Scratch Build: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[Zargon]

damn, came in to demand an updated and realized that its only been 3 days, but I've worked that last 9 days ina row so Im a little confused on time.....

 

[BoomerD]

BTW, you don't flatten the nail heads...you slightly flatten the nail points. Yes, it'd be difficult (but not impossible) to do with the strips for your nail gun.

 

[Spikesoldier]

too bad crucial couldnt buy you a granite surface

 

[ultimatedesk]

lmao, mfenn, I'll keep it as appropriate as possible, believe me, I love the fact that I've got a sponsor now, but in no means will I be spamming it all around 🙂

damn, came in to demand an updated and realized that its only been 3 days, but I've worked that last 9 days ina row so Im a little confused on time.....

Yes! A real live sponsor! How cool is that? I'm psyched 🙂 Welcome back to the Internet, take a break, read a little!!

BTW, you don't flatten the nail heads...you slightly flatten the nail points. Yes, it'd be difficult (but not impossible) to do with the strips for your nail gun.

Hmm.. maybe a grinder or sander would facilitate something like that..

too bad crucial couldnt buy you a granite surface

lmao, wouldn't THAT be something. They'd have to take care of shipping though!! 😱

Last time I left off, with regards to the table surface, I had just finished gluing and screwing it together. I put it on the backburner for about a week to dry while I worked on the drawers, and now I'm going to take it down in preparation for putting the outer trim on it.

All 4 sides were a bit off, with regards to the flushness. This was expected, as the initial sizing cuts were pretty rough, and it's better to have extra material than not enough.

Took out a straight-cut flush bit for the router, and some 60-grit sandpaper for the random orbital sander, and got to work. I did two passes with the router, because since the bit is not 1 1/2" tall, I couldn't trim the whole side of the table with just one pass.

And, after a bit of work, the final result:

The next step is to take a long strip of maple and turn it into trim for the table surface.

 

[Zargon]

very nice

 

[Krynj]

This is awesome. This is one of those things I'd like to watch you work on while I sit down and sip beer.

Question about your CAD app: Which app was it? What file type do your models have to be? .OBJ, or something native to your app? I only ask because I do a lot of 3D modeling, and I didn't know there were many others here who had any skills.

Desk looks awesome. Can't wait for more pics.

 

[TheStu]

This is awesome. This is one of those things I'd like to watch you work on while I sit down and sip beer.

Question about your CAD app: Which app was it? What file type do your models have to be? .OBJ, or something native to your app? I only ask because I do a lot of 3D modeling, and I didn't know there were many others here who had any skills.

Desk looks awesome. Can't wait for more pics.

Google Sketchup, OP mentioned it in the first post. I have been using it for years, and I really enjoy it, it isn't on the same level as AutoCAD, it is a completely different kind of designer.

OP, how does one get sponsored? I see other people's projects and halfway through there is a post 'Now sponsored by XYZ AwesomeTech, we make your Tech 20x more Awesome!'. Do reps from these companies just trawl forums looking for cool projects?

 

[Krynj]

Oh, wow. I must've read every line of the OP except that one, heh.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Thanks Zargon 😉 Glad to still have you around

This is awesome. This is one of those things I'd like to watch you work on while I sit down and sip beer.

Question about your CAD app: Which app was it? What file type do your models have to be? .OBJ, or something native to your app? I only ask because I do a lot of 3D modeling, and I didn't know there were many others here who had any skills.

Desk looks awesome. Can't wait for more pics.

Thanks Krynj - you would have to put a sawdust filter on your beer when you're not drinking it lol - I learned that the first time I took a beer into the shop!!

Google Sketchup, OP mentioned it in the first post. I have been using it for years, and I really enjoy it, it isn't on the same level as AutoCAD, it is a completely different kind of designer.

OP, how does one get sponsored? I see other people's projects and halfway through there is a post 'Now sponsored by XYZ AwesomeTech, we make your Tech 20x more Awesome!'. Do reps from these companies just trawl forums looking for cool projects?

You got it! Sketchup rocks!

As for sponsorship - I'm not sure if there are reps that trawl forums for exposure - I'm sure it's possible, but likely only when the company is about to release something brand new to the market, or if the modder is extremely well known.

Now in my situation, this being the first worklog I've ever published - it was a LOT of groundwork and learning.

