Scratch Build: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[SslagleZ28]

Everthing looks great so far... One thing though I see your using a piece of 1x4 it looks like as a straight edge for your router... remember wood bows and twists and all that good stuff, everything looks straight but maybe use a 4ft level next time, it might give you a better line. Other than that if this is your first time your doing a great job keep up the good work

 

[mep916]

Sick build log. 5 stars.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Desktop Chop Shop 2

Everthing looks great so far... One thing though I see your using a piece of 1x4 it looks like as a straight edge for your router... remember wood bows and twists and all that good stuff, everything looks straight but maybe use a 4ft level next time, it might give you a better line. Other than that if this is your first time your doing a great job keep up the good work

Good call there SslagleZ28 - I should have used something metal, but so far I've been lucky I suppose and everything is looking nice and square. We'll see ultimately though when I drop in the piece of glass! Thanks for the encouragement!

Sick build log. 5 stars.

Thanks mep916 - glad to have you tune in, stick around for some more updates!

I had some time to take those motherboard tray and I/O Plates to the shop to try out a few tools / techniques for shaping them into something I actually like.

First off, yes, Mike and I tried using the nice Dewalt Jigsaw, but the Mastercraft metal blades we were trying to use just wouldn't stay in the darn clamp. It would cut like butter for maybe 10 seconds and then bam, the blade would fall out of the bottom of the jigsaw onto the ground. Not sure what was going on there.

Next up, we tried this neat little Mastercraft oscillating tool with a metal blade as well, but no such luck. Couldn't figure out a good way to clamp down the metal tray, so it just vibrated it like crazy instead of actually cutting.

Our next contestant was an air compressor powered cutting wheel, which, was ultimately less accurate than the dremel, and just as slow.

So we took out the big gun, the sawzall.

Ha, no, just kidding. It wouldn't work even a tiny bit for a piece like this.

In the end, you know what ultimately worked the best?

Yeah, a hacksaw. Go figure.

Anyways, here you can see my mangled I/O plate for the motherboard. It's not a pretty sight at all in my opinion.

This is the nice I/O plate that I didn't even have to do anything except drill out a few rivets.

I think I'm going to have to come up with a better solution for this. We'll see shortly

Hope everyone who is getting snow is enjoying it, I know here in Ottawa, it's been a pretty crazy few days!

Stay tuned for more updates, will be spending some time in the shop this week and working with WOOD!

 

[wolfeking]

this looks to be an awsome build man.
I think that I have got some ideas here. Might try my own later on.

 

[Shane]

Looking good :good:

 

[linkin]

If I had the money and tools to do something similar, I would. Already got the time

 

[ultimatedesk]

More Drawer Work

this looks to be an awsome build man.
I think that I have got some ideas here. Might try my own later on.

That's great, thanks man, glad you're getting some ideas for your own project!

Looking good

Thanks Nevakonaza!

If I had the money and tools to do something similar, I would. Already got the time

Heh, to be honest, the project so far has only cost me around 250 Canadian or so. Now, the tools, yes, they would be rather costly if I hadn't had someone with access to them!


I had a bit of time in the shop this week to work on getting my drawers up to speed. I decided to take the advice of a fellow forum member and add "false fronts" to my drawers so that I can attach the "real fronts" using screws by screwing from the inside of the drawer, so I wouldn't have any screw heads to cover up on the outside.

Here they are, with my roughed out false fronts - I happened to have 3 pieces of wood almost exactly the size I needed.

Time to take out 'ol trusty

A quick test fit, and all 3 fit perfectly

Add a bit of glue, and some trusty clamps, and we've got ourselves the beginnings of some false fronts!

All 3 of them fit rather nicely. I think they helped square out the drawers overall as well (Even though they were only out of square by around 1/16th of an inch).

So, I've got some time for the glue to dry. I'm not sure if anyone can remember this, but in my original cut sheets, I had planned on cutting out a specific piece of wood using the wood that I jigsawed out of the desk surface.

Here's that piece:

Not, exactly.... square..




