Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

ultimatedesk,

Apparently I had cedar poisoning! Wonderful!

Apparently, you weren't wearing a dust mask while working on the desk...assuming that some part of it is cedar.

brayway said:

slowly getting alone there :P
And yay for the nucense of moving, I know how you feel, Probably moving countries in 6 weeks :S

Yup, slowly but surely! Moving countries? Wow!

seekermeister said:

ultimatedesk,

Apparently I had cedar poisoning! Wonderful!

Apparently, you weren't wearing a dust mask while working on the desk...assuming that some part of it is cedar.

Nope, unfortunately. I've been wearing my mask almost the whole time I'm in the basement, especially during sanding and staining - this was a totally unrelated incident. Cut down 10 cedars in my friends backyard, chopped it all up etc.. the next week I'm feeling pretty sick. I go back 2 weeks later and we bring the cedars to the cottage and strip off all the bark - ie. hands covered in sticky cedar sap - and boy oh boy. I was sick for like a good 15 days after with very asthma like symptoms - pretty brutal.

linnemeyerhere said:

I'm just bumming that you've got to move as you obviously have stuff and if the other stuff is built anything like the computer stuff then I see a forklift in your future.

Hehe, I think that would be awesome to have a forklift, but fortunately... it won't be necessary

This part of the project took a better part of a month. There was a lot of sanding, waiting, and sweating as I put on each thin layer of polyurethane on the desk surface.

Here it is at the start of the phase - what a mess!





You can see there was still sanding to do from when I put in the wood filler back in... November!



All cleaned up, ready to rock the stain. It was starting to get nice as well so it was time to lube up the 'ol bike chain as well!





Part way through the first coat



Note that this is the bottom of the desk surface. I did this intially without any kind of pre-stain or wood treatment to see if I could get away with it.





I actually noticed a significant amount of dark spots and uneveness, so for the top of the desk, and for all future staining, I went with a pre-stain, and two coats of Old Masters Gel Stain. Here is the desk surface approximately a month later with around 8 coats of polyurethane on top. It will be getting a good ol fashion rubbing out in another month from now once it has fully cured.



Have a good weekend everyone!

Everlong said:

Love the colour of it. Looks great :)

Thanks!

brayway said:

I love that colour too!
Amazing!

and yea moving countries for the 4TH time

Thanks! Wow, 4th time eh? Good luck!!

linnemeyerhere said:

It's coming out amazing and should be a treasured desk for years and years. Is it going to fit into the space you're moving to? Likely a project of this size and scope you'll have all these details worked out with many tape measurements and door openings. Good luck with your move and hope you have many strong backs to help or better yet you can oversee professionals to move you.....though I've found that friends are often more careful even if they bitch more ! Oh and remember the golden moving rule......coffee and dognuts on the front end and sandwiches and beer on the back end after the move is done.

Thanks! I'm not terribly worried about the dimensions while moving it - it DOES break down into 4 pieces very easily. I thought it was beer and sandwiches on the front end.. maybe that's why the past few moves haven't gone so well!


So, with the main desk surface out of the way, it was time to start focusing on the top shelf portion, which, at this point, hadn't been sanded, cut perfectly, or assembled. Here were all the pieces required.



A quick mock up:



A few tests with the biscuit joiner to make sure I was aligned properly:







I couldn't get it exactly in the center - the bottom of the joiner is a bit concave and it made lining it up a little difficult. The tool is generally used to join boards end to end, so there wasn't really any facility for on-face joining like this.

Assembly and glue up time:







Enjoy! You can never have too many clamps you know? I couldn't continue on doing the side pods until this stuff dried up first.

ultimatedesk said:

Enjoy! You can never have too many clamps you know? I couldn't continue on doing the side pods until this stuff dried up first.

Looking good, and you're right... "you can never have too many clamps."

Im liking the look of this, keep up the great work!