Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[ultimatedesk]

Trimming the Drawer Faces

It was a very interesting job, I miss it.

False drawer fronts would give you a more professional look if you decide to go that route.

Just make sure you attach them with short screws or nails that don't end up coming through the front.

Looking good though, I like watching this come together.

Looks like a fantastic inbuilt desk pc XD.

Looks great so far!

Thanks everyone!

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.

 

[crazyeyeschase]

Not bad keep up the posts and good work...

 

[ash30000]

looking forward to see the finished product!
PS i have always wanted to build my own desk
Ashley

 

[ultimatedesk]

Not bad keep up the posts and good work...

Thanks crazyeyeschase, don't worry, there's still plenty to come!

looking forward to see the finished product!
PS i have always wanted to build my own desk
Ashley

Thanks Ashley, appreciate the vote of confidence!!

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?

 

[ash30000]

Hi
Looks like you have done a great job on those draws!
Keep up the great work.
Ashley

 

[beagrie07]

The designs look brilliant and I'm sure the finished result will be just as good, I'm looking very much forward to seeing a finished result! If only there was a place that actually did this profressionally, I'm sure it'll attract some attention.

 

[Anthony]

I see a nice little internet business here :shock: Great work well done!!

 

[crazyeyeschase]

Looks amazing I wish I had the tools at hand to do all of this.

I might be too late but another tip would be to find a really small drill bit and drill your hole before using the nail gun that would help with the cracks and having to redo a lot of work but it does work best wth a hammer and nail tap.

Stain uggh humm idk I'm not to experienced with that I think if you are using small enough trim nails and you might not even need the filler I would just stain without it but whatever works best for you. Stain the drawers first if you don’t like them with the filler then when you put the exterior showing parts of the desk don’t use filler I guess.

 

[jebuchanan]

This is coming along nicely. Well done to date.
I am looking forward to the finished product.

 

[Golden]

Hey,

If you have a stain colour already in mind, I would try a filler with similar colour. After two coats of the stain I really do not think you will notice it.

Regards,
Golden

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I would test the stain first on a scrap piece with a filler section. I agree that with a dark enough second coat it could hide but then again you hate to go through this much effort and not have the finish coat come out as good as possible. Another trick is to put stain in the sealer top coat as well to even things out and hide any flaws. Do two or three boards and try different techniques and then sit back and evaluate and then choose the best of the bunch.

 

[WartHog]

I would test the stain first on a scrap piece with a filler section. I agree that with a dark enough second coat it could hide but then again you hate to go through this much effort and not have the finish coat come out as good as possible. Another trick is to put stain in the sealer top coat as well to even things out and hide any flaws. Do two or three boards and try different techniques and then sit back and evaluate and then choose the best of the bunch.

Good advice here.

Wow, this is an amazing project! I too am excited to see the progress and can't wait to see more updates.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Wow, thanks for all the great comments everyone, I really appreciate the encouragement and advice!

Hi
Looks like you have done a great job on those draws!
Keep up the great work.
Ashley

Thanks Ashley

The designs look brilliant and I'm sure the finished result will be just as good, I'm looking very much forward to seeing a finished result! If only there was a place that actually did this profressionally, I'm sure it'll attract some attention.

Thanks beagrie07 It's interesting that this kind of product isn't really readily available isn't it? ATX has been a standard for long enough that you'd think SOMEONE would have been able to make something like this available commercially...

I see a nice little internet business here :shock: Great work well done!!

Thanks Anthony - wouldn't that be something? I'd love to quit the day desk job and just work in the wood shop all day! The main hindrance, if I'm not mistaken, is the shipping cost. You know this beast is going to weigh over 200 pounds, right?

This is coming along nicely. Well done to date.
I am looking forward to the finished product.

Thanks jebuchanan

Looks amazing I wish I had the tools at hand to do all of this.

I might be too late but another tip would be to find a really small drill bit and drill your hole before using the nail gun that would help with the cracks and having to redo a lot of work but it does work best wth a hammer and nail tap.

