The Ultimate Computer Desk - 2 Built-In Computers

[Stratigas]

This looks sweet!

Sub'd

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

This should be worth keepin an i on

 

[MisterDNA]

Just don't skimp on the slides!

double ball-bearing Server rails. Some companies make server rails and industrial drawer slides with the same design. Accuride comes to mind. Just be sure to use the ball bearing version.

 

[ultimatedesk]

Subbed... Nice work

Good stuff, man! Those are some seriously hefty drawers. 3/4" was probably a little excessive for an office desk, but there's nothing wrong with that. Just don't skimp on the slides!

Can't wait to see the end result!

This looks sweet!

Sub'd

This should be worth keepin an i on

double ball-bearing Server rails. Some companies make server rails and industrial drawer slides with the same design. Accuride comes to mind. Just be sure to use the ball bearing version.

Thanks a lot for the words of encouragement, I appreciate it a lot and it keeps me going for more updates! Just so you all know, I may have the cuts and details necessary to begin actually putting it together soon!

trixw, and MisterDNA, I'll have to look at what my budget options are as well as stock available at the local stores. I think I remember the cheap drawer rails being like 7 dollars a pair, and the ball bearing rails at close to 30 dollars a pair, which is pretty significant. It would be certainly worthwhile to pick up some nice ones though...

 

[ultimatedesk]

Hey everyone, it's been a little while since my last update, so here are a few snapshots. As some of you might know, I've been a little held back in the project due to not having selected my motherboard I/O plates and motherboard trays. Without having the actual items, I couldn't make the appropriate measurements to make cut-outs in the back of the cabinets, and therefore, was unable to make the dado cuts due to worry about everything not fitting properly.

So I scrounged through some old desktop systems I had lying around, emptied their components into my bins, and decided to take apart their chassis in search of some good motherboard tray and I/O parts.

So - off to the spooky basement with a pair of chassis, my trusty drill and dremel.

Having never drilled rivets out of a case before, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. At first, I started with a bit that was a little bit small, so the rivets came up onto the drill bit itself and got stuck on there pretty good. Eventually, I moved to a bigger bit, and all it took was one good squeeze of the trigger and the rivet would come right out nice and cleanly.

Starting to rack up some parts here

You can see in the image above that the I/O and PCI Plate is built right into the back of the desktop chassis - this is unfortunate, as you'll see in some future photos, my other case actually had a modular I/O plate. I'll have to take the dremel to that part to get what I need.

Time to grab the pliers...

Here is the shot of the back plate of the other desktop chassis - see how the I/O plate was actually riveted in, and not pressed as a whole back sheet like the other one? Soo much easier to deal with.

That was a pretty fun experience taking apart the cases. I've got a bunch of scrap sheet metal now too - wonder what interesting projects I can come up with to use them...

I need to dremel out the section that I need, as well as the power supply brackets.

Huh.. that actually didn't work out too well, at least, not the way I would like. I'm going to take these parts to the shop to see if there are any better tools for getting nice clean lines.

Until next time!

 

[Yaka]

just use the grinder dremel bit to clean up wonky lines. and id use a jigsaw with saw guide to get a straight line

 

[ultimatedesk]

just use the grinder dremel bit to clean up wonky lines. and id use a jigsaw with saw guide to get a straight line

Thanks for the ideas Yaka, as you'll see below, ultimately, I think I will be just looking for some nice clean-line stock pieces to work with instead.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, things have been overly busy lately with the Christmas season getting into top gear.

I had some time to take those motherboard tray and I/O Plates to the shop to try out a few tools / techniques for shaping them into something I actually like.

First off, yes, Mike and I tried using the nice Dewalt Jigsaw, but the Mastercraft metal blades we were trying to use just wouldn't stay in the darn clamp. It would cut like butter for maybe 10 seconds and then bam, the blade would fall out of the bottom of the jigsaw onto the ground. Not sure what was going on there.

Next up, we tried this neat little Mastercraft oscillating tool with a metal blade as well, but no such luck. Couldn't figure out a good way to clamp down the metal tray, so it just vibrated it like crazy instead of actually cutting.

