Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

derekimo said:

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."

lol yeah, every time they go on sale at Canadian Tire I can't resist purchasing just a few more... You never know!!! (Zombie Apocalypse clamp attack!)

Sam The Techie said:

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

Thanks Sam The Techie!

linnemeyerhere said:

"may your biscuit joints always line up" !

Ha, seriously. That should be a famous quote


With the first phase of the top shelf all solid and dried, I could continue on to the two side pods. Here's the initial mockup.





Notice the pencil lines for the biscuits I'll be installing.



Those biscuits are so dark and moody... lol!



Aaand, some gratuitous clamping shots. Like that extra-long setup? Yeah, that worked this time, but I don't recommend it. It wasn't too stable, but there wasn't really anything else I could clamp on to for that end-pressure required.







Mmmm glue.



So that's it for this update, I know it's a pretty simple one, but hey, it's one more phase done. Just needs to have some trim stuck on and then staining!

Have a good weekend!

So when your done your gonna get started on mine right??

Looking great, I've been following this thread since the start and if you were not a wood worker/Cabinetmaker before you sure are by now!!

Yeah man, you seem to have a really good idea and the skills to do it, keep it up mate! :)

jeepmann4x4 said:

So when your done your gonna get started on mine right??

Looking great, I've been following this thread since the start and if you were not a wood worker/Cabinetmaker before you sure are by now!!

Heh, thanks jeepmann4x4, we'll see about yours next!

kbronski said:

I'm going to be bookmarking this thread. I'm so excited to see what comes of this. I've been considering doing some mods to my desk, like embedding USB hubs, cutting holes beneath my cooling pad to insert additional fans to promote higher airflow for more extreme cooling, drop-down swiveling monitors under my shelves with an HDMI expansion bay, etc. However, I'm currently stuck in two projects: updating hardware inside my desktop, and finding a new transmission for my car (yay). I'm glad to see someone's actually taken the initiative to start building a cool custom desk. I'm super excited to see how your project progresses.

Thanks kbronski, be sure to post a log yourself! Oh, and good luck with the transmission!!

tomcott said:

Yeah man, you seem to have a really good idea and the skills to do it, keep it up mate! :)

Thanks!

Ok, so it's been a little while since an update eh?

I've been busy, sorry folks, life seems to speed up in the summertime!

As a peace offering, here are the kiddo's, at about 4 months old now!





And, back to the desk!

I had a bunch of solid maple cut into more 1/4" strips so I could finish doing the trim on the top shelf and the cabinets.



My trusty compound mitre saw - got it reconditioned at a bargain place for like 60 dollars, and it's been pretty reliable for a number of years now. It's loud as all heck though!



And, my favorite part - clamping up!







And, since there was nowhere to place clamps in between this area, I had to improvise with a small block of wood!

After the trim was glued on and then sanded flush, I proceeded with the staining and poly



Looks good, eh?



I also finally decided to buckle down and build myself a quick rig to store all my clamps. Since I'm moving soon, it'll also make it easier to move them to the new place! Nice lap joints eh!!



I proceeded to the cabinet drawers, where I finally sanded off the wood filler that's been attached for weeks (months?)



Lined up the drawer faces, glued them on (Was going to screw them on after, from behind. Lol)



And put a bit of weight on top..



Walked away for a bit, and realized... maybe it was a bad idea to glue them on first! Uh oh!

I decided that it might actually be a lot easier to line up the drawer faces if I attached them AFTER I had attached the drawers to the drawer slides, to I ripped em off.

So, next on the list - staining the actual drawers!

Pre-stain on!



Mmm, they look so good





And, poly of course





Done!



And just so ya know, it really did basically take a month just to finish the top shelf and the drawers... more to come soon!

PwnFrnzy said:

Your desk makes me jealous D:
Looks great though, can't wait to see the finished version.

Thanks PwnFrnzy, time to build your own!

With the drawers themselves all stained up, it was time to stain the drawer fronts!



Since most of the back of the drawer fronts won't be visible, I decided that I could probably stain and poly both sides at once...

Pre stain!





They look so nice like this... ahh, next project...



Some staining time







And some sweet, sweet gloss poly.



Woops! One of the drawer faces slipped off the painting cones and picked up a whole whack of saw dust and wood chips... at least this will never be seen on the final project!

With the drawers and drawer faces all finished and ready for installation, it was time to turn to finishing up the two cabinets.

First up, finishing the piece that goes on the front of the left-hand cabinet.



And, well, not a lot of writing today, as the rest of it should look pretty straightforward. I had to cut up a bunch of trim pieces, and somehow arrange the clamps to hold them in the right place. A few of the arrangements required some creative thinking, but in the end, I got the whole cabinet trimmed up over the course of a few days.





Mmmm glue.









Enjoy! We're getting close to the final assembly, yay!