# Gah! Why is it so hard to find a desk without a freakin' keyboard tray? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-desk-without-a-freakin-keyboard-tray/581654 "2011-05-12T15:18:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-desk-without-a-freakin-keyboard-tray/581654/21 "2011-05-13T19:57:18Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You’re cousin’s wrong…and just made you’re brakes really unsafe. That little tab (called a wear indicator) is NOT designed to wear out your rotor, in fact, it really won’t do much damage to your rotor at all. What it does is makes a god awful squeal when you’re brakes need to be replaced. On top of that, it let’s you know when the pads need to be replaced loooong before any damage is done to your rotors. That’s it, that’s it’s only job. With that broken off, you’ll have no idea how much brake pad is left until it’s to late. Now, you’ll know there’s a problem when you hear grinding. That grinding is metal grinding against the rotor and doing a lot of damage. If the entire pad grinds itself away, it starts eating at the caliper, and you’re braking ability goes to zero. > > Also, FTR, rotors are cheap. Randomly picked 2005 Cavalier. > 4 Pads - $17-$55 > 2 Rotors - $38-$82 > Hardly 10 times more expensive. > > Look at this way. How did you know the brakes needed to be replaced? You heard them squealing, right? That little tab he broke off was making that noise. Now, you won’t have that. Honestly, someone who thinks that a car has parts in it specifically designed to ruin other parts probably shouldn’t be working on cars. > > BTW, if you don’t believe me, start a new thread or IM Rick or Gary. He used to work there. I believe him, no insult intended to you. Perhaps there is another tab in addition to the warning squeal tab on these particular parts. I do not believe he would remove the squeal tab. FTR, the squeal I had actually came from a foreign object that got stuck between the pad and the rotor (he showed me the semi-circle groove it had worn in there, and guessed it was probably a pebble). The pads were not in dire need of replacement, but they were cheap and he already had the car up there, so why not? Pads for my car are $5.25 each. Rotors for my car, as I just priced, are $62.99 front/$45.99 rear. I believe that’s each and not per pair, based on the search I did, although I could be wrong and maybe it is for a pair. Four pads = $21, four rotors = $218. Which would be, actually, more than 10x as much. But I’m willing to have my ignorance fought if rotors are priced in pairs. In which case, it’s “only” 5x as much. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-desk-without-a-freakin-keyboard-tray/581654/22 "2011-05-13T20:37:52Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > He used to work there. I believe him, no insult intended to you. Perhaps there is another tab in addition to the warning squeal tab on these particular parts. I do not believe he would remove the squeal tab. FTR, the squeal I had actually came from a foreign object that got stuck between the pad and the rotor (he showed me the semi-circle groove it had worn in there, and guessed it was probably a pebble). The pads were not in dire need of replacement, but they were cheap and he already had the car up there, so why not? > > Pads for my car are $5.25 each. Rotors for my car, as I just priced, are $62.99 front/$45.99 rear. I believe that’s each and not per pair, based on the search I did, although I could be wrong and maybe it is for a pair. Four pads = $21, four rotors = $218. Which would be, actually, more than 10x as much. But I’m willing to have my ignorance fought if rotors are priced in pairs. In which case, it’s “only” 5x as much. I still don’t believe that there’s any kind of strip specifically designed to wear out the rotors (and thus cause your brakes to fail prematurely). But I’ll leave that alone for the moment. One place I can fight your ignorance is on the number of pads and rotors. Each wheel that uses a disc brake system has one rotor and two pads. Since most cars have discs in the front and drums in the back, you need to price out 4 pads (they come as a set of 4 from the auto store) and 2 rotors (they come individually). If you have discs all around, you would need 4 rotors and 8 pads (two boxes). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-desk-without-a-freakin-keyboard-tray/581654/23 "2011-05-13T21:24:28Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Used office supply stores can be great: if you don’t care about aesthetics, you can find old desks for practically nothing. My husband and I both have solid steel desks DOD desks that are probably forty years old, but they are fabulous: three feet deep, six drawers, including a file drawer, and no keyboard tray because who had heard of such a thing during the Nixon administration? I think I paid $35 for mine fifteen years ago. > > The downside is that they weigh about 600 lbs each. I’ve had VERY good luck at charity thrift shops. I mean, I go shopping at new retail stores, and don’t find what I’m looking for about 95% of the time, and everything costs an arm and a leg. If I go thrifting, I might strike out about 75% of the time, but when I DO find what I want, the price is RIGHT. I went looking for a desk everywhere, but could not find one in a B&M or online which served my purpose, unless I wanted to shell out about $1000 for various components. But I found one in a thrift store for $35. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-desk-without-a-freakin-keyboard-tray/581654.md?page=1)