Scratch Build: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[jterrell]

very cool....

mostly i just want to have a pint (or 10) with the good girlfriend.
free wood shop access is ftw!

i am going to build my own setup as well but with a few different requirements...
my main pc is part of my media room--i.e. the only room in the house that is solely mine... and not overrun by rebellious demon spawns, lol.

i really like some of what you have done here.
hardocp has some very cool threads with pics of setups and lots of good ideas there.

a desk that hides most of the components, stays cool, and minimizes sound are all reqs for me.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Thanks Powermoloch and Zargon

my father built his own large, corner-style computer desk out of plywood. i disliked the lacquer he put on the wood though, the finish didnt sit right with me, and you couldnt use an optical mouse on it.
i think if i was to build my own desk, i would have a very thin layer of granite or something similar as a desk top.

Interesting idea! I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to be finishing the desk to tell you the truth. I've been experimenting with stains, and, well... it's not going so great!

agreed some sort of hard granite or stone top.

Will have to keep it in mind!

very cool....

mostly i just want to have a pint (or 10) with the good girlfriend.
free wood shop access is ftw!

i am going to build my own setup as well but with a few different requirements...
my main pc is part of my media room--i.e. the only room in the house that is solely mine... and not overrun by rebellious demon spawns, lol.

i really like some of what you have done here.
hardocp has some very cool threads with pics of setups and lots of good ideas there.

a desk that hides most of the components, stays cool, and minimizes sound are all reqs for me.

Heheh, yeah.... getting into the workshop was a pretty amazing deal. I couldn't imagine building this in my current basement! Thanks for the encouragement!

Here are a few snapshots. As some of you might know, I've been a little held back in the project due to not having selected my motherboard I/O plates and motherboard trays. Without having the actual items, I couldn't make the appropriate measurements to make cut-outs in the back of the cabinets, and therefore, was unable to make the dado cuts due to worry about everything not fitting properly.

So I scrounged through some old desktop systems I had lying around, emptied their components into my bins, and decided to take apart their chassis in search of some good motherboard tray and I/O parts.

So - off to the spooky basement with a pair of chassis, my trusty drill and dremel.

Having never drilled rivets out of a case before, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. At first, I started with a bit that was a little bit small, so the rivets came up onto the drill bit itself and got stuck on there pretty good. Eventually, I moved to a bigger bit, and all it took was one good squeeze of the trigger and the rivet would come right out nice and cleanly.

Starting to rack up some parts here

You can see in the image above that the I/O and PCI Plate is built right into the back of the desktop chassis - this is unfortunate, as you'll see in some future photos, my other case actually had a modular I/O plate. I'll have to take the dremel to that part to get what I need.

Time to grab the pliers...

Here is the shot of the back plate of the other desktop chassis - see how the I/O plate was actually riveted in, and not pressed as a whole back sheet like the other one? Soo much easier to deal with.

That was a pretty fun experience taking apart the cases. I've got a bunch of scrap sheet metal now too - wonder what interesting projects I can come up with to use them...

On to that first I/O plate - I need to dremel out the section that I need

Huh.. that actually didn't work out too well, at least, not the way I would like. I'm going to take these parts to the shop to see if there are any better tools for getting nice clean lines.

Until next time!

 

[ultimatedesk]

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!

 

[Zargon]

looking forward to more updates and ideas!

 

[mnewsham]

yep

 

[Schadenfreude]

Awesome! I'll be lurking here fer' shure!

 

[ultimatedesk]

looking forward to more updates and ideas!

Thanks Zargon

(image)
yep

I've seen a few builds just like that - I wanted to go somewhere in between "I hacked up an Ikea desk and put my computer in the cabinet" and "I fabbed this from scratch with barely any budget constraints and I want it to look bling!" - it's pretty sweet, but I don't personally like all the glowing lights and expensive glass

Awesome! I'll be lurking here fer' shure!

Thanks Shadenfreude!

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..

 

[ultimatedesk]

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?

 

[Zargon]

yep

I would love to see more pics of that process!


OP: nice 'ghetto'fix on that, I'm sure it will be fine, could always add some dowl of you are worried

 

[ultimatedesk]

I would love to see more pics of that process!
OP: nice 'ghetto'fix on that, I'm sure it will be fine, could always add some dowl of you are worried

Hehe, yeah, not exactly happy with it, but I'm sure it'll be fine and concealed anyways!

