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.

 

[Magnus]

You guys build like I do.
Planning on having dancing girls atop the finished project? Or maybe, you have a 100 gallon WC tank?

 

[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 on the re-sale value, 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]

Nah nothing is cheaper or stronger and I am notoriously hard on anything thats not electronic or mechanical plus yeah we all have construction/framing exp and I used to be a contractor hence the name.

Edit: i will get a pic of Me and the guys all sitting on it, about 700 pounds and it doesn't even budge.

 

[Mohonri]

2x4 furniture--I love it! What DVR software are you using with the Hauppauge card?

 

[dieseldog49]

hauppage's stuff seems fine for my purposes. Do you suggest something else?

 

[Deleted member 82943]

subscribed

 

[dieseldog49]

I have some stuff coming in the mail on tuesday expect another update then.

 

[Dmac122383]

The desk and room is looking good. Are you going to be able to disassemble the desk in pieces? Because the only problem I see with your room is that ugly carpet. Any plans on painting the walls or getting new flooring or new carpet?

 

[dieseldog49]

Painting the walls, yes, new carpet no I love this stuff it's retro and has something like a 1 inch pad underneath you can literally lay down and sleep on the carpet (not something I make a habit of doing but its really nice to walk on as well)

 

[Deleted member 82943]

hauppage's stuff seems fine for my purposes. Do you suggest something else?

centon i think makes a 4 tuner usb cablecard device - 4 streams - might be something to look at

 

[dieseldog49]

honestly I am only recording one show at the moment (It just happens to start at 11:30pm) but yeah if I end up needing more capability I will keep that in mind

 

[Deleted member 82943]

ahh yup no need to get all crazy then - p.s. your thread rules nice setup, especially mounting the projector screen in the ceiling like you did

 

[dieseldog49]

thanks the whole screen setup cost me less than $120 shipped and installed

 

[jreinlie4]

Granite countertop and some nice finishing trim work would make it beautiful.

 

[HAF72]

Looking good so far! Can't wait to see when it is done!

 

[pahriah]

Looks nice and sturdy... I second jreinlie4's ideas and built in mini-fridge?

 

[BExASt1]

nice desk! looks cleaner now haha

 

[Vantec89]

Very nice! This looks like something I need to do!

 

[ElGuapo242]

It's your own personal command center!

 

[akg102]

This will be an epic build. I've got a few wooden builds that I need to post sometime.

 

[klank]

Very interested to see the vinyl work. I currently have a couple of folding tables as my "desks" that I would like to replace with a custom built unit similar to what you have whipped up.

 

[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

 

[collegeboy69us]

very awesome stuff

 

[illli]

I like your carpet
never seen a color like that before

 

[dieseldog49]

Yeah the carpet is over 40 years old and still feels great ya can't beat that sort of quality

 

[TorxT3D]

carpet reminds me of quake 3 arena

 

[brasherman]

LOL, reminds me of the college days. I had a 2x4 TV stand that would have been lethal in many situations! Looks good!

 

[criccio]

MOAR

 

[bonnev659]

wow amazing job congrats

 

[dieseldog49]

Thanks! I have been really overwhelmed with the feedback and praise I have received on the forums I have posted this build on, it's really encouraging and makes me really want to take the next stage up a notch. I really hope the next part of the build lives up to the kind of compliments I am getting. Thanks again for all of the kind words guys!

 

[bbf]

Looks great! Nothing beats a custom DIY build.
Although I hate the carpet, I'd admit it *works* with your set up.

 

[Ravenrex]

Wow, no 10k desk reference yet? What is this forum coming to?

 

[Kaizer]

Yep.. back in my day, a 10k desk reference would have been on the first page. Im getting old?

 

[Negative Decibel]

Yep.. back in my day, a 10k desk reference would have been on the first page. Im getting old?

It crossed my mind too. Damn, we must be getting old!

I''m seriously loving the desk, man. As someone who is just beginning to understand basic woodworking skills, and have been thinking about building a custom desk, this thread is inspiration!

 

[magoo]

Nice work. Fucking industrial strength.
Buy a real keyboard ....that beige thing looks out of place.

 

[vengence]

Yep.. back in my day, a 10k desk reference would have been on the first page. Im getting old?

If you're still using 20 ppp then yeah, you're getting old. But, the 10k meme did need to be satisfied. It is out side of genmay ya know.