Our next contestant was an air compressor powered cutting wheel, which, was ultimately less accurate than the dremel, and just as slow.

So we took out the big gun, the sawzall.

Ha, no, just kidding. It wouldn't work even a tiny bit for a piece like this.

In the end, you know what ultimately worked the best?

Yeah, a hacksaw. Go figure.

Anyways, here you can see my mangled I/O plate for the motherboard. It's not a pretty sight at all in my opinion.

This is the nice I/O plate that I didn't even have to do anything except drill out a few rivets.

I think I'm going to have to come up with a better solution for this. We'll see shortly

Hope everyone who is getting snow is enjoying it, I know here in Ottawa, it's been a pretty crazy few days!

Stay tuned for more updates, will be spending some time in the shop this week and working with WOOD!

 

[DRJ1014]

Still loving the idea... Keep the updates coming! You are inspiring me to find a wood shop class to build more more more! wish I had easy access to the tools

 

[Yaka]

didnt mention it first in me post but a powered nibbler tool or drill bit head might have helped as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbler

 

[ultimatedesk]

Still loving the idea... Keep the updates coming! You are inspiring me to find a wood shop class to build more more more! wish I had easy access to the tools

It was such a random incident that gave me access to this wood shop and I've never had to many ideas flying through my head! It's too bad there aren't as many community shops as there used to be. I would imagine the insurance must be pretty high on those type of places open to the public! Glad to be inspiring - you inspire me to bring more updates!

didnt mention it first in me post but a powered nibbler tool or drill bit head might have helped as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbler

Oooh, thanks Yaka. I had never even thought of that, but I remember hearing about how useful those are for putting in case windows...

I had a bit of time in the shop this week to work on getting my drawers up to speed. I decided to take the advice of a fellow forum member and add "false fronts" to my drawers so that I can attach the "real fronts" using screws by screwing from the inside of the drawer, so I wouldn't have any screw heads to cover up on the outside.

Here they are, with my roughed out false fronts - I happened to have 3 pieces of wood almost exactly the size I needed.

Time to take out 'ol trusty

A quick test fit, and all 3 fit perfectly

Add a bit of glue, and some trusty clamps, and we've got ourselves the beginnings of some false fronts!

All 3 of them fit rather nicely. I think they helped square out the drawers overall as well (Even though they were only out of square by around 1/16th of an inch).

So, I've got some time for the glue to dry. I'm not sure if anyone can remember this, but in my original cut sheets, I had planned on cutting out a specific piece of wood using the wood that I jigsawed out of the desk surface.

Here's that piece:

Not, exactly.... square..

So I take this nice little protractor attached to a table saw slide - it's set at 90, so here we go!

I do 2 sides, and then use the actual table saw fence to square out the other 2, but something just doesn't seem right..

It's not really square. What's going on here?

Aha! Looks like the protractor was a little bit off, resulting in a shape one step closer to a diamond as opposed to a square. After a bit of readjustment, I redid that bit and cut it to size - it's the drawer face for the large drawer.

Now that the glue is settled, I decided to throw a few screws into the false fronts.

Awesome. And solid too!

Now, this is kind of embarrassing, but I had to go back and fix a mistake I made in my initial cuts. This piece of wood was supposed to be 20" x 28", but it ended up being more like 19.8" x 28". It may not seem like much, but this is the back piece to the left-hand cabinet. I would have to adjust the width of all 3 shelves if I were to continue using this, and I've got the space already pretty tightly packed with computer components on the top shelf.

So... don't do this at home, just cut a new piece of wood (I didn't want to cut into a new sheet of 4x8 just for this one piece...)

This piece looks like a good fit...

No one will see it, because it'll be in the back, but you will all know. So... let's just forget that ever happened, ok?

 

[ultimatedesk]

I decided it was time to glue the two surfaces together that would comprise of the actual desk surface and take a break from working on the drawers for a while.

Here it is, the first piece. At first I wanted to lay it face down, so I could evenly distribute screws through the bottom, but in the end, I went face up so I would protect the surface, and it would be a LOT easier to line up the holes.

I threw on the top layer, lined them up, and thought to myself: Hmm, I wonder what it'll look like with the top shelf stacked on:

Pretty cool. This was the first time I had actually pulled a chair up to it to get a real grasp of how big this desk is going to be. I was pretty psyched.