So I take this nice little protractor attached to a table saw slide - it's set at 90, so here we go!

I do 2 sides, and then use the actual table saw fence to square out the other 2, but something just doesn't seem right..

It's not really square. What's going on here?

Aha! Looks like the protractor was a little bit off, resulting in a shape one step closer to a diamond as opposed to a square. After a bit of readjustment, I redid that bit and cut it to size - it's the drawer face for the large drawer.

Now that the glue is settled, I decided to throw a few screws into the false fronts.

Awesome. And solid too!

Now, this is kind of embarrassing, but I had to go back and fix a mistake I made in my initial cuts. This piece of wood was supposed to be 20" x 28", but it ended up being more like 19.8" x 28". It may not seem like much, but this is the back piece to the left-hand cabinet. I would have to adjust the width of all 3 shelves if I were to continue using this, and I've got the space already pretty tightly packed with computer components on the top shelf.

So... don't do this at home, just cut a new piece of wood (I didn't want to cut into a new sheet of 4x8 just for this one piece...)

This piece looks like a good fit...

No one will see it, because it'll be in the back, but you will all know. So... let's just forget that ever happened, ok?

 

[ultimatedesk]

Desk Gluing Time

I decided it was time to glue the two surfaces together that would comprise of the actual desk surface and take a break from working on the drawers for a while.

Here it is, the first piece. At first I wanted to lay it face down, so I could evenly distribute screws through the bottom, but in the end, I went face up so I would protect the surface, and it would be a LOT easier to line up the holes.

I threw on the top layer, lined them up, and thought to myself: Hmm, I wonder what it'll look like with the top shelf stacked on:

Pretty cool. This was the first time I had actually pulled a chair up to it to get a real grasp of how big this desk is going to be. I was pretty psyched.

Just a note, the two pieces of wood on each end holding up the shelf will actually be the inner supports (ie, pushed inwards towards the middle of the desk a foot or two), and the cubby holes on the outer ends will support the long shelf. The long shelf also has to be trimmed a couple inches, it won't reach right to the end of the desk.

This next part was really quite a challenge on my own.

I lined it up as best as I could (According to the holes that I cut out, since the edges are easy to trim later), lifted one end with a mighty, strong arm, squirted as much glue as I could with my other arm (And only as far as I could reach!), put it down gently, ran to the other side and repeated.

Let me tell you - with the amount of glue I put down, and the fact that each side weighs 20-30 pounds - it did NOT want to slide around easily to get into perfect position.

In the end, I had to muscle it around a bit to get the holes lined up satisfactorily.

(I spoke with a couple friends about this afterward, and one of them suggested making some pilot holes and screwing in a few screws BEFORE the gluing, and then retracting the screws so that just the tips go through the bottom board. That way after the glue is put down, you shuffle around the top board until the tips of the screws find the pilot holes, thus, eliminating the issue of getting proper alignment before the glue becomes too tacky.)

I then threw some weight on top of the table, attached as many clamps as I could find, and started putting some 1.25" screws through the bottom.

A few clamp shots of the hole - everything lined up pretty much perfect. 1/2" on the left and right, 1/2" at the bottom, and I think just a little under 3/4" at the top. (The size of the lip between the upper and lower holes)

I wasn't satisfied with the way the clamping was going on lengthwise on the surface. I didn't have enough clamps to place them every half foot, so luckily, Mike had some of these nice, big, cedar logs lying around that I re-purposed temporarily.

The end result turned out quite nicely. The hole was lined up properly. There is only a small overhang / underhang of maybe 2/16's of an inch on two of the edges of the surfaces that should be easy to correct with a flush-bit on the router later.

We'll take a look at them next update! Thanks for staying tuned!

 

[voyagerfan99]

SO. MANY. PICTURES. O_O

Can't wait to see the end result

 

[SslagleZ28]

Coming along very nicely.... Are you planning on covering the screw holes? If so how are you doing it?

