Scratch Build: The Ultimate Computer Desk

Looking real good there!

Have a good weekend as well and happy Canada day then

 

Before Transportation

Thanks gaetan!!

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

 

i desire...

 

very nice but don't ask me to help move it. it looks heavy

 

but i can help to move it
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to my place

 

can a person even buy this sort of solid construction anymore?

everything i see is particle board now...

 

Looking great.

Although I would agree with MIG, I prefer less gloss and a lighter more natural wood color, but hey it's your desk

Keep up the good work.
Now I'm just impatiently waiting for the final

 

The time you've put into it looks to be definitely paying off still can't wait to see you get some hardware in there though

 

All Setup

Hehe, thanks kris23

It's pretty amazing eh? I remember moving in to my last place thinking "Oh yeah - I'm going to build a desk to go RIGHT THERE" and then bam - my lease is up and I'm moving again lmao.

Hehe, thanks Chaos

Of course lol, that's what they all say!

Unfortunately, the Ikeas and Walmarts have got most of us hooked on factory produced furniture, which is great, because of the low cost, but yes, solid wood furniture can still be found - albeit at a pretty extreme cost, compared to the cheaper alternatives. You know - we don't have as many big trees around as we used to as well!

Thanks gaetan - my next project is going to be more of a natural wood look (A dresser for the bedroom. I'm hooked up woodworking big time now). Stay tuned - hopefully the finale is right around the corner!

Thanks isaak - soo close to putting in hardware, I'm literally shaking in anticipation myself!


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.

 

Re: All Setup

Yep, whenever you do a custom build, there is always something that goes wrong, happens to me every single time.

On the bright side though, it's not going to make it fall to pieces.

Congratulations on your self-offered present, the best thing about them is that you can't get it wrong

I'm impatiently waiting...must...be...PATIENT

Still a great looking desk as it is, the built-in PC really makes it special.

Sir, zat iz not a desk, zat iz a work of art.
(sorry that's the best french-written accent I can get )

 

Fixing the Drawers

Hehe, thanks a lot gaetan, means a lot to me! It's coming along well!

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!

 

Look at it this way, the work you're putting in the desk is what makes it special, so doing it again is like... :hmm:

Never mind, I'll stick to my previous comment about custom built
Although it still is special

I am, and I believe we all are feeling frustrated too by this "builder's bad luck" as we have to wait longer to see the masterpiece


To be honest, it looks too complicated for me, I think I'll stick with my desk...for now

 

Installing the Drawers

lol, thanks gaetan - you'll be happy to see below that my workaround worked out beautifully, and the drawers are now fully installed!



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.

 

Do I spy soft-close drawer rails?
Looking good so far. It could do with a couple of extra monitors though.

Air-flow I'm a bit puzzled at - where abouts are the components going and where will they get air from? Looking back at the Sketchup dialgrams I see where the air is flowing to but not where it's flowing from...

 

Looking exquisite!

Although I agree with Takaharu, I'm as puzzled as he is about the airflow.

 

Looking great

You will probably want sound proofing on the server 'case' as well - just saw all the hard drives you had in the sketch up model lol

 

Up and Coming Preview

Ah yeah, I didn't quite spring for the soft-close rails, but they are nice quality bearing rails at least! As for air flow, the fans are intake fans - most of the air will be forced out either via the PSU or through the empty PCI slots. I may have to make some modifications to add an 80 or 92mm fan, however.

Thanks gaetan - air stuff above!

lol, thanks, I don't know if I'll ever have that many HDD's, but I sketched it just in case!


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!

 

In the name of the Computer God, what is that?!

Congrats on the winning, this is some sweet hardware you got there.

As for the airflow, sounds reasonable, but I doubt you're planning on any overclocking lol... or are you? :hmm:

Enjoy the summer man, holidays are too precious to waste
Time sure flied since your last update.

Looking real good as always, a real piece of art
Will be waiting for the next update

 

Well, considering the motherboard doesn't have any PCI-Express x16 slots, two processors side-by-side with stock heatsinks that look like that, the general design of a server motherboard, has an IDE socket and utilises ECC DDR3 RAM, I'd hazard a guess at a server motherboard.

It's the most cost-effective way to go for a server though, building one from parts. I was hellishly tempted to build one not long ago, after someone pointed out that you can build a twin 12-core Opteron system for under £3000 with plenty of RAM and HDD space.