Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

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  1. Posts : 6,618
    W7x64 Pro, SuSe 12.1/** W7 x64 Pro, XP MCE
       #71

    I have no question about the fact that this desk is going to be a work of art, yet with the insulative qualities of wood, and the quirkyness of airflow, my main concern would be that all of the components received adequate cooling. I understand that you have planned for cooling, but sometimes planning is not the same thing as doing.
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  2. Posts : 64
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
    Thread Starter
       #72

    Dado Cutting


    derekimo said:
    Looking good!
    If your blade is burning the wood, it's mostly from not moving the material fast enough, try lowering the blade and make a few passes to cut through it so you keep the material moving. it takes longer to cut through but it will save alot of sanding time. Cleaning the blade will help too, if you can't get it sharpened right away.
    Keep up the good work, can't wait to see this.
    Ahh, never thought of just giving the blade a good cleaning. It can certainly use it (You'll see in this update just how beat up that blade is). It's funny - I've always been very weary of my cutting depth when I use a router and do multiple passes, but for some reason that idea completely eluded me with the table saw. Ah well.

    crazyeyeschase said:
    Burn marks only add charactor great work i want more updates lol.
    Hehe, it's been a while, but here they are!

    linnemeyerhere said:
    Burn marks in wood smell the best!
    Amen!

    Ciara said:
    Fascinating !
    Thanks Ciara! Welcome to the thread!

    Devilz said:
    it must be one hell of table, when will it be ready
    When will it be ready... I wish I knew lol - honestly though, I think by the end of March I'll have the table fully assembled and stained, and upstairs in its new home. It'll likely take me another month or two after that to work out the details like cable management, fan control, hardware selection etc...

    seekermeister said:
    I have no question about the fact that this desk is going to be a work of art, yet with the insulative qualities of wood, and the quirkyness of airflow, my main concern would be that all of the components received adequate cooling. I understand that you have planned for cooling, but sometimes planning is not the same thing as doing.
    You are absolutely right - while it will certainly function as a perfectly reasonable desk, you've highlighted two of the main potential downfalls of the project. At the same time, you hit it on the head as well, it's just going to take a bit of experimenting. Who knows, maybe I'll have to line the compartments with metal or plastic, or maybe I'll have to switch to water cooling, or heck, cut open big holes everywhere Either way! Should be fun!

    It's been a while since the last update, but basically, I got around to installing the dado blade on the table saw to make some important cuts for the two cabinets, and was able to do a bit of test fitting.

    For those of you not really in the know, a dado blade has two regular saw blades (One for the left, one for the right) and some irregular shaped blades of varying thickness that you put in between, until you get the right width. I'll let the pictures do the talking.







    The beauty of using dado blades in the table saw (At least I think) is that you can set it up at the right height and width, and then set the fence to the proper width and do all 3 of your supporting boards one after another so they will be lined up perfectly when it comes time for assembly.



    I put 3 cuts in each of the 3 supporting walls of the left-hand cabinet. There was a bit of chipping, I should have probably put down some masking tape, but it's nothing major and will be on the inside anyways.



    I threw on a bit of wood filler to patch up the chipped parts, and then let these 3 dry while I worked on the right-hand cabinet cuts.



    I then had some time to put together a quick test fitting! Not bad! Some of the wood was just a bit crooked, so I'll have to spend some time with the sander to loosen up some of the dado joints.













    This pretty much completes the first phase of the project - I won't have any use for any of the big, messy tools anymore.

    All that's really left are a few small detail cuts, some holes need to be cut out, the whole thing needs to be sanded to pre-stain state, and then assembly and staining!

    I'll be bringing all of the materials back to my place where I'll be doing just that.
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  3. Posts : 64
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
    Thread Starter
       #73

    Basement Move


    And, through the miracle of internet technology, I'm bringing you the next update right away!

    There wasn't much work done in this update - just thought I'd show everyone where the progress is going to be taking place from now on. The spooky basement in my building!

    It's a really old house, at least over a hundred years old, in fact, there's a 12" x 12" solid beam of wood running as the main support member along the entire length of the house, it must be at least 30 feet long. Can't get those any more!!!

    My main complaint with the basement is that I am constantly bashing my head on the low ceiling beams, and it's quite cold! Getting motivated to go work down there is not nearly as easy as working in the nice, heated wood shop.

    Time to let the pictures do the talking:





    I purchased a new shop vac at Canadian Tire along with a bunch of other stuff during the Boxing Week sales after Christmas. Sweet.



    I also setup a plastic wall to help prevent sawdust from going all over the basement, as well as to help keep any breezes contained when it comes time to stain.



    Some of my personal tools:











    And there we have it! Until next time, have a good weekend!
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  4. Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #74

    Looking good, thanks for the updates.
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  5. Posts : 11,424
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64
       #75

    The update on your project is fantastic. I can't get over the mass of the build. This is going to be a computer workplace that you want to dive under in a earthquake because it's built like brick sh_thouse. The whole house can come down and it's still going to be there !
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  6. Posts : 271
    Windows 8 Pro x64; Win 7 Home Premium x64 SP1 on VirtualBox
       #76

    Speaking of computer desks....mine is old and falling apart, I need a new one, so many things I need to replace lol.

