Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[linnemeyerhere]

To say this project is coming out awesome is such an understatement! Thanks for the great pictures, it makes us all feel apart of this project and it's various stages. When it's all done you should consider a coffee table book a guide to building your own via Shutterfly or the like, I did one with Artwork (see my profile albums) and it came out "off the hook" cool even if each copy is pricey it could be something you could offer to those of interest. Keep up the fantastic work we're all in awe!

 

[ultimatedesk]

Sanding the Cabinets

To say this project is coming out awesome is such an understatement! Thanks for the great pictures, it makes us all feel apart of this project and it's various stages. When it's all done you should consider a coffee table book a guide to building your own via Shutterfly or the like, I did one with Artwork (see my profile albums) and it came out "off the hook" cool even if each copy is pricey it could be something you could offer to those of interest. Keep up the fantastic work we're all in awe!

Thanks for the positive comments linnemeyerhere, I really appreciate it. The community is one of those things that inspires me to keep my patience and do a good job! Cool idea putting it in a coffee table book sort of thing, I'll have to check that out when the whole project is finished!!

With the trim all glued up and dry, and the weather nice and warm, I decided to take the cabinets outside to have the trim sanded flush. I start with 80 grit to get all the bits nice and close, and then move to 120 grit with the random orbit sander in preparation for staining.

Everything looking pretty good on the right-hand cabinet

And now for the left-hand cabinet

I'm under the impression that I mistakenly sanded this edge too much prior to installation, because I thought that I was going to have to squeeze this end into the dado cut at the back of the drawer. Woops! Hopefully that won't show up too much after staining.

And, a bit of glue squeeze-out that I missed previously is easily taken care of by the sander

I'll be staining over the weekend, so some fresh and shiny cabinets await for next weeks early update!

Have a good weekend folks!

 

[Maxwell]

This is looking awesome!! I can't wait to see it when it is done!

 

[ultimatedesk]

Staining the Cabinets

This is looking awesome!! I can't wait to see it when it is done!

Thanks Maxwell! Slowly getting there!

Well, got some time to start the staining of the cabinets this weekend, and overall, everything went pretty well. Started off with a bit of detailed sanding by hand, and then a good dusting with a tack cloth / cloth with paint thinner.

And then went to work applying the stain with a clean cotton rag

They both turned out pretty well - these pictures were taken after only the first coat (A second one will go on). I find that this stain really shines once a coat of poly is put over it.

Let me tell you - getting the inside of the cabinets was quite time consuming and I really did a number on staining my arms...

Eww! It looks like a heart!

 

[derekimo]

Looking great! This has been fun following this project, Thanks for letting us look over your shoulder all this time.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Rubbing out the Desk Surface

Looking great! This has been fun following this project, Thanks for letting us look over your shoulder all this time.

Thanks derekimo, my pleasure! It's been really great for me to have you all as company as well!

I kind of forgot to take some pictures of the cabinets after I applied a pair of coats of polyurethane, but here's the status of the project so far

Both cabinets have been poly'd, and there are only 3 more pieces to stain + poly (The two caps for the end spaces on the top shelf, and the door for the right-hand cabinet). Otherwise, I am pretty much ready to assemble.

Before assembly, however, I wanted to try a technique I had been reading about - rubbing out a finish.

You start with some baby oil and a product called rottenstone (It's a very finely ground stone)

Apply some baby oil liberally (This slows down the cutting process. If you use water, it will speed up the cutting process)

Sprinkle on your rottenstone (Once again, fairly liberally. I didn't find the cutting action very aggressive at all, especially with all the baby oil)

Take a block of wood with a soft material wrapped around it, in this case, I used a piece of cut up fleece from an old blanket, but I think a felt block is the most recommended for this.

Go with the grain in long strokes, and rub the slurry into the wood. Its very fine cutting action should almost eliminate all dust marks, brush marks, and any small scratches.

This took quite a long time, and it was very, very messy. Baby oil rottenstone slurry everywhere. I then went through a ton of rags soaked in paint thinner cleaning it all off the desk surface in preparation for some good 'ol waxing.

Applied with a lint free rag, I swirled it onto the table a little bit too liberally

I then let it dry for a few moments and "attempted" to buff it all off by hand with a clean rag. Much to my dismay, after spending 10 minutes trying to buff only but a small corner, I realized that I would never get the shine I was looking for...

So I made a trip to my storage unit (My mom's garage) where I remembered I had an old electric car buffer in a bin...

Booya. It was late when I got back home, so I left it and went to sleep. Have a good weekend everyone - Canada Day tomorrow here in Canada, so I'm going to enjoy the long weekend. I'm moving this weekend too, so hopefully the desk survives the trip!!

 

[ultimatedesk]

So, I finally moved this weekend, and I'm glad to say everything went pretty well. A few small parts of the desk got scuffed up, but nothing major. Here are some shots from just before being transported.

The car buffer partially worked. I ended up actually taking some more paint thinner and totally removing the wax. For some reason it didn't stick well - I think it's because I didn't remove the baby oil enough before adding the wax. Either way, it's shiny as glass and looks great.

Then I took some 3/4" weather stripping and put it on both cabinets to prevent the desk surface from slipping and sliding:

And, here's a sneak peak. Right before the move was pretty much the moment of triumph - assembling the 4 stained and poly'd pieces, and actually sitting at it. The monitors come in at perfect eye height, and the desk height is perfect as well, providing lots of forearm and elbow support.

Ahhhhhhhhh.... 8 months.

Now for the details

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Great news about the safe move. Like you say now comes the fun part of sliding everything in and doing the trial and error with and the cable routing and then the moment you give the rig it's first power up! Can't wait for the next series of pictures and statements. Go slow take your time, be methodical but get it done, ha ha !

 

[ultimatedesk]

Great news about the safe move. Like you say now comes the fun part of sliding everything in and doing the trial and error with and the cable routing and then the moment you give the rig it's first power up! Can't wait for the next series of pictures and statements. Go slow take your time, be methodical but get it done, ha ha !

Thanks linnemeyerhere, hopefully I'll have time to work on the desk this weekend and post some updates early next week.

We'll also have to see what kind of hardware my wallet agrees to!!!

 

[biggles1000]

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

 

[Lebon14]

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!

 

[ultimatedesk]

All Setup

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

Thanks biggles1000!

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.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

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.

 

[Upyrs07]

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

 

[ultimatedesk]

Fixing the Drawers

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

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!

 

[ultimatedesk]

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]

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

 

[LiquidSnak]

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

 

[ultimatedesk]

Up and Coming Preview

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

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!

 

[PwnFrnzy]

Is that a Dual-XEON processor motherboard? It looks evil.
And congrats on winning the Rig of the month from Modders Inc!