It cannot be lowered to accommodate a taller mouse, nor can it be adjusted so that more of the keyboard can be extended. I have file cabinets that will fully extend, with the drawer full of papers on the same kind of double glide metal rails, I would have appreciated the same quality rails on this shelf/drawer, which is actually used more often.I did not review this product when I first purchased and installed it because I had hoped that I would get used to the little quirks and really like it. I think if it would simply stay where it is put I might forgive the lack of depth it provides, that was never a huge issue, though I did like the idea of being able to use it for my Wacom Sketch pad as well as a keyboard. That would not work with the unstable surface, even if it did extend further. It would be nice to have a real locking mechanism that one could engage that would hold the shelf steady until intentionally released. I would replace it, but have no intention of taking apart the desk and turning it upside down again.Update after 18 months of use. The locking mechanism has got progressively worse. I have timed the failures by "locking" the keyboard open, setting the stop watch on my cell phone and then watching from across the room. With nothing touching the keyboard and nothing else in the room moving, the keyboard tray loses its lock at an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds. I am now using gimmicks like bull dog cliips and other workarounds to try to block the thing from collapsing. I would now rate this as a total fail. Don't waste your money on this product.One of my older desks had a basically identical tray for keyboard/mouse and it eventually broke. Rather than replacing a perfectly good desk I order this to fix it up. Assembly was quite easy, definitely helpful to have two people when installing. My only gripe in regard to the assembly instructions. I assembled identical to the instructions which left me with only ~1 in clearance between the desk and top of tray after it was assembled. In my case, it makes it so it's too high to the point where it's not comfortable to type and mouse when sitting.While writing this review I had the brilliant idea to check if I can adjust, and I certainly can, but not easily now that it's all screwed together and into my desk, so had to take apart and start over essentially.Great product, but if you order, and get to step two, take some time to think about how much clearance you need and adjust accordingly using the available 4 screw holes for each hanger! Don't just do what the picture shows without thinking it through, there are 4 screw holes on each hanger you can use to adjust height! Other than that, great product, I'm quite happy now that I've figured out how to get it assembled correctly for my setup! Besides the "Ikea-like" assembly (put it together just to realize have to take apart and re-do step 2), I'm very happy with the purchase, and would recommend.I ordered this as it was just about the cheapest option out there on Amazon ($33). I got the cherry color and works perfectly for my home office. I did not get this for a keyboard/mouse but instad got it as a food tray. This will work perfectly for my lunches and as you can see, fits a large plate quite well. Its quite sturdy and can handle me place my arms/elbows on it without issue. This would be 5 stars if the instructions weren't so bad. They were actually no good at all, I had to just figure it out on my own. The only thing it was good for was to know how many screws I should have but even that was kind of misleading. I was able to install alone but had to improvise using a small laptop table to hold the board up. It worked perfectly. Without something like that, you'll definitely need another person. Packaging was great as well and lots of protection. The board seems to be decent quality and looks like it'll hold up for a year or two. I'll probably add heavy duty tape to the edges where my hands/arms will rest the most to extend the life; i foresee that being the first section to start peeling back. Otherwise, a great deal and solution for what I need. One last comment, this should hold just about any normal size keyboard and mouse pad. Enjoy and God bless!My tray came with instructions, so yay! They are not the most intricately drawn up instructions, but almost anyone can figure it out. I got mahogany to match my Flexispot mahogany adjustable desk, but they don't. It's ok, the tray was just wide enough for my keyboard and mouse, so I don't see much anyway.The hardware has my a little leery. There are adjustable plates that attach the mounting points to the rails, but are held together by a screw and little nubs that help center the plate. That's not going to be an issue, but what I can see being an issue are the screws that hold the rail to the heavy tray itself. The screws have very small heads. Two of the three screws fit into holes that should stay in place. The third screw fits through a slot on the rail that is oblong and the screw could very easily poke through if you torqued the screw down too much. Replacing those screws with ones with bigger heads is likely going to happen. I can't imagine a good smack on the tray won't cause issues...Unfortunately, I had to mount this without being able to flip my desktop over. That was a massive amount of measuring and double checking and measuring and swearing and tweaking. My problem, not the manufacturer's.Overall, i think the tray itself is good quality and most of the hardware is good. Just could be a bit better...I love the item, an one little wish change, but I’d rather have it the way it is, then chance it not being as good as it is, but my old one that broke I could put my hands in with it close to click the mouse where this one you can’t. I just got to get used to pulling the draw out now, but to let people that maybe don’t know, it does kinda lock opened all the way an closed all the way. If your finding that yours is not it’s most likely you don’t have it installed straight an it’s alittle off center which will make it so you have this problem. mine was doing that aswell until I saw it was alittle off so I reinstalled it correctly an perfect. I also couldn’t put my desk upside down , an it was pretty tricky. Some pointers for the not so handy people that could use these tricks. First pre drill holes not completely but just to help with the start, an if your forced to install without turning upside down. I took an office chair took the back off an laid down on it with my upper back an put the drawer on my stomach an was the best way for me. If you don’t pre drill first good luck that’s all I can say I tried an had to come up with a plan B. Hope this helps an I think this is a great item, an a great price. I’ll keep buying them if I need them over an over again. Well worth it an it’s looks definitely don’t look cheap what do ever, an if you still reading this an need one just buy it , an be done with this issue, an move on to the next one that’s what I can do now. Problem is a thing in the past now for me thank you. Oh yeah another thing the drawer comes out more than enough if you find it doesn’t that’s cuz you installed it to far under your desk. I have mine installed 2 inches from the edge an now I wish I would of only went 1 inch but even with 2 inches I have more than enough area an I’d not worth the redo, but if I ever need another I’ll only go an inch but that’s for it to be perfect ,almost perfect 2 inches either or works perfectlyI would have liked the depth of this tray to be more adjustable and with more depth. Even at the maximum setting the tray sits very close to the underside of my music studio table. AS an aftermarket desk tray, it is nit easy to install when trying to work from the underside of any table or desk and I ended up turning the whole table upside down so as to make the install easier. The screws are all very small and quite "finicky" for my large hands but that's a personal thing I guess.Holds my extended Logitech K750 keyboard along with mouse and mousepad on the side. There's even enough room to hold a second keyboard behind (I switch between work & non-work computers). The tray only moves back and forth but is stable. I mounted the tray to the right side of the desk so that the keyboard (residing on the left of the tray) is centered on the desk in front of the monitor. I also added extenders and used longer screws (purchased from a local hardware store) to increase the distance between the tray and desk.Its nice, a little heavy, the rails take a while to loosen up so that they slide nicely so dont be discouraged if its a little stiff at first. Mine arrived with a couple dings and bumps in it from shipping, thankfully it just took flipping it over to hide the damage under the desk. Not the product shippers fault so no loss of marks on this review. Overall would buy again if I need another replacement in the future.The following should be added or changed for this keyboard tray.The tray should come with a paper template for mounting the brackets.The cost to the manufacturer would be minimal and would enhance mounting a great deal.The mounting brackets should be reversible so the holes in the brackets can be directly above the keyboard (rather than above and to the side of the keyboard), or so the holes in the brackets can be above and to the side of the keyboard. This way the brackets could be mounted directly above the keyboard.The keyboard slide should be detachable from the mounting brackets so the brackets could be attached to the underside of the mounting surface then the keyboard could be slid (installed) in place.
