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.


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.

 

[dieseldog49]

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.

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.

 

[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!

 

[dieseldog49]

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

 

[dieseldog49]

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

 

[dieseldog49]

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.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Fucking awesome!!! Can you post more details about the projector, it's setup and your hardware? Awhile back I used a 720p LCD on 105" screen, greatest thing ever until it kicked the bucket but it still outlived 2 lamps.

 

[grohl]

badass

 

[dieseldog49]

Thanks guys, I will post more projector details later for ya.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

This needs to be moved to cooling and cases

 

[tulx]

This needs to be moved to cooling and cases

A desk is neither a cooler nor a case.

On topic - pretty impressive indeed. I hope you won't have to move anytime soon, though. That's a quite permanent setup there.
Short question - how high did you make the desk?

 

[boondocks]

Nice. I have a similar plan for my workstation in the bedroom, albeit on a smaller scale.

 

[dieseldog49]

It will be housing a PC and its cooling system later on. No I wount be moving anytime soone I just bought this house about 10 months ago. Desk Height is 30.5 inches. Thanks for all of the compliments guys!

 

[rsutoratosu]

I definitely thought about building a table, except my lumber cutting skills are so bad, they prob come out all lopsided, great job ! I'm just going to ikea and buy their diy kit and add more legs.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Doesn't matter. This is a BUILD and builds go in case and cooling lol

 

[blckgrffn]

Nice work! Hmmm.... Inspiring, even? We'll see...

 

[dieseldog49]

Thanks guy's and if the mods feel it should be in the build section thats fine.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Projector make & model? Screen gain factor and size? Projector distance from screen, using any lens shift or keystone correction, ceiling mounted or shelf?

 

[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]

As for the projector setup is a Optoma EW 536 720p 2700 lumen projector with a cheap amazon mount, a elitescreens 100 inch 16x9 manual pull down screen from newegg ($118 shipped woo hoo!) Heres some more pics lmk if there is anything else you want to know (projector is about 11 1/2 feet from the screen)

Only problem I have is its building up a bit too much heat ATM (too close to the ceiling apparently) So I am looking for some sort of small quite fan I can mount on the ceiling, suggestions anyone?

 

[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