1. Find a company you'd like to sponsor you (Easy - Internet of course)

2. Find contact for Marketing or Public Relations (This part is sometimes easy, and sometimes not. Usually there is just a general "Contact Us" - you send an e-mail asking for the appropriate department). I've found that a lot of companies use a 3rd party for their general contact, so they often have no clue how to get a hold of someone in the corporate office. This is great if it can be done by e-mail, but you WILL have to pick up the phone and wait on hold a lot of times to find the right person.

3. Craft your proposal - it IS a proposal, it's not a "Hey, I'm doing this cool project and I like your company, will you send me stuff?" - In my case, I setup a dedicated webpage for the project (Which will be unveiled when the project is complete), and I've also been posting on a number of forums. I made it a point to keep track of page views, how many people were commenting, what kind of forums I was posting on, and based on that, I could say xx number of people are getting exposure to your products, and the rate is increasing by x every x days, and I expect to have a total of xxxxx views when the project is complete.

4. Cross your fingers! Not every company has a budget to send out free stuff for small to medium levels of exposure. Also, there are things that may be out of your control - for example - the latest Sandy Bridge issue - guess what? All motherboard companies have stopped sending out samples, and they won't send out a P55 chipset because that is "old news" - if I'm going to try and get a motherboard sponsorship, it's going to have to wait until those issues have been resolved.

5. There are awesome people in the industry. I've had a chance to talk to some really good people that love projects like this - it's good for everyone. I actually have another surprise sponsor that I'll post an update about when I receive the parts, who have a policy that they don't do sponsorships - but when they saw the project they said "Hey - that's really cool, I'll tell you what, we'll give you our reviewer prices, and take care of shipping - what do you need?"

6. Follow Up. If you send out 20 e-mails and you get 1 response, that's great. In a couple weeks, if you've made a lot of progress on your build, or if you got a new sponsor, send another e-mail out to those other 19 and let them know that you're still thinking of them and would like to get them on-board with your project. The marketing departments are busy! Some companies probably get hundreds of requests.

That's the basic idea, at least. I think there are a few other good articles on the 'net about getting sponsorship as well. Hope that helps explain it!

 

[mnewsham]

Thanks Zargon 😉 Glad to still have you around

Thanks Krynj - you would have to put a sawdust filter on your beer when you're not drinking it lol - I learned that the first time I took a beer into the shop!!

You got it! Sketchup rocks!

As for sponsorship - I'm not sure if there are reps that trawl forums for exposure - I'm sure it's possible, but likely only when the company is about to release something brand new to the market, or if the modder is extremely well known.

Now in my situation, this being the first worklog I've ever published - it was a LOT of groundwork and learning.

1. Find a company you'd like to sponsor you (Easy - Internet of course)

2. Find contact for Marketing or Public Relations (This part is sometimes easy, and sometimes not. Usually there is just a general "Contact Us" - you send an e-mail asking for the appropriate department). I've found that a lot of companies use a 3rd party for their general contact, so they often have no clue how to get a hold of someone in the corporate office. This is great if it can be done by e-mail, but you WILL have to pick up the phone and wait on hold a lot of times to find the right person.

3. Craft your proposal - it IS a proposal, it's not a "Hey, I'm doing this cool project and I like your company, will you send me stuff?" - In my case, I setup a dedicated webpage for the project (Which will be unveiled when the project is complete), and I've also been posting on a number of forums. I made it a point to keep track of page views, how many people were commenting, what kind of forums I was posting on, and based on that, I could say xx number of people are getting exposure to your products, and the rate is increasing by x every x days, and I expect to have a total of xxxxx views when the project is complete.

4. Cross your fingers! Not every company has a budget to send out free stuff for small to medium levels of exposure. Also, there are things that may be out of your control - for example - the latest Sandy Bridge issue - guess what? All motherboard companies have stopped sending out samples, and they won't send out a P55 chipset because that is "old news" - if I'm going to try and get a motherboard sponsorship, it's going to have to wait until those issues have been resolved.

5. There are awesome people in the industry. I've had a chance to talk to some really good people that love projects like this - it's good for everyone. I actually have another surprise sponsor that I'll post an update about when I receive the parts, who have a policy that they don't do sponsorships - but when they saw the project they said "Hey - that's really cool, I'll tell you what, we'll give you our reviewer prices, and take care of shipping - what do you need?"

6. Follow Up. If you send out 20 e-mails and you get 1 response, that's great. In a couple weeks, if you've made a lot of progress on your build, or if you got a new sponsor, send another e-mail out to those other 19 and let them know that you're still thinking of them and would like to get them on-board with your project. The marketing departments are busy! Some companies probably get hundreds of requests.

That's the basic idea, at least. I think there are a few other good articles on the 'net about getting sponsorship as well. Hope that helps explain it!

