Built-in Office

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Holy hell.

I just finished reading through this whole thread. Awesome desk man.

<-- 2nd year civil engineering student :p

ERTW
 
Big push this weekend/week to finish this fucker. Pretty much got all of the electrical finished- (safety first! :D ) Along with the remaining woodwork.

Going to start tommorrow on sanding / finishing this last section. Once I stain and clear this part I'm finished- then move-in pics! :D

I'm planning on running the whole thing off 1 220V plug if you were curious. House was built in the 40's, and I don't really want to burn down the whole place- especially after my effort. So hiring the electrician in the next 2 or 3 weeks to add the 220V plug and some other unrelated stuff.

So the plan is at first I'm getting one of these:

Step-Down Transformer

And then after recovery from the holidays, I'll get one of these to plug the transformer into:

3000 VA UPS

Current Pics:

Woodwork and veneer pretty much finished (Iron is for the veneer)
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Power panel in the works; the whole idea was to have some flexibility when I was really ready to wire the thing up, because I didn't really know what it would look like when it was finished. So I ran a length of Romex from each element to this panel. Then at the panel I'll connect switches to plugs to whatever.
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Printer stand; UPS and transformer will sit under this..
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Under the right table
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Wow... thats just way too indepth electrical for me.. :eek: I would definitely zap myself or fry something (probably myself)
Looking great though.
Hey how is that Ryobi saw workin out for ya. Tried one once and it cut like shit, but my boss at the time is an idiot and "thought" it was charged, doubt it was though.
 
I like the saw- it's the 120v plug-in version..

Pics from tonight- finished getting everything to the power panel; now just have to figure out which wire is what :D It's actually pretty easy- I wired 2 male extension cords together, and plug 1 into the live wall socket, and the other into the socket wired to the unknown wire. Then with a multimeter, you can find which pair of terminals on the power panel has 125V running thru it.. Or there is another function on the multimeter where it beeps when there is a complete circuit; I've been using this to identify which wires are the switches.. Keep in mind I have been doing this procedure BEFORE I've had a couple beers..

PICS:

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FULL RESOLUTION

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FULL RESOLUTION

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This is what I had a couple weeks ago (a big improvement):

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i hope you've got some sort of cover plate or housing for that wiring setup in mind! would hate to hear of an OCPer fired by his homebrew desk!
 
BoySetsFire said:
i hope you've got some sort of cover plate or housing for that wiring setup in mind! would hate to hear of an OCPer fired by his homebrew desk!
Definitely!!! Disregard the fact that exposed wiring like that, especially built on flamable wood, is against any known electrical code, it's dangerous as hell. I imagine it will wind up with a cover on it, but I would still be weary of the potential fire hazaard.
 
deadrody said:
Definitely!!! Disregard the fact that exposed wiring like that, especially built on flamable wood, is against any known electrical code, it's dangerous as hell. I imagine it will wind up with a cover on it, but I would still be weary of the potential fire hazaard.

Show me the section in IBC 2003- I'll look up up at the office..

There is no exposed hot wiring, hot leads are hooked into 600VA terminal blocks as opposed to twist-on connectors or electrical tape; and isolated with extreme caution and rigor. I've used Romex throughout the entire project whch just so happens to be in most wood framed (flammable) houses built in the U.S.

The way I have it wired, it's safer than most breaker boxes out there. Plus, what's going to really catch on fire? an overheated PSU in a computer or 30AMP Romex?

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Some new pics; sanding and getting ready to stain.. The halogen track lights are freakin' bright!!

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Beautiful work as always. Are the white faceplates permanent, or are some wood ones coming to match the rest of the decor?

 
unhappy_mage said:
Beautiful work as always. Are the white faceplates permanent, or are some wood ones coming to match the rest of the decor?



I'm thinking White plates- unless you have a source...
 
This maybe? Or finished or unfinished ones from another retailer. The second two are blank, so you could (carefully!) cut out your own shapes from them. You'll need to hotglue in the cat6 jacks or something since they don't have the mounting bits, but that shouldn't be too hard. Check out their product list for more options - they've also got electrical and lightswitch plates premade. None 4 wide, though :( HTH though.

PS: or just route your own... flat piece of wood, cut to size, use a low bevel, sand, ...

 
jen4950 said:
I'm thinking White plates- unless you have a source...

http://www.arnev.com/customwood.htm

Well, that answers that. That shit is expensive! 20 bucks for a wall plate!

I'll think about it :D

[edit] 20 bucks for the biggest one I would need; you can spend 50 bucks on one of those!!, I've cracked a couple of the plastic ones and was pissed is where I'm coming from here..[/edit]
 
Missed me by that much ;)

Take a look at the second place I linked - $12.45 shipped for 2 lightswitch plates, 1 electrical plug plate, and 1 blank for the LAN jacks etc. That doesn't include a 4-port electrical, but it covers everything else. Maybe get an extra blank or three for $1.69, no?

 
Hey Jen4950, I've been impress with your skills since you started this thread, one question though, what type/how many computers and/or pheriperals are you going to accomodate in here?
 
