Bombproof Builders Desk....Build

[dieseldog49]

Ok so I have been planning on building a new desk ever since me and my brother in law built me a new PC work bench (Pictured below)

Using Just 2x4's and some melamine we built a super sturdy bench for about $120 and I couldnt be happier with it. Since then I have been looking at my current work/play station with a little bit of disgust, its made up out of 3 seperate desks none of which are exactly the same height. Further more due to my affinity for eyefinity and large PC cases I am finding that my little work nook is getting more and more cramped and cluttered. Heres a pic of the space I am working with please excuse the mess.

So the new plan is to gut the whole thing and create a desk that wraps around the entire area Like so (sorry for the small paint image)

Then I am going to wrap the top of the desk with custom printed Mechwarrior themed vinyl using my wide format digital printer. So on to the construction phase. I have to give a ton of thanks to the two guys working with me (these or their online handles), Talster91 aka my old room mate and Dreyco Valentin who is my brother in law. With out them theres no way I could get these kind of projects done with the quality and speed we do together, We are also building Talster91 a new desk for the gaming rig I helped him build. So here is the start today, we are using birch plywood for the top and kiln dried 2x4's for the frame, using a overlapping design to interlock the tops and frames together. So today we ripped the plywood and tomorrow we will build the frames.

Dreyco

Talster91


Also this arrived today

Day 2

Ok Most of today is dedicated to Talsters desk build Which is specced to be L60xW30 with a 30 inch height


For legs on both desks are a L shape made of two 2x4's screwed together gives great stuctural support.

Next up us cutting and laying out the lower braces and the leg spacing.

When building your own desk its important to have the imagination and vision to know what you want as Talster demonstrates

Next up is setting up the top box

Next up is checking to see if the frame is square.

[dieseldog49]

Damn its a inch out but dont worry theres a easy way to fix that!

Tie Downs are like duct tape for woodworking

Next up is cutting the top to length, we will be anchoring to the top to keep the desk in square.

For everything to look good he mapped out his screws and is pre drilling then using a cone bit for pre seating the heads.

Next up is taking a router to all the edges for that smoothed finished look.

Ready for sanding and staining

Also these showed up on my door woo!

Throw some stain on and thats all for today

[dieseldog49]

Day 3

I was down a day more than I expected ( the multi-player demo of Mass Effect 3 may have had something to do with that ) Ok so first off I want to thank Dreyco again without him this desk would not have happened and the next stage wouldn't even be possible. Ok down to business, to start with I happened to snag a great deal on a 720p projector which I had been wanting for the launch of ME3 for Xbox 360 (yes I play it on console thats where all my saved games are) so we will be starting there. Parts involved are

Optoma 536 720p 2700 lumen projector

Elite Screen 100 inch 16:9 manual screen

Ceiling Mount For projector

Plan is to recess the screen into the ceiling and then re-route the surround sound and video/console equipment.

First off got to get all electronics out of the room as sheetrock dust is not good for electronics.

Next up is measuring the screen housing and cutting the hole

That done we just put some hooks in the floorboards and time to try a test pull

Threw the projector up and time to see how it looks

Ok that done on to the desk, Cleared out all of the old stuff

With a blank slate its time to get to work

The key to building a desk with lumber like this is to never pre cut, make each cut to the specific spot so its always spot on and you can compensate for imperfections in the wood.

With the first section built (it will be the only complete section with 4 legs each section after this with be missing at least one leg to create a open front for chair and legroom)

Now we are joining the crossmember with a T bracket

We are double butting our legs for extra support

To limit flex we added a cross support.

[dieseldog49]

Frame is complete

Cutting the tops to fit.

Test fitting the tops and monitors

Next up we mark out the monitor slots and our wire slots

The mounts slide into the slots and get 4 lag bolts into the 2x4 below

Next up we router the holes and screw down the top.

Time to start putting things back together

The next stage is the vinyl top but I have to wait until we change our machine out next week also the other part of the project is being drawn up in CAD I will post something up soon enough.

[dieseldog49]

Ok so the next phase in the build involves incorporating a built in gaming PC plus my surround sound, Xbox360 and PS3 plus cooling all of it in a efficient manner. but in the mean time I scrounged a WinTV Card from Haupage off a old PC and ran the antenna and bam I have a DVR and HDTV to my projector!

Also my longer cables came in so cleaner desk!

You will notice Craig Feurgeson from the late late show (DVR FTW!)

Ok so when I installed my projector I was left with a 42 inch Vizio 1080p LCD with no where to go, I sure as hell wasn't going to sell it as I would eat my shorts so I decided I didn't need a whiteboard anymore and used a old wll mount I had kicking around and BOOM

It kinda feels like I am living in a sports bar now.

[dieseldog49]

Sorry for the day late update my new wide format printer showed up a day early so it's been a little crazy here but it means vinyl day is moving ever closer (gotta get some actual work done with it first though) here is a preview of some stuff to come

This just came in I will be posting pictures and a full review of it later

Annnnd then theres this addition to my monitor setup

Psych! thats just here to complete another triple monitor setup in the house

[dieseldog49]

Small update, my new keys showed up and I am lovin 'em, gonna try and get some MW:LL in tonight so I can get to work on my quickfire Review.

Loving having a nuke key for my delete

[dieseldog49]

Ok well my buddy is running behind with the CAD work at the moment so I am taking a whack at it. Using Free CAD this is what I got together tonight (I have never used any form of CAD before)

Basic model of the area of the desk I am working with the green area will be hinged and the entire PC will be mounted underneath trapdoor style.I have mobo tray and back I salvaged from a LanCool Case.

This will be mounted to the bottom of the highlighted piece of desktop. More CAD stuff to come as soon as I figure out how to make it

Also this showed up today

(wish there was a bigger smiley option.)

[dieseldog49]

Just realised that I haven't posted up any good pics of the area that I will be installing the PC into. Here it is the area is about 30x19.25 on the outer dimensions.

The goal is to have 2 shelves for the surround sound, XBOX 360 and PS3 with fans cooling them and the computer hanging above

A little better CAD model the bottom shelf is a piece of ply thats already there, while the other 2 with be a rubber coated wire mesh for maximum airflow. Bottom is Surround sound Head Unit then Xbox360 Slim then Big fat oldschool PS3 next this to work on is doors, fans and PC placement.

[dieseldog49]

Small update

My 2x4 HDMI Matrix Showed up in the mail yesterday, this little box of awesome will let me switch between 4 different HDMI inputs and out put them to either the 42 inch LCD or my projector or both at the same time! The reason for a device like this is that I plan on watching more stuff on my LCD than projector as much as possible due to the significantly shorter lifespan of the projectors bulb.

]


Next up is my XFX 6950 2gb showed up today! Its been flashed to a 6970 Bios and although used is in like new condition. I moved my sapphire down to the next slot and slid the PCTV card inbetween and presto enough power to rock my triple monitor setup properly. I added some extra fans to make sure cooling doesn't become an issue.

Now this is not the hardware I plan on mounting inside the desk its just my benching/review setup. For the Desk build I am hoping for a 2011 or AMD build so I will have enough PCI-E lanes for all of my needs.