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Red Squirrel
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2009
- Messages
- 9,217
I have been wanting to design a custom desk for a while. I don't have lot of woodworking experience, I've been living on my own for maybe 3-4 years now so I never had any power tools or a work area till now. My current work area is an uninsulated/conditioned garage and there's not much place to work. It's hot in summer and cold in winter.
What I really want in a desk is a large flat surface that has room for two computers. Idealy, my main rig, and the other section is more of a lab/workbench to work on different machines, or solder stuff, etc... The key is a large flat surface where I can hvae all sorts of stuff spread out without feeling constrained. Also wanted a keyboard tray on both of these stations. My current desk is a corner desk and the keyboard tray kept falling off as it's just screwed upwards in MDF. Literally ran out of places to drill holes as it would just fall out and rip a chunk. Sure I could just go buy another desk for a couple hundred bucks, but I would not get what I want.
So long story short, I came up with this design:
I am sorta improvising based on it as when I ordered the wood there was no 4x4's, and I decided the 2x6 foot would be something I always stub my toe in, so not doing that either. Also I switched to Linux and can't open that document anymore to make changes. Still need to find a decent CAD program in Linux.. but that's another story.
Keeping in mind that I don't have tons of wood working experience nor a very good shop area, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
The plugs on top are a added bonus and I may or may not add them, and if I do I will probably want them raised up so stuff like paperclips or small screws can't fall in them.
The idea is when I want to test something I can easily plug it in without fishing wire or bending over. It's all right there.
When I went to order the wood they did not have 4x4 posts that arn't pressure treated, so I ended up changing that part of the plan a bit...
Here's my sawhorse setup:
There's a jig that clamps and it enables me to make multiple cuts of the same length without measuring each one. That way if I was off a few mm the first time at least they'll all be consistently off and at the end everything will fit ok.
The wood:
To give an idea of how massive this desk will be, a good portion of that plywood sheet will be the top.
Unfortunately, the lack of truck meant I could not pick my own wood, had to order and get delivered. Most 2x4's ended up like this:
A table saw would come in handy to trim those a bit... But don't have one.
And finally, started on the actual desk:
Built 3 of these today. Was freaking cold and my hands were freezing, went back inside.
I've been procrastinating on this all summer because it was too hot and sweaty to work in the garage, now I'm paying for it because it's freaking cold and only going to get colder. Now that I made the sawhorses and all that, the rest is going fast. I figure one more day in the garage and I should be able to mostly finish it. The finishing will be done indoors so the paint/varnish/stain will cure properly. Thinking of painting the 2x4 portion black, and then stain/varnish the plywood top, keyboard tray and bottom shelf. I still need to find some sliders for the keyboard trays though. Worse case scenario I'll use the old ones from my current desk, and the other side just wont have a keyboard tray.
What I really want in a desk is a large flat surface that has room for two computers. Idealy, my main rig, and the other section is more of a lab/workbench to work on different machines, or solder stuff, etc... The key is a large flat surface where I can hvae all sorts of stuff spread out without feeling constrained. Also wanted a keyboard tray on both of these stations. My current desk is a corner desk and the keyboard tray kept falling off as it's just screwed upwards in MDF. Literally ran out of places to drill holes as it would just fall out and rip a chunk. Sure I could just go buy another desk for a couple hundred bucks, but I would not get what I want.
So long story short, I came up with this design:
I am sorta improvising based on it as when I ordered the wood there was no 4x4's, and I decided the 2x6 foot would be something I always stub my toe in, so not doing that either. Also I switched to Linux and can't open that document anymore to make changes. Still need to find a decent CAD program in Linux.. but that's another story.
Keeping in mind that I don't have tons of wood working experience nor a very good shop area, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
The plugs on top are a added bonus and I may or may not add them, and if I do I will probably want them raised up so stuff like paperclips or small screws can't fall in them.
The idea is when I want to test something I can easily plug it in without fishing wire or bending over. It's all right there. When I went to order the wood they did not have 4x4 posts that arn't pressure treated, so I ended up changing that part of the plan a bit...
Here's my sawhorse setup:
There's a jig that clamps and it enables me to make multiple cuts of the same length without measuring each one. That way if I was off a few mm the first time at least they'll all be consistently off and at the end everything will fit ok.
The wood:
To give an idea of how massive this desk will be, a good portion of that plywood sheet will be the top.
Unfortunately, the lack of truck meant I could not pick my own wood, had to order and get delivered. Most 2x4's ended up like this:
A table saw would come in handy to trim those a bit... But don't have one.
And finally, started on the actual desk:
Built 3 of these today. Was freaking cold and my hands were freezing, went back inside.
I've been procrastinating on this all summer because it was too hot and sweaty to work in the garage, now I'm paying for it because it's freaking cold and only going to get colder. Now that I made the sawhorses and all that, the rest is going fast. I figure one more day in the garage and I should be able to mostly finish it. The finishing will be done indoors so the paint/varnish/stain will cure properly. Thinking of painting the 2x4 portion black, and then stain/varnish the plywood top, keyboard tray and bottom shelf. I still need to find some sliders for the keyboard trays though. Worse case scenario I'll use the old ones from my current desk, and the other side just wont have a keyboard tray.