    I think this project is an awesome idea :)! Keep up the good work!
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  7. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       #77

    ultimatedesk said:
    Oh nice storage of the wood clamps!
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  8. Posts : 402
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #78

    Wow.......

    That is something! If you'll be putting in a furnace filter, you MUST have really good airflow or have the skimpiest filter since your airflow will be brought down since furnace filters are rated for I believe way over 100 cfp of air. Find 160mm case fans since they will provide a junk of air.

    I actually considered doing this in my case build, but you could duct the air from the outside of the case to go right through and over the processor heatsink in the gaming portion, direct cool air with a dedicated line.

    So from what I'm understanding is basically, this is going to be like a server/home computer hybrid terminal type of thing off that show 24? :) What I'm not getting from your prelim sketch is the two video cards next to each other, is one of them going to be extended from the lower motherboard by means of a PCI-E card extension type thing?

    One must consider noise and vibration, with the fan wall section you got going, secure that with some silicone caulking and a couple of screws so the vibration of the fans transfer into the silicone and not make so many issues there. Also, see if you can track down some noise dampening foam, either case foam or car noise insulation foam.

    Wow..............
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  9. Posts : 64
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
    Thread Starter
       #79

    Quick Test Fitting


    derekimo said:
    Looking good, thanks for the updates.
    Anytime! At least until the project is done

    linnemeyerhere said:
    The update on your project is fantastic. I can't get over the mass of the build. This is going to be a computer workplace that you want to dive under in a earthquake because it's built like brick sh_thouse. The whole house can come down and it's still going to be there !
    Honestly, if I were to do this project again, there would be a few areas I would save weight and density on, however, the way it is now, it's going to be able to stand up to an incredible amount of abuse!!

    McDougal said:
    Speaking of computer desks....mine is old and falling apart, I need a new one, so many things I need to replace lol.

    I think this project is an awesome idea :)! Keep up the good work!
    Thanks a lot McDougal, I appreciate it :)

    Golden said:
    Oh nice storage of the wood clamps!
    Hehehe, works out pretty well doesn't it? I think I'd like to build a vertical rack for them some day soon, however :)

    Coke Robot said:
    Wow.......

    That is something! If you'll be putting in a furnace filter, you MUST have really good airflow or have the skimpiest filter since your airflow will be brought down since furnace filters are rated for I believe way over 100 cfp of air. Find 160mm case fans since they will provide a junk of air.

    I actually considered doing this in my case build, but you could duct the air from the outside of the case to go right through and over the processor heatsink in the gaming portion, direct cool air with a dedicated line.

    So from what I'm understanding is basically, this is going to be like a server/home computer hybrid terminal type of thing off that show 24? :) What I'm not getting from your prelim sketch is the two video cards next to each other, is one of them going to be extended from the lower motherboard by means of a PCI-E card extension type thing?

    One must consider noise and vibration, with the fan wall section you got going, secure that with some silicone caulking and a couple of screws so the vibration of the fans transfer into the silicone and not make so many issues there. Also, see if you can track down some noise dampening foam, either case foam or car noise insulation foam.

    Wow..............
    Hey Coke Robot, thanks for all the good feedback there, I really appreciate it. I had no idea what the typical cfm expectations on furnace filters are. I think that it is a good initial idea, but realistically, I will probably have to try several different materials until I get the best balance of air filtration vs. air restriction.

    The ducting thing is a good idea, however, I think that the space is confined enough that air will have no other option but to go over the main components.

    There are two completely separate computer systems. The two video cards is a plan for having a Crossfire or SLI dual-video card setup for the gaming system (If I can ever afford something like that of course).

    Agreed, the noise isolation / vibration isolation will require some experimenting as well. I have been saving a bunch of different types of packing materials and have a nice collection of materials to experiment with (Foams, closed cell, open cell, etc..)

    So, I did a bit of work in the basement the other night, and since the next part of the project is going to be assembly, I decided to give it another shot at test fitting, since the last time I tried it was just loosely put together.

    Time to get out the sander with some 80 grit. The hose on my shop vac is a little over 2", and I didn't have an adapter to attach it to the DeWalt ROB Sander unfortunately, so a little tape had to do the job.





    I took each piece one by one and sanded down the edges where they slide into the dado cuts. I had to do a surprising amount of sanding, as the fit was incredibly tight.

    I also took the time to label each piece (Top, Middle, Bottom, and which side faces the front) so that it could be easily repeatable when it comes time for final assembly.

    Almost there. So tight! I needed a rubber mallet to set some of them, and then remove them afterwards.



    This shelf was just ~slightly~ warped, and needed a lot of sanding so that one end was nice and snug, and this end actually a bit of free space (Hello wood filler!)



    A couple more progress shots:





    And, all tightly assembled. I could probably jump on this box...





    I spent about an hour and a half doing that, and honestly, it was freezing cold down there and that's about all I could stand for that evening. Until next time!
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  10. Posts : 74
    Windows 7 OEM Home Pre. x64
       #80

    Awesome looks pretty good
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