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!

 

[stargazr]

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.

Most likely the reason you had trouble with the power tools is the blade did not have fine enough teeth (pitch). If you compare the hacksaw blade to the others you'll see what I mean. Plus the speed is also a factor. It's steel, not aluminum, right?

 

[Zargon]

4x4's FTW!

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I'll have to check this at home since work blocks the image host

Glad to hear it's going well! I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm always envious as hell of you folks who have the skills for woodworking. Tools you can buy...skills not so easy to acquire.
I worked construction for over 30 years, (heavy equipment and crane operator) and the best I can call myself at woodworking is "wood butcher."

Nice work.

 

[Fayd]

with regard to stains and finishes, you have access to a compressor, obviously. so with some accessories you should be able to do spray laquer, or polyurethane.

i've had very bad experiences with brush on finishes. :/ wipe on polyurethane for small projects, spray on for large projects.

 

[bhanson]

I'm not sure if you've considered it, but are the ergonomics good for you?

I've never actually seen a monitor stand that improved posture; they always seem to raise the monitors above ideal height and cause unneeded strain.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/positions.html

 

[ultimatedesk]

Thanks for all the comments everyone,

tl60 - Gotcha. Like I mentioned, we did actually have a nice metal cutting blade for the Jigsaw, but it just didn't want to seat correctly due to different brand / latching mechanism. And you're right - I think it was most likely stamped steel, not aluminum.

Zargon - They were actually REALLY nice pieces of Cedar. I think Mike ended up cutting them into sections, throwing them on the lathe, and turning them into some nice table legs for his in-laws.

DisgruntledVirus - Thanks for sticking around, the project will be going on for quite a while, but hopefully it will remain entertaining for the duration!

BoomerD - Thanks for the kind words - I'm not actually a craftsman at all by trade or training. I think that in this case the amount of planning is making a huge difference, and I am also not pressed for any kind of due date, so I am really taking my time. A few of the sessions have lasted 5 or 6 hours and I really only accomplished 1 thing.

Fayd - Honestly, I am still a bit overwhelmed with the finishing part of the project. This week I made 8 test samples with 2 stains, 2 different types of conditioners, and brush-on poly gloss. Out of the 8 samples, there wasn't really one that I particularly liked (I am going for a deep red/black cherry/mahogany). I will be doing the finishing in the basement at my actual apartment, so I will not have access to the compressor / spray equipment most likely. I am taking some time to visit a few specialty wood shops in town this weekend, so hopefully I will come back with some good advice and different products.

bhanson - Thanks for the link - some good information there. I have in fact, considered the ergonomics of the desk. If there is an issue with the monitors being too high, I will likely build a brace to go along the back of the desk that the monitors will attach to using their VESA mounts, and remove the stock stands. That way I will be able to adjust their height to a comfortable level.

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.

 

[Zargon]

oooh man you burned a few of em!

got push ema lil faster through the tablesaw!

albeit with that part on the inside it doesnt really matter

 

[alfa147x]

Wow! Great idea and looks good so far!

 

[Chapbass]

How is it that I haven't seen this thread yet? very cool!

 

[Weenoman]

Would like to slap the people who crapped on this great thread early on!

A very cool project
*tag*

 

[Fayd]

i didn't check, but i assume you've designed in cable raceways for any peripherals you can imagine you'd want?

btw, WRT your complaint "all my joints are butt joints", they don't have to be.

biscuit joints don't require any redesign in terms of length of materials, and provide a MUCH stronger joint. and they're easy as piss to do.

since getting hold of a biscuit jointer, i haven't used a standard butt joint since.

 

[TheStu]

I wish I could see all these pictures at work, I am definitely liking where this is going.

 

[ultimatedesk]

TheStu - Thanks! Make sure to check it out when you get home lol

Fayd - Yes, the cable management portion of the project will probably take longer than the building portion!! As for the butt joints, I didn't realize I would have access to a biscuit jointer before I made the plans.

Weenoman - Thanks!

Chapbass - Thanks! Stick around for tons of updates!

alfa147x - Thanks alfa!

Zargon - Hehe, yup, the blade is getting a bit dull - pushing through the maple was pretty hard on the saw as you'll see below as well!!

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:

 

[ultimatedesk]

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.