Just a note, the two pieces of wood on each end holding up the shelf will actually be the inner supports (ie, pushed inwards towards the middle of the desk a foot or two), and the cubby holes on the outer ends will support the long shelf. The long shelf also has to be trimmed a couple inches, it won't reach right to the end of the desk.

This next part was really quite a challenge on my own.

I lined it up as best as I could (According to the holes that I cut out, since the edges are easy to trim later), lifted one end with a mighty, strong arm, squirted as much glue as I could with my other arm (And only as far as I could reach!), put it down gently, ran to the other side and repeated.

Let me tell you - with the amount of glue I put down, and the fact that each side weighs 20-30 pounds - it did NOT want to slide around easily to get into perfect position.

In the end, I had to muscle it around a bit to get the holes lined up satisfactorily.

(I spoke with a couple friends about this afterward, and one of them suggested making some pilot holes and screwing in a few screws BEFORE the gluing, and then retracting the screws so that just the tips go through the bottom board. That way after the glue is put down, you shuffle around the top board until the tips of the screws find the pilot holes, thus, eliminating the issue of getting proper alignment before the glue becomes too tacky.)

I then threw some weight on top of the table, attached as many clamps as I could find, and started putting some 1.25" screws through the bottom.

A few clamp shots of the hole - everything lined up pretty much perfect. 1/2" on the left and right, 1/2" at the bottom, and I think just a little under 3/4" at the top. (The size of the lip between the upper and lower holes)

I wasn't satisfied with the way the clamping was going on lengthwise on the surface. I didn't have enough clamps to place them every half foot, so luckily, Mike had some of these nice, big, cedar logs lying around that I re-purposed temporarily.

The end result turned out quite nicely. The hole was lined up properly. There is only a small overhang / underhang of maybe 2/16's of an inch on two of the edges of the surfaces that should be easy to correct with a flush-bit on the router later.

We'll take a look at them next update! Thanks for staying tuned!

 

[S[H]ady]

looking good so far.
I wouldn't worry to much about the rough cut. Use a grinder to clean up the cuts and burry that crooked cut behind wood.

 

[ultimatedesk]

looking good so far.
I wouldn't worry to much about the rough cut. Use a grinder to clean up the cuts and burry that crooked cut behind wood.

Roger that - thanks S[H]ady

Hey all, hope everyone had a good Holiday!

I got a chance to do some work on the drawer face trim - this was my first time doing solid wood trim.

I cut a nice piece of maple into 1/4" strips, glued, and sanded. I only did one piece this time, as I am not totally sure that this is the way I would like to go.

Something about the trim not meshing quite well with the plywood.

First, I set the table saw to the right width:

Measure 3 times, and you get a nice solid cut:

Made a few strips:

Cut, glued, and clamped on the initial pieces of trim. The trim pieces were about 2/16's of an inch wider than the plywood, which is great, since there will be no voids, though, I'll have to do quite a bit of sanding:

Took the sander to the top and bottom:

Overall, it looks pretty good. I'm still not 100% certain about it, however. I'm thinking there is a strong possibility I will go with solid maple for the drawer faces.

 

[Siriusmuzik]

You are a fine craftsman. Great job. I can't wait to see the end product.

 

[Madnes5]

Nice project!

You may want to consider the use of cauls to get better pressure on your edging. Also, have you thought about using 1/8" or 1/16" strips for the edging? I think it might blend a bit better. But I certainly understand if you're constrained by cutting the thin strips on your table saw. Rockler also sells pre-made edging in case you're interested.

Keep up the good work. I've been wanting to do something similar for awhile. I'm watching with interest.

 

[capreppy]

Late to the game. Great looking work. Looking forward to some final pics.

 

[jackofalltrades]

subbed!

 

[xbonez]

Very nice project. Would love to see the end product. Subbed.

 

[soniczed]

great concept love the work
i would suggest making does straight cuts to cover the edges in a 45 degree angle.
Oh by the way yes a carpenter can never have tooo many clamps....LOL

 

[MrGuvernment]

looks pretty dam sweet.