+1 :thumbsup:

Good job with the project so far, and thanks for the walk through on how to obtain sponsorship really appreciated 😉

Keep up the good work. 😎

 

[Zargon]

Thanks Zargon 😉 Glad to still have you around

😀

not going anywhere!

I am due for desk refresh soon I think, I built one last year(~70 in materials) but my plans have changed and its time for another prototype I think......

so I'll watch this to see waht you come up with anyways and see if it helps me out some 😀

 

[ultimatedesk]

+1

Good job with the project so far, and thanks for the walk through on how to obtain sponsorship really appreciated

Keep up the good work.

Anytime - thanks for the comments! I think there are a few other articles out there on the net about obtaining sponsorship that I read as well. I think you can Google "obtaining sponsorship for mods" and that'll get you a few articles.

not going anywhere!

I am due for desk refresh soon I think, I built one last year(~70 in materials) but my plans have changed and its time for another prototype I think......

so I'll watch this to see waht you come up with anyways and see if it helps me out some

Awesome! If there's one thing this project has shown me is that there are a lot of people out there who love building their own stuff - I hope that there are some ideas in here that you'll be able to use!

The last time I left off, I had just finished flushing the sides of the table in preparation to add some trim. I found a nice piece of long maple that was just a little over 8 feet long, a little wider than 1.5 inches, and thick enough to cut some 1/4 inch strips from.

I layed it out, setup the table saw and cut myself a test piece.

Looks good!

Here's a pic of the cutting process. I'm afraid I had some difficulty with this. Actually, let me rephrase - the saw had some difficulty with this. I was still using the same blade I've been using the whole project - which needs replacement pretty badly. Asking it to cut through 1.5 inches of maple, for a length of 8 feet was asking a lot of it.

I made it through eventually, but the whole process left quite a few burn marks on the wood.

I glued and nailed the trim around the perimeter of the desk, which was a pretty straightforward process.

And then took out a hand plane to get rid of most of the excess material and bring the trim down flush with the desk surface. Some neat pictures here.

After some sanding with some 60-grit on the random orbit sander to get everything smooth, I went nuts with the wood filler.

At that point I stood the surface up in the back of the shop and called it a night.

Next update in the loop, I setup some dado blades in the table saw, mmm mmmm, that was fun!

Have a good weekend everyone!

 

[Zargon]

man DADO is a PITA but a great tool

 

[Weenoman]

BTW, you don't flatten the nail heads...you slightly flatten the nail points. Yes, it'd be difficult (but not impossible) to do with the strips for your nail gun.

Trying to correct someone by restating exactly what they said originally?

 

[Zargon]

the heads and points are not the same part of the nail...

 

[ultimatedesk]

man DADO is a PITA but a great tool

It was more work than I expected, but everything went pretty well with the cuts themselves. They were brand new blades, never used, so they were nice and sharp, and they also SOUNDED AWESOME on the table saw. The trouble was the assembly - I had to do a LOT of sanding as they were very, very snug.

It's been a while since the last update, but basically, I got around to installing the dado blade on the table saw to make some important cuts for the two cabinets, and was able to do a bit of test fitting.

For those of you not really in the know, a dado blade has two regular saw blades (One for the left, one for the right) and some irregular shaped blades of varying thickness that you put in between, until you get the right width. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The beauty of using dado blades in the table saw (At least I think) is that you can set it up at the right height and width, and then set the fence to the proper width and do all 3 of your supporting boards one after another so they will be lined up perfectly when it comes time for assembly.

I put 3 cuts in each of the 3 supporting walls of the left-hand cabinet. There was a bit of chipping, I should have probably put down some masking tape, but it's nothing major and will be on the inside anyways.

I threw on a bit of wood filler to patch up the chipped parts, and then let these 3 dry while I worked on the right-hand cabinet cuts.

I then had some time to put together a quick test fitting! Not bad! Some of the wood was just a bit crooked, so I'll have to spend some time with the sander to loosen up some of the dado joints.

This pretty much completes the first phase of the project - I won't have any use for any of the big, messy tools anymore.

All that's really left are a few small detail cuts, some holes need to be cut out, the whole thing needs to be sanded to pre-stain state, and then assembly and staining!

I'll be bringing all of the materials back to my place where I'll be doing just that.

 

[ultimatedesk]

And, through the miracle of internet technology, I'm bringing you the next update right away!

There wasn't much work done in this update - just thought I'd show everyone where the progress is going to be taking place from now on. The spooky basement in my building!