 

[ultimatedesk]

Drawer Trim

SO. MANY. PICTURES. O_O

Can't wait to see the end result

Hehe, yeah, hope I'm not overdoing it.. Thanks for sticking around

Coming along very nicely.... Are you planning on covering the screw holes? If so how are you doing it?

I'll be using some plain Jane wood filler. I'm using the Elmers natural wood colour stuff right now. We'll see how it goes

I got a chance to do some work on the drawer face trim - this was my first time doing solid wood trim.

I cut a nice piece of maple into 1/4" strips, glued, and sanded. I only did one piece this time, as I am not totally sure that this is the way I would like to go.

Something about the trim not meshing quite well with the plywood.

First, I set the table saw to the right width:

Measure 3 times, and you get a nice solid cut:

Made a few strips:

Cut, glued, and clamped on the initial pieces of trim. The trim pieces were about 2/16's of an inch wider than the plywood, which is great, since there will be no voids, though, I'll have to do quite a bit of sanding:

Took the sander to the top and bottom:

Overall, it looks pretty good. I'm still not 100% certain about it, however. I'm thinking there is a strong possibility I will go with solid maple for the drawer faces.

 

[Troncoso]

This is so fail... I wanna see what's going on.

Damn work computer blocking all the stupid image sharing sites...

 

[ultimatedesk]

Trimming the Drawers

This is so fail... I wanna see what's going on.

Damn work computer blocking all the stupid image sharing sites...

Lol I was reading that and was all like "Whaaat? What did I do wrong?" oh - right, reading the descriptions must be pretty boring!!

Had another really busy weekend and unfortunately, wasn't able to post the update on the weekend like I originally wanted to...

BUT! Made a new friend - meet Mr.Air Nailer.

Nice and fast, no need to clamp everything down, and I can get a lot more trim done a lot quicker.

I really did a better job of being picky with the trim, and selected cuts that matched the colour a lot better:

Compared to the first drawer face that I tried:

That had to change, so I took my most subtle and elegant tools:

And, replaced the two mis-coloured pieces with nicer ones.

Anyways - this is what my trim production line looked like for the day:

First, I would mark off the lengths on an appropriately coloured piece of trim just using a pencil and holding the trim against the piece:

Take it over to the miter saw and trim it to within a sixteenth of an inch or so on both ends:

See that cedar log in the bottom right? Remember it being longer? Mike was in the shop today turning them into table legs, which partially explains the big mess!

I then took the piece that is being trimmed, as well as the trim, to the little sander. I would sand to a good 90 degree angle, and get the length just right.

Glue down, and nail down!

Occasionally, I'll crack the trim with the nailer... which means it has to be removed, and re-done with a new piece of trim:

After some sanding:

I finished all 3 drawer faces and then got started on the actual drawers. They look pretty decent. Not perfect, but they look nice.

 

[Aastii]

Are you going to leave it as just plain wood, or are you going to paint them? Of course, not leave them totally bare and at least treat them, but will it be kept au natural?

 

[Troncoso]

Haha. I was just bummed I couldn't see the pictures with everyone going "That's awesome" and whatnot. But I can see them now and it's looking tight so far. Might I suggest an overall picture after each day of working on it so we can see the actual progress. Kind of hard now since you are like half way there though

 

[Benny Boy]

Very nice ! And Excellent choice on wood. :good:
Maple is hard and very dense. That makes it stable. Has tight smooth grain and stains beautifully. Finishing is easier. Painting is lots more prep.
I have 30 yrs exp. in the finishing and painting industries. If you want any pointers, let me know. I might add now, , that if your going natural or stain, do a sample with, clear or stain, and filler - to see how they match up. The label on the filler is always wrong, and best the filler stains lighter(if not perfect) than darker. Lighter can be darkened easily with an artist brush. Darker is fixable, but harder and takes longer. Suggest use the filler on the big stuff, and colored putty on the small nails/cracks after the sealer is sanded. Use a waterbased dyestain for depth, clarity, ease of application(just brush it on and let it dry), evenness of color, and that furniture look.
If your going to paint it,,.
Can't wait to see it in action.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Are you going to leave it as just plain wood, or are you going to paint them? Of course, not leave them totally bare and at least treat them, but will it be kept au natural?

