Bombproof Builders Desk.....Build

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.



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

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.



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.

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 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.