 

[dclprojekt]

Looking good I'm excited to see the finished desk.

 

[ultimatedesk]

You are a fine craftsman. Great job. I can't wait to see the end product.

Thanks Siriusmuzik

Nice project!

You may want to consider the use of cauls to get better pressure on your edging. Also, have you thought about using 1/8" or 1/16" strips for the edging? I think it might blend a bit better. But I certainly understand if you're constrained by cutting the thin strips on your table saw. Rockler also sells pre-made edging in case you're interested.

Keep up the good work. I've been wanting to do something similar for awhile. I'm watching with interest.

Thanks Madness5, I took a look at those cauls and that is a great idea. I had thought about using edging, but I have had such bad experience with edging for melamine that I decided to go with solid wood trim. Also, after experiencing edging with solid wood, I have decided that yes, 1/4" is a little overkill. When designing it, I decided 1/4" was a reasonable width to cut, but I see now that cutting 1/8 or 1/16 isn't unrealistic using the table saw.

Late to the game. Great looking work. Looking forward to some final pics.

Thanks capreppy, I appreciate it

subbed!

Thanks jackofalltrades

Very nice project. Would love to see the end product. Subbed.

Thanks xbonez, welcome to the project!

great concept love the work
i would suggest making does straight cuts to cover the edges in a 45 degree angle.
Oh by the way yes a carpenter can never have tooo many clamps....LOL

Ah yes, you mean gluing the trim around "frame" style? I had not considered that, but I will!

looks pretty dam sweet.

Thanks MrGuvernment Nice name

Looking good I'm excited to see the finished desk.

Thanks dclprojekt!

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been quite busy.

I'll put up some new shots of my progress sometime this weekend, but here's some food for thought in the meantime.

This is the upstairs of the place I moved into a few months ago, and where the desk will eventually go. It'll fit nicely in the space, about 6 or 7 inches wider than the current desk you see there, and it will occupy most of the length of the hallway.

My current desk is a real pain in the butt. I purchased it used last year, and needed the smallest desk possible since I was living in a little bachelor on my own, in fact, my computer desk was beside the kitchen table and it was the only way I could get any work done! My knees always get jammed underneath the keyboard tray, so this new desk will resolve that issue as well!

There she is. Yes, it's a Guild Wars mousepad that I got for free with the game so many years ago. Yes, that's a BMW M5, the sweetest kind there is / ever was. Yes, it's a crappy desk.

And here's my current system, an old Pentium 4 3.2Ghz. The Coolermaster CM690 was upgraded to only a year ago or so (Thanks sis).

You can see I had to cut away a portion of the desk in the back to make the tower fit. Hilarious, I know.

Take care, I'll get you guys a nice big update posted on the weekend

 

[Power5]

Awesome work so far. I have a custom 8' desk I built a couple years ago. I used biscuit joints to attach real wood bull noses to the edge of all my plywood surfaces. A lot of work but the end result was worth it. Also, I thought of Ply drawer fronts, but in the end went with solid oak.

 

[Morphes]

This desk is looking quite awesome man, good wood working skills you got there!

Excited to see how it turns out

 

[ultimatedesk]

Awesome work so far. I have a custom 8' desk I built a couple years ago. I used biscuit joints to attach real wood bull noses to the edge of all my plywood surfaces. A lot of work but the end result was worth it. Also, I thought of Ply drawer fronts, but in the end went with solid oak.

Oooh, sounds cool Power5 - biscuit jointing the bull noses.. I will have to possibly reconsider what I've already done!

This desk is looking quite awesome man, good wood working skills you got there!

Excited to see how it turns out

Thanks Morphes!

Had another really busy weekend and unfortunately, wasn't able to post the update on the weekend like I originally wanted to...

BUT! Made a new friend - meet Mr.Air Nailer.

Nice and fast, no need to clamp everything down, and I can get a lot more trim done a lot quicker.

I really did a better job of being picky with the trim, and selected cuts that matched the colour a lot better:

Compared to the first drawer face that I tried:

That had to change, so I took my most subtle and elegant tools:

And, replaced the two mis-coloured pieces with nicer ones.