Ooooh, you'll see I'm going to be staining a nice, dark red cherry / mahogany!! Test samples so far are going well

Haha. I was just bummed I couldn't see the pictures with everyone going "That's awesome" and whatnot. But I can see them now and it's looking tight so far. Might I suggest an overall picture after each day of working on it so we can see the actual progress. Kind of hard now since you are like half way there though

Heh, it's kinda tough isn't it? I'm working on a lot of small detail stuff, so unfortunately, there aren't really any big picture types pictures yet! Assembly will come in the next few weeks, don't you worry

Very nice ! And Excellent choice on wood. :good:
Maple is hard and very dense. That makes it stable. Has tight smooth grain and stains beautifully. Finishing is easier. Painting is lots more prep.
I have 30 yrs exp. in the finishing and painting industries. If you want any pointers, let me know. I might add now, , that if your going natural or stain, do a sample with, clear or stain, and filler - to see how they match up. The label on the filler is always wrong, and best the filler stains lighter(if not perfect) than darker. Lighter can be darkened easily with an artist brush. Darker is fixable, but harder and takes longer. Suggest use the filler on the big stuff, and colored putty on the small nails/cracks after the sealer is sanded. Use a waterbased dyestain for depth, clarity, ease of application(just brush it on and let it dry), evenness of color, and that furniture look.
If your going to paint it,,.
Can't wait to see it in action.

Hmm... I may have to get back to you with a few PM's later on - I've started to do test pieces (But I've neglected to put wood filler on them) and I'm starting to get the colour I want - a nice rich red cherry / mahogany. I'm using an oil-based gel stain, with 4-6 coats of polyurethane (Brush on) on top.

I used a fairly similar process as the drawer faces, I started out by cutting myself some fresh trim strips from this piece of maple:

Hit the miter saw and sander, and lay down some glue:

Then with the nailer. Whoops, one more split.

Here's a before and after shot from the sanding. You'll notice the maple strips got burnt pretty badly when I put them through the table saw (The blade is getting a bit old). After a bit of sanding, they look as fresh as ever:

 

[ultimatedesk]

After trimming all of the drawers and faces, I had to get some wood filler to fill in all of the screw and nail holes, as well as the small voids between the plywood and solid wood. All in all, this process went OK - not as nice as I would have liked.

For the mostpart, I used Elmers Natural Colour Wood Filler. While it did the job, the colour matching wasn't exactly... inconspicious, to say the least. I also tried mixing some sawdust from the random-orbit sander with some wood glue, with not so great results.

You can clearly see, in the end result, that the sawdust/glue filler looks more like glue. It has an almost transparent look to it. I guess I should have used more sawdust?

Anyways, I finished up the rest of the voids and holes with the regular Elmers stuff:

And then sanded it it all up:

Anyone have any tips on how I can further hide the holes? I will have to go over them again with some more wood filler just to smooth them out completely, but even so, I have a feeling that the stain will accentuate all of my filling, which is not the desired effect, to say the least!!

I have ALMOST determined the stain / technique I will be using. I'm getting some very nice, richly coloured red mahogany / cherry right now on my test boards. With that in mind, has anyone used darker wood filler than the natural wood, when staining dark with good effect?

 

[SslagleZ28]

if you go over them again, and maybe a 3rd time and get them filled really well and sand them down you wont notice them all that much... but you will notice if you look at it. thing is the holes are a perfect circle and perfect circles dont exactly exist in wood so they eye is going to naturally pick it up :/

 

[Jet]

amazing build log--CF needs more of these!

On the fan locations--you might want to try and keep the fans off the front to reduce the sound levels--maybe you can use some sort of director to make sure the airflow goes over the components where it needs to, and then you can have intake in the side near the front, and exhaust on the side near the back. Just a thought.

Keep it up!