But I’m feeling chatty tonight

Your suggestion works if one spouse has an automobile to haul said free desk home. In a car-free household, hauling any sort of free, good quality furniture is generally impossible (I can haul about 50 lbs on my bike rack and I live in too small of a space to make a trailer a worthwhile purchase). True, one could ask friends – but besides not wanting to use our friends, I’m ethnically opposed to automobile usage for many reasons. So in our first year in San Diego (we arrived with nothing but bikes and panniers), we lived in an apartment with furniture hauled in from the alley behind us or no furniture. Also, I have a knack for finding apartment that have the narrowest of entry doors and even tinier windows, so most furniture doesn’t even fit in the darn place. So my choice has been crappy build-it-yerself IKEA stuff or custom made furniture that is quality – which is the route we’ve taken.

Although let me make this comment useful – letting everyone you know that you’re looking for a good quality desk for free will also result in success esp. from those who are upgrading, downgrading or whatever. This include the entire network – friends, coworkers, acquaintances and so forth.

BTW, oak entertainment centers have become obsolete because of the change in televisions. With flat screens (not that I have one–or a big television) you don’t need those hulking pieces of furniture.

But two cabinets and place them so that they support the two ends of the plank.

Voila!. If you’re clever with tools, go to home depot and get the hardware to make a little board slide for under the plank; this will hold your computer keyboard at the right height.