Drawing monitor arm

Ok, i’m getting a penable display, a huion 22 inch to be exact, and I require an arm for it due to my desk situation. I know that I could buy something that is 200-400$ and it would work, but I also want to see if I can get a low budget going for this, not having that arm cost more then the monitor. there are 3 wants,

  1. arm can clear roughly 17 inches, more is obviously better, but to position it where I want it to go I would need to clear 17 inches.
  2. the arm should be able to angle itself 75~ degrees, so its relatively flat in my lap, 45 degrees is a hard requirement as a minimum.
  3. should be able to have the vesa mount point reach the desk height. I know with some cheaper stands, have higher mount points on desks and assume that that’s the minimum height you want, at a 45 degree angle assuming the display is center mounted on the vesa (this is slightly higher then center if images are right), that would see he monitor perfectly fit in my lap.

i’m honestly lost as to what to get because there are many cheap ones that look fine and then there are expensive once that I cant see the difference between it and the cheaper ones.

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Wish you luck on your quest but I just wanted to point out that you miss the opportunity to make the “cost an arm and a leg” joke.

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It costs an arm and a leg for such a handy device, yea, my puns are more accidents when they happen then deliberate.

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I forgot to put in the op and I can’t edit it, I think the monitor is 9lb, sometimes the stand it comes with is included in that weight, but the entire package is 21lb… but I think 8.9 is the exact weight

I have personally bought two of these for me, and two for people I live with. One of these people is my wife, who has a screen tablet (I forget which brand). After bringing one to work, my boss ordered a bunch with cheapo trays for laptop stands.

Bottom line: they don’t suck. You won’t get better without spending $125 minimum.

I’m using one right now. Can it clear 17"? Yes. Not by much, but it does from base to head. 75 degrees? You can get close, with adjustments to the head. The VESA reaches the desk? Again, almost. This thing is the perfect cheap-version (kinda like Huion tablets) - it gets you 95% of the way there for 20% of the price.

I love that the mount has the choice of clamp-on or drill-through, too. Just don’t lose the rubber feet and you’re good.

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The only thing I can really add is to say that you should most definitely not go for the cheap stuff. Definitely, definitely get a gas spring one; I’ve had nothing but trouble with the regular less fancy stuff, and I don’t even have any drawing monitor.

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I currently have a smaller monitor, 13~ inch 1080p that is also a drawing monitor but doenst have vesa, that may be fantastic for it if I get a tablet attachment for it, as once I install the large monitor, this one will no longer be for drawing, more just a general small monitor and being able to just put it on a stand, bring it closer to the main monitor, or push it away, or possibly use it as a ‘drawing tablet’ for the main monitor that would be good.

and yea, I did see the amazon basic premium one… that one has me considering it because there is an attachment for it that adds another length of arm and it would at that point 100% guaranteed clear any distance I want it to clear, the only issue is that may put it to high up to be in a position where I would like it to be. my little brother has a setup with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008TYF0F4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and while they are nice, they also are very stiff, and I have no idea if they adjust to be less stiff, and they don’t seem like they want to move lower then straight by much at all, either that or the desk is flexing with each movement so I stopped trying.

Looking up gas spring arms now, in all seriousness, you would assume ‘art monitor’ or ‘brand’ mixed with ‘arm’ would give SOME results for a video suggesting damn near anything, even if its a no crap, any arm is good enough, SOMEONE would have done a review on what’s best or how much you really need, even if it was just some shill crap but apparently i’m the first person to ever do this…

How thick is the tablet?

moving from huion 12 inch kamvas to the 22 inch with a vesa mount.
googling videos of anyone with monitors and arms, the best I can find is wacom 32 inch that demands a 300+$ arm, as its heavy as hell and you just spend 3400~ on it you aren’t trusting it to a cheap arm.

here are my current thoughts.

Will this arm be stable enough that I can bottom out the pen without it moving? this is something anyone with a penable display would ask, but seemingly no one has ever asked this.
Is the arm stable enough i’m not frustrated with it moving due to pen dragging?
Will this arm go as low as I want it to, I know that I can see it in diagram, but seeing a real image of it do what I want is more reassuring, but as most people do not ever adjust the monitor down, just push it higher up and tilt it down, the monitor needing to be lower is an afterthought
when the monitor is down, what is the steepest angle I can tilt it up without interfering with the arm? another seemingly basic question that I seemingly am the first person to ever wonder.

im likely just going to have to say eff it at some point and just buy something because I have almost no faith in finding an answer, or my ability to construct the sentence in a way that returns a result that helps me at all.