Anyways - this is what my trim production line looked like for the day:

First, I would mark off the lengths on an appropriately coloured piece of trim just using a pencil and holding the trim against the piece:

Take it over to the miter saw and trim it to within a sixteenth of an inch or so on both ends:

See that cedar log in the bottom right? Remember it being longer? Mike was in the shop today turning them into table legs, which partially explains the big mess!

I then took the piece that is being trimmed, as well as the trim, to the little sander. I would sand to a good 90 degree angle, and get the length just right.

Glue down, and nail down!

Occasionally, I'll crack the trim with the nailer... which means it has to be removed, and re-done with a new piece of trim:

After some sanding:

I finished all 3 drawer faces and then got started on the actual drawers. They look pretty decent. Not perfect, but they look nice.

 

[ultimatedesk]

I used a fairly similar process as the drawer faces, I started out by cutting myself some fresh trim strips from this piece of maple:

Hit the miter saw and sander, and lay down some glue:

Then with the nailer. Whoops, one more split.

Here's a before and after shot from the sanding. You'll notice the maple strips got burnt pretty badly when I put them through the table saw (The blade is getting a bit old). After a bit of sanding, they look as fresh as ever:

 

[ultimatedesk]

After trimming all of the drawers and faces, I had to get some wood filler to fill in all of the screw and nail holes, as well as the small voids between the plywood and solid wood. All in all, this process went OK - not as nice as I would have liked.

For the mostpart, I used Elmers Natural Colour Wood Filler. While it did the job, the colour matching wasn't exactly... inconspicious, to say the least. I also tried mixing some sawdust from the random-orbit sander with some wood glue, with not so great results.

You can clearly see, in the end result, that the sawdust/glue filler looks more like glue. It has an almost transparent look to it. I guess I should have used more sawdust?

Anyways, I finished up the rest of the voids and holes with the regular Elmers stuff:

And then sanded it it all up:

Anyone have any tips on how I can further hide the holes? I will have to go over them again with some more wood filler just to smooth them out completely, but even so, I have a feeling that the stain will accentuate all of my filling, which is not the desired effect, to say the least!!

I have ALMOST determined the stain / technique I will be using. I'm getting some very nice, richly coloured red mahogany / cherry right now on my test boards. With that in mind, has anyone used darker wood filler than the natural wood, when staining dark with good effect?

 

[Fritzz]

You could get the filler pens that match the stain of the wood. Something like This

 

[Mohonri]

If this is on the sides of the drawers, I wouldn't worry about the imperfections.

The trick to invisible joints/voids is to make them fit as tightly as possible in the first place. It's too late for you at this point, but something to keep in mind for the future. You should get some wood putty to fill in those voids--they make stuff for all sorts of different woods, and it stains very similar to the wood as well.

Another thing to try is to rub some glue into the joint, then sand it while the glue is still a bit wet. The sawdust will naturally migrate to the areas with the glue and help hide the joint.

 

[Sir_Poop_Alot]

I want to do something like that but lack the tools and time I have Mikal desk from IKEA that I want to convert to house a mATX based computer though, right inside of the sliding keyboard tray. Then dremel off part of the top and put a glass top for that portion on it. Maybe someday i'll do that.

 

[Ultra Wide]

WOW, this is awesome. Can't wait for the next update!

What color will the desk surface top be?

 

[ChocoFish]

Im subbed on this too, looks awesome can't wait for the finished product.

 

[pkt1237]

If you really wanted to hide the holes from screws etc would be to comletely fill it with something like Bondo and then sand it all the way down to the level of the rest of the panel then you could stain over it and it would hide the crevices etc. Used this couple times for when doing some projects worked decent enough for me.

 

[akifbayram]

This looks incredible. I can't wait for the next update!

 

[ultimatedesk]

You could get the filler pens that match the stain of the wood. Something like This

Thanks for the idea Fritzz, I will keep that in mind.

If this is on the sides of the drawers, I wouldn't worry about the imperfections.

The trick to invisible joints/voids is to make them fit as tightly as possible in the first place. It's too late for you at this point, but something to keep in mind for the future. You should get some wood putty to fill in those voids--they make stuff for all sorts of different woods, and it stains very similar to the wood as well.