Yaik said:
Hey Jen4950, I've been impress with your skills since you started this thread, one question though, what type/how many computers and/or pheriperals are you going to accomodate in here?


It will not dissapoint.. getting closer- cant let the cat out of the bag yet! :D
 
There is no exposed hot wiring, hot leads are hooked into 600VA terminal blocks as opposed to twist-on connectors or electrical tape

I don't see a problem with the wood casing, as you're using terminal blocks for standoffs. The 'exposed' part are the screws on the blocks themselves.

I can't really see from the pictures, but unless you have a cover for the whole block assembly, it looks very easy for a stray housecat, small child, or perhaps a resting foot to come into contact with with a screw head.
 
Once you're done, and now that you've got your canon rebel, you should make a quicktime VR, or at least a panorama of the whole room.

Thats really amazing that you put that much time and money into something like that.
 
Billiam411 said:
Once you're done, and now that you've got your canon rebel, you should make a quicktime VR, or at least a panorama of the whole room.

Thats really amazing that you put that much time and money into something like that.

Canon D20 ;)

Gotta have your kicks- I don't want to get home from work and sit on the couch.
 
Nothing for days now? :eek: Anything new going on with it? And when will you unveil this "godmode" system
 
gregnash said:
Nothing for days now? :eek: Anything new going on with it? And when will you unveil this "godmode" system

I've got a big deadline coming up- been working and sleeping.
 
Xeon...XEON!!!! :eek: Jen, I hate to say it, but I have now lost faith in you. :( How could you /cry... There is only one! And it's AMD!!!!!!!
:D
 
Excellent job jen4950. This has been a great thread and I look forward to seeing the pics after you get your system(s) setup.
 
gregnash said:
Xeon...XEON!!!! :eek: Jen, I hate to say it, but I have now lost faith in you. :( How could you /cry... There is only one! And it's AMD!!!!!!!
:D

I'm in the AMD sucks crowd ;)
 
Looking forward to seeing the finished project. You should make detailed specs etc and sell the plans for a few bucks each. I'd buy it. Most excellent work !! PS - I'm very happy with my dual 3.2 P4 Xeon Intellistation Z Pro - it runs 24-7 for nearly a year now flawlessly. It just runs and I cannot find a reason to complain - then again top notch hardware does help. I'm not an AMD hater though as I have an AMD syatem also but the IBM box is my main rig. ;)

Mix
 
Hell or high water I'm finishing this thing this week! :D

I ended up brushing on the clear for the last section- was more of an investigation than anything to see if all of the headache in taping everything off for the spray gun was worth it- Preliminary findings indicate it's worth the effort to spray; damn hairs from the brushes (best ones Sherwin-Williams had btw) kept coming out and sticking to the clear finish :mad: Not to mention how much more difficult it was to control runs and other imperfections..

I just finished putting the last coat of clear on the last section- I just have some minor fit and finish items to do-

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What a fucking mess :eek: :

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Merry Christmas from me to me :D APC 220V 3000VA UPS and Transformer:

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The clear coat is by far the hardest part of this whole project- It's so tedious and messy and it's the last thing you do, so all of the imperfections show.. Oh well.. I'm ready to use this thing!

[edit]

UPS Link: APC Smart-UPS RT 3000VA 208V


Here is a question for you guru's- The UPS came with feet; the transformer did not- I need another set of 3U black feet! And I can't find them on the APC website- suggestions? (see the pics above)

[/edit]
 
wow man that thing is incredible 0_0 i just ran through the whole thread

thought about custom making feet? everything else is custom :p
 
0mega said:
wow man that thing is incredible 0_0 i just ran through the whole thread

thought about custom making feet? everything else is custom :p

Well, then they wouldn't be genuwine APC transformer feet then now would they? :D
 
and i thought i was a good carpenter good job man, what type of wood u using? mehs thinkin oak? i dunno though if i were u i woulda used a lighter colored stain just to sorta match the color of the walls n such and to brighten things up durring the day ^_^ but yah exceleeeeeent work man i think this deserves teh geek words LEEEEEEEET!
 
Only thing that I can think of Jen is that the UPS is made to sit by itself where as the transformers are usually used in rackmount/server room applications. Thus making the transformer something you would mount on a bottom 4U(?) rackmount cage. Thats really the only thing that I can think of. As for finding a seperate pair of feet for it, do the feet for the UPS fit it exactly? If so just order another pair of those feet from APC, if there is a size difference then try searching specifications of different UPS's and see if you can find one that matches.
 
gregnash said:
Only thing that I can think of Jen is that the UPS is made to sit by itself where as the transformers are usually used in rackmount/server room applications. Thus making the transformer something you would mount on a bottom 4U(?) rackmount cage. Thats really the only thing that I can think of. As for finding a seperate pair of feet for it, do the feet for the UPS fit it exactly? If so just order another pair of those feet from APC, if there is a size difference then try searching specifications of different UPS's and see if you can find one that matches.

They are the exact same size; I couldn't find the part on the website-
 
jen4950 said:
They are the exact same size; I couldn't find the part on the website-
I didn't see them either - I'd email them and ask. Maybe they'll just send you a set.

 
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