Stain uggh humm idk I'm not to experienced with that I think if you are using small enough trim nails and you might not even need the filler I would just stain without it but whatever works best for you. Stain the drawers first if you don’t like them with the filler then when you put the exterior showing parts of the desk don’t use filler I guess.

Mm yes, pre-drilling the ends before the nail gun probably would have worked, but in the end, I did only crack maybe 2-3 ends, which wasn't that big a deal overall.

Hey,

If you have a stain colour already in mind, I would try a filler with similar colour. After two coats of the stain I really do not think you will notice it.

Regards,
Golden

I would test the stain first on a scrap piece with a filler section. I agree that with a dark enough second coat it could hide but then again you hate to go through this much effort and not have the finish coat come out as good as possible. Another trick is to put stain in the sealer top coat as well to even things out and hide any flaws. Do two or three boards and try different techniques and then sit back and evaluate and then choose the best of the bunch.

Good advice here.

Wow, this is an amazing project! I too am excited to see the progress and can't wait to see more updates.

WartHog, linnemeyernere, Golden, crazyeyeschase, thanks first off for your encouragement, and also for your suggestions with regards to staining with wood fillter.

I have been working with about a dozen test pieces in the past few weeks trying different stains and techniques to get the colour I am looking for - however - looks like I forgot to test the wood filler at the same time. I figure, once I find the colour I want, I will purchase several different colours of wood filler and do some testing to see what comes out best after the stain.

Thanks again

I'll have a real update in the next few days - I've been swamped at work and have been too tired to do much work on the desk besides my stain testing!

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Filler excepts stain at a different rate then the wood will. Normally it's slower, so I would carefully drop stain on the fill marks and allow to sit for 1-3 and 5 minute tests and then stain the rest of the board twice applying and taking off as needed for an even coat then steel wool and add a little stain to your finish coats or first finish coat rubbing with dbl. OO wool or finer in between final clear coats

 

[crazyeyeschase]

Before you stain make sure you sand everything and go over it with a damp rag after that.

Sanding closes the pores of the wood and when you wet the wood down with water it opens those pores back then when you sand the pores take in more stain giving it a better look.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Sponsor! Crucial!

Filler excepts stain at a different rate then the wood will. Normally it's slower, so I would carefully drop stain on the fill marks and allow to sit for 1-3 and 5 minute tests and then stain the rest of the board twice applying and taking off as needed for an even coat then steel wool and add a little stain to your finish coats or first finish coat rubbing with dbl. OO wool or finer in between final clear coats

Thanks for the tips linnemeyerhere

Before you stain make sure you sand everything and go over it with a damp rag after that.

Sanding closes the pores of the wood and when you wet the wood down with water it opens those pores back then when you sand the pores take in more stain giving it a better look.

Thanks crazyeyeschase, always appreciate the advice

Received a nice package in the mail a couple weeks ago that I've been meaning to show off...

What could it be?

Woohoo!

That's:
4 x 2 GB of 1600Mhz CL7 Ballistix RAM from Crucial and
2 x 2 GB of 1333Mhz ECC, Registered RDIMM RAM from Crucial!

So it looks like for the main system I will have some options. Currently I'm thinking either a socket 1156 Core i5/i7 or a newer Sandy Bridge socket 1155. The only issue that may occur with the Sandy Bridge is that those Crucial Ballistix are rated for 1.65 Volts, which I understand is a bit over the recommended voltage for RAM for the 1155 boards. There is a possibility of looking at an AMD AM3 system as well with a Phenom x4 or x6 - I have not made up my mind entirely yet.

For the server system, I am almost definetely going with a Xeon processor - which motherboard is still in the air.

Aren't they so nice?

[Can't wait to open them up and test them out! It'll have to wait for now, however.

So here's a distraction - my cat! She's going to have some kittens soon!

A big thanks go out to Crucial, who are officially the first sponsor for The Ultimate Computer Desk

Stay tuned, lots of updates in the pipeline!

 

[mickey megabyte]

nice cat

shame about the advertising

 

[brayway]

nice cat

shame about the advertising

Shame? how, he got a sponsor!! congratz!!

 

[z3r010]

Because it's against the forums rules - Sponsor stuff removed.