Another thing to try is to rub some glue into the joint, then sand it while the glue is still a bit wet. The sawdust will naturally migrate to the areas with the glue and help hide the joint.

Duly noted - for my next major wood project, I will likely cut oversize so that I can put each piece through a jointer before adding trim or making joints. I'll have to give your technique a shot, sounds like it could work well. I'm guessing that using the ROB sander wouldn't be a good idea, since the hook and loop could get messed up from the glue though eh?

I want to do something like that but lack the tools and time I have Mikal desk from IKEA that I want to convert to house a mATX based computer though, right inside of the sliding keyboard tray. Then dremel off part of the top and put a glass top for that portion on it. Maybe someday i'll do that.

Neat - you might need something a little stronger than a dremel to put a nice hole through a desktop though, don't you think?

WOW, this is awesome. Can't wait for the next update!

What color will the desk surface top be?

Thanks Ultra Wide - I've been playing around with various stains in the past week or two with some test samples, and I think I've found the shade of dark red cherry / mahogany that I'll be using. Stay tuned for some pics

Im subbed on this too, looks awesome can't wait for the finished product.

Thanks ChocoFish

If you really wanted to hide the holes from screws etc would be to comletely fill it with something like Bondo and then sand it all the way down to the level of the rest of the panel then you could stain over it and it would hide the crevices etc. Used this couple times for when doing some projects worked decent enough for me.

Hmm, haven't heard of using Bondo for wood projects when staining is involved. I may have to give that a shot sometime. Thanks for the idea.

This looks incredible. I can't wait for the next update!

Thanks akifbayram, I should have a new update in the next day or two

Thanks for the comments everyone, I should have an update up in the next day or two.

 

[Mohonri]

Duly noted - for my next major wood project, I will likely cut oversize so that I can put each piece through a jointer before adding trim or making joints. I'll have to give your technique a shot, sounds like it could work well. I'm guessing that using the ROB sander wouldn't be a good idea, since the hook and loop could get messed up from the glue though eh?.

If you have the pad mounted on the ROS right, the glue shouldn't get into the hook-and-loop at all. Besides, you give the glue a few minutes before you sand it, so it's not as liquid.

 

[ultimatedesk]

If you have the pad mounted on the ROS right, the glue shouldn't get into the hook-and-loop at all. Besides, you give the glue a few minutes before you sand it, so it's not as liquid.

Thanks Mohonri, I'll keep that in mind.

Received a nice package in the mail a couple weeks ago that I've been meaning to show off...

What could it be?

Woohoo!!!

That's:
4 x 2 GB of 1600Mhz CL7 Ballistix RAM from Crucial and
2 x 2 GB of 1333Mhz ECC, Registered RDIMM RAM from Crucial!

So it looks like for the main system I will have some options. Currently I'm thinking either a socket 1156 Core i5/i7 or a newer Sandy Bridge socket 1155. The only issue that may occur with the Sandy Bridge is that those Crucial Ballistix are rated for 1.65 Volts, which I understand is a bit over the recommended voltage for RAM for the 1155 boards. There is a possibility of looking at an AMD AM3 system as well with a Phenom x4 or x6 - I have not made up my mind entirely yet.

For the server system, I am almost definetely going with a Xeon processor - which motherboard is still in the air.

Aren't they so nice?

Can't wait to open them up and test them out! It'll have to wait for now, however.

So here's a distraction - my cat! She's going to have some kittens soon!

Big thanks go out to Crucial, who are officially the first sponsor for The Ultimate Computer Desk



Stay tuned, lots of updates in the pipeline!

 

[ultimatedesk]

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.

Here it is:

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.

 

[Faceless]

I have wanted to do something similar to this in my basement but just do not know where to start. Your progress is making me want to get my ass moving.

Stellar job my friend!

 

[ultimatedesk]

I have wanted to do something similar to this in my basement but just do not know where to start. Your progress is making me want to get my ass moving.

Stellar job my friend!

Thanks, Faceless Just start with some sketches by hand, and maybe move up to Google Sketchup next - the application is actually really easy to use, and there are a ton of tutorials online for the beginner.