Project: Ultimate Ultra Super Awesome Overclocked Computer Desk - 2 In

[Andrewr05]

I'll be looking forward to the end product as well, it has been awhile since I've seen I've looked at any in depth work logs.

 

 

 

Keep up the work.

[IVIYTH0S]

Sick man, I'm a terrible carpenter...so it's better you're safe from me behind my computer monitor

[cjloki]

the entire entourage of the cirque de soleil couldn't put the hurt on that thing ...it looks like it could withstand a magnitude 7-8 earthquake...is there a reason for the extra heavy duty engineering/materials? oh, or maybe you have a 2-3 year old in the house, that explains it !

[GabrielT]

I am very impressed, keep it up man

[mattyamdfanboi]

cjloki: if u want something done right, u gotta do it urself dad compared his pagola to his other mates,, and man.. the one dad built.. if there ever was a hurricane.. the pagola would be all thats left of the house lol its that fkn solid and yet flexible hahah its insane

[ultimatedesk]

I'll be looking forward to the end product as well, it has been awhile since I've seen I've looked at any in depth work logs.:DKeep