It's a really old house, at least over a hundred years old, in fact, there's a 12" x 12" solid beam of wood running as the main support member along the entire length of the house, it must be at least 30 feet long. Can't get those any more!!!

My main complaint with the basement is that I am constantly bashing my head on the low ceiling beams, and it's quite cold! Getting motivated to go work down there is not nearly as easy as working in the nice, heated wood shop.

Time to let the pictures do the talking:

I purchased a new shop vac at Canadian Tire along with a bunch of other stuff during the Boxing Week sales after Christmas. Sweet.

I also setup a plastic wall to help prevent sawdust from going all over the basement, as well as to help keep any breezes contained when it comes time to stain.

Some of my personal tools:

And there we have it! Until next time, have a good weekend!

 

[mnewsham]

Nice update, keep up the good work, can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Zargon]

^^^^^

what he said

 

[ultimatedesk]

Nice update, keep up the good work, can't wait to see it finished.

^^^^^

what he said

Hehe, thanks, both of you! Here's another quick one 😉

So, I did a bit of work in the basement the other night, and since the next part of the project is going to be assembly, I decided to give it another shot at test fitting, since the last time I tried it was just loosely put together.

Time to get out the sander with some 80 grit. The hose on my shop vac is a little over 2", and I didn't have an adapter to attach it to the DeWalt ROB Sander unfortunately, so a little tape had to do the job.

I took each piece one by one and sanded down the edges where they slide into the dado cuts. I had to do a surprising amount of sanding, as the fit was incredibly tight.

I also took the time to label each piece (Top, Middle, Bottom, and which side faces the front) so that it could be easily repeatable when it comes time for final assembly.

Almost there. So tight! I needed a rubber mallet to set some of them, and then remove them afterwards.

This shelf was just ~slightly~ warped, and needed a lot of sanding so that one end was nice and snug, and this end actually a bit of free space (Hello wood filler!)

A couple more progress shots:

And, all tightly assembled. I could probably jump on this box...

I spent about an hour and a half doing that, and honestly, it was freezing cold down there and that's about all I could stand for that evening. Until next time!

 

[mnewsham]

Looking good 😉

 

[Zargon]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[dpodblood]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

 

[ultimatedesk]

Looking good 😉

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Trudging along slowly but surely - it's been a slow couple weeks for the desk - been spending too much time with the new kittens!

So - it's been some time since my last update (What has it been.. 2 weeks? Geez!) but I haven't been idle at home, it's just that I was really busy (There are kittens running around now!) and I've been working with some staining techniques, which has been a long, learning process.

I did a bit of research and came across a good video over here: Link and I opted to give it a shot, because there apparently, is a tendency for maple to come out a little blotchy due to the tight grain, or something or other like that.

So I picked up some supplies:

Made up a test board - some wood filler, some real maple trim, and one side sanded to 120 and the other sanded to 220:

And, apparently, I was supposed to cut the shellac with some denatured alcohol. Something I was not able to find, and subsequently, I found out that it is actually quite difficult to obtain here in Ottawa. I did not realize at the time, that I could have cut it with methyl hydrate, which is something quite commonly available at the local Canadian Tire.

And, this is where things start to go wrong. Here is the shellac applied:

Ok, not bad. Full strength. Ended up closing the grain structure completely, most likely. Here is the gel stain I chose:

And, onto the wood:

 

[ultimatedesk]

Wait 5 minutes, wipe off...

Gross. Seriously? This is why you test on samples first. Look at that colour - it's practically pink!

How about a second coat.

And why the heck not, we'll stain the back as well, where it hasn't been shellac'd.

Huh...

Now really. That was not quite what I was expecting. Time to get a new sample piece - no shellac, but sanded properly to 120.

What's going on here? This is not really the expected "richness" of a dark gel stain like this, is it? Hmm..

Doh! Looks like keeping the gel stain in the basement, where it is freezing, separated the contents. There is a visible layer of clear liquid on top of the stain - that shouldn't be there.

Staining attempt number 1? Failure.

1. If you're using shellac to seal, to avoid streaking and blotching - you MUST cut it
2. If you're going to use a gel stain, don't keep it in a cold environment before you're about to use it.

Well, time to put the stain upstairs for a little while, and maybe another trip to the hardware store... And just an fyi, this took me about a week just to do the 2 samples, since it's so cold, I can only do 1 coat per day, as it takes a long time to dry.

And here's a little something else:

Cute, no? A litter of 5 - the first one was stillborn, so we've got 4 kittens, pretty exciting stuff. 😉