Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

biggles1000 said:

that wood looks awesome...
great work so far, keep it up

Thanks biggles1000!

Lebon14 said:

Oh my! It comes up very well! Can't wait for the finished product... I wish I could have one.

By any chance... are you quebecese/French Canadian? Seeing both French and English on the products makes me thing that!

Thanks Lebon14! I live in Ottawa, which makes the province of Quebec only a 5 minute walk away when Downtown, so all of our labels are bi-lingual! Good eye!

So - I finally had some time this weekend to do a bit of work on The Ultimate Computer Desk.

Here's a little shot of the desk as it sits now. Note that the drawers aren't installed, there's clutter everywhere, the two cabinets are not lined up in any particular fashion, and of course, no hardware has yet been installed.



If you didn't notice, I finally said to myself "Ok Mr. You've been working on this desk for 8 months - time for a present". I ~finally~ ditched my old CRT monitor (Which was nice, at 1600x1200 resolution) and purchased myself a brand new 27" Asus. Sweet!



That was my first new computer component in ages!


I moved on to the next part of the project, which was installing the drawers, so I got to work. Sorry about the pictures, I think I accidentally turned the auto focus off!





Imagine my surprise when I went to go and slide the drawer in. The drawer was too wide! I accomodated for 0.25" on each side of the drawer, for the width of the drawer slides. Unfortunately, these particular drawer slides were 3/16's of an inch wider than I accounted for... Here's a wonderfully in focus shot:



So my options were:
1. Redo the drawers completely, making them a total of 6/16's (3/8's) skinnier, or
2. Shave off 3/16's" from each side, about 1.5" tall, along the length of both sides, of each of the drawers.

What a bummer! I thought oh well, it'll actually look pretty tidy with the sides shaved anyways, and also give additional support, so here goes!

Time to tape up my poor drawers. They're about to get scratched up pretty bad!



Setting up the tablesaw for some "guidelines" - 3/16's of an inch deep, set the fence at 2" and then 3.5" if I remember correctly.



And there you go, some proper guidelines for the material that will need to be removed.



This was a pretty big surprise, but not too major, and nothing that cannot be done well.

That is a very nice desk you are building there! I can't imagine how awesome it will be once everything is setup.

linnemeyerhere said:

Exactly.....really no big thing to thin them up a little. No one will ever see this and even with the drawer extended a little bit of stain to the wood will hide 95% and again never be noticed.

You got it! I actually have the drawers installed and finished already, and they look pretty darn good! You'll see in an update or two

Upyrs07 said:

That is a very nice desk you are building there! I can't imagine how awesome it will be once everything is setup.

Thanks!

So, after I used the table saw to make my reference cuts, I grabbed the router with a 1/2" flush cut bit, set it at the appropriate depth and went to town. Making the reference cuts made the rest of this usually tedious job easy.







When I went to do the reference cuts on the shorter drawers, I realized... there were a bunch of screws in the way. Ooops! Good thing I noticed so quickly!



I had to go and remove all woodfiller and the screws that were in the way of the 3/16's inch material removal. This meant all the screws along the bottom, and 1 or 2 at the front and back of the drawer. What a pain!







After getting all of the extra material removed, I drilled some new counter-sink holes (Since the old ones were taken off with the router), re-inserted the screws, and gave all the dressers a light sanding, since I would have to redo the polyurethane coat anyways (They got pretty scratched up). In this pic, I had already re-stained the portion where I removed the extra material.



So. Next - polyurethaning the drawers... AGAIN!

While getting ready to re-polyurethane the drawers, I also took the time to stain and poly the right-hand cabinet door, as well as the two pieces that will be above each of the cubby holes on the top of the desk





Re-polyurethaning the drawers went really well - they look fantastic



Things have been pretty busy in the shop - have been re-glassing a war-horse of a canoe at the same time!



Here are the first couple drawers installed. They fit perfectly - the slides fit right into the grooves that I cut out. This photo turned out a little redder than reality



Getting the actual slides lined up and screwed in straight took a bit of patience, but well worth the effort



Ahh, nice and messy, but finally got the drawers in.



Some of the things I'll need to be working on shortly:

- Front Panel (Fan controls, LED's, Power/Reset switches, USB, Audio Jacks)
- Fan Installation (Foam surrounds, filter fitting)
- Hardware selection

After the hardware is selected and installed, I will be able to focus on cable routing and placement of the drives.

Maxwell said:

This is looking awesome! Are you going to go with 3 monitors still? or just one?

Thanks Maxwell, I would still like to go with 3 monitors, but I think that since I got that nice new one, it's kind of a last priority to purchase 2 more, since they are always getting cheaper and cheaper anyways

LiquidSnak said:

Looking great. Just read through the entire thread, and you've done some very intense work. I too am worried about cooling, but I'm sure you've heard that enough

Thanks LiquidSnak, I too am concerned a little about cooling. I may be making some small amendments to the design shortly!

Sorry for the delay in updates everyone - I've been enjoying the beautiful summer weather we've been getting lately and haven't been putting a tremendous effort into getting the desk finished.

Surprise though - I did manage to get quite a bit done, and I've had some good fortune lately as well. I expect to post several updates this week, so just to get you back into the spirit of things, here's this weeks preview!

4x Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm x 38mm 3000RPM
4x Scythe Slipstream 120mm x 25mm 1900RPM


Lots of foam cutting and trimming, and a sweet, sweet ruler from the Moddders Inc Featured Rig of the Month Contest(Thanks! I'm honored!)


Hmm, what's this?


Holy moly cool prize pack Modders Inc! I still can't believe I won this - perfect stuff for The Ultimate Computer Desk!


Finally removed the protective cover from these babies - they look soo nice!


Hmm? Another surprise?...


Oh good lord! What kind of super monster is that!!?


Bwahahaha


Ok, so maybe a lot's happened in the past couple weeks. I haven't been posting any updates because I've been tinkering around with hardware AND enjoying some good outdoor times. I'm thinking that the next round of updates in the following month or so will be ultra exciting - things are starting to wrap up!

Seeya soon!