The closest thing I have found so far, was someone said this was ok, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QQ1NFQT/ref=emc_b_5_t
I mean ffs what are your thoughts on it, was it good, did you have any problems, is there anything of note you wanted to tell us about

I mean half of me is thinking im overthinking the issue and that all arms are just good, but then I read reviews of arms where they say ‘yea, the arm shifts a lot, so the monitor isn’t stable, so I just don’t move it’ and this is a massive issue, i’m concerned, but apparently not a singular person with a drawing monitor what’s say a single thing.

THAT ASIDE, what is that arm you used for the tablet, that may be good enough for me on the smaller display when it stops being my go to and shifts into being a small monitor.

Vesa mount makes things a lot easier obv but then the weight is an issue.

For my Wacom, I’m using this plus a sort of vesa-claw thing to hold it.

I think Triad-Orbit has VESA mounts for their system. Will set you back some solid cash though.

I would imagine Manfrotto also has VESA adapters for their system. Two Magic Arms should hold a monitor nicely. Same problem as Triad-Orbit though.

That’s not actually very exact, which model specifically?

Looking at the pro model, it says 15lbs. The ergotron is rated for 25 lbs, so that should give you more than enough headroom for hand resting and pen pressure unless you expect to fully lean on it.

As with most monitor arms, you adjust the tension with various allen/hex screws.

I know the one I linked has great head adjustment, but the gas springs (while adjustable) won’t magically be able to ignore the pen while also being able to move easily. If stability is a bigger issue than mobility, get one that’s not a gas spring arm. If you want both, it’ll cost big bucks.

Info is shoddy at best with these kinds of details, because artists are in the minority of the market for these things. I get that frustration, that’s why I gambled on a cheapass arm and it was good enough. The old Adam Savage - ‘buy the cheapest version of the tool, and if you use it enough to break it, then get the nice one’ philosophy.

I suppose this would be a great place for a blog to step in and review these things, but there’s a lot going against that:

  • First, minority market - most folks aren’t using these for drawing. Manufacturers don’t care.
  • Second, artists tend not to be organized folks with a surplus of cash to buy a bunch of these things. That’s not an insult by any stretch.
  • Third, cheapo brands will change their product on a dime, or their name, or both. This is especially true on Amazon. So outside Ergotron and more established names, info is rarely good for long.

huion has 3 different 22 inch models, one is just the kamvas 22, one is kamvas 22 plus and one is kambas 22 pro. the 22 inch one I think is 9lb in total.

as for weight, the 507 pen bottoms out at 160 grams, the 517 is known to be less sensitive, so i’m assuming double that I would also want to rest my hand on it a bit/use it as a guide, so maybe an extra 2-3lb in total.

look up artists reviewing materials online, huion seems to just give away massive amounts of product for artists to use, same with the other decent display companies. you would think one of them would get an arm deal or talk about their arm.

then, even with artists being a minority of the market, most of these displays come with a garbage stand (Huion I think is the only one that bundles a decent one, but I have no room on my desk for another 22 inch display, I require an arm) so there should be at least some reviews or people talking about arms.

my main monitor is a 55 inch 4k tv and the desk I am going to put the 22 inch on is a 15 or so year old particle board piece of crap, while I trust it for putting something on top of, an arm has a relatively small footprint, so i’m concerned with snapping the arm off the desk if there is too much tension. what I need is to get that monitor from the put away position (up and well out of the way so I don’t accidentally walk into it) and down in a position I can draw which without re organizing my room, and that seems to need 17 inches of clearance, possibly less because I think the mount on the huion 22 is higher, thus letting it stuck out just that wee bit more, so even a shorter arm may be able to work fine.

but yea, probably going to just get something that has slightly lower then 8lb at the low end, and use that till it breaks/see if it works, then go with something more expensive next time. While im ok with paying for more, I have to know I will use it more then once in a while to justify it.

I think the Ergotron will handle that no problem as long as you tighten the joints enough. In any case you should be able to return it if you don’t like it for whatever reason.

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depends on the reason I don’t like it, if its just a normal thing you have to deal with with arms, I think I have to put up with it till I end up building a new desk

Huion doesn’t make the arms. Considering that they’re making a real name for themselves, perhaps they should make an official/recommended product. They stand to benefit.

Or maybe they’re worried about breakage. If you warranty a tablet, and include a fancy mounting arm, now the mount is part of the device and they really don’t want to cover more ways to break things.

Also, to clarify: artists are a minority of the monitor arm market. I hope that the proliferation of these Huion tablets I’ve been seeing puts a dent in that. Better arms for drawing in the budget world is a good thing.

Best of luck in your quest. With three friends scooping those Huion tablets up, I’ll see if they have novel mounting ideas or try something I haven’t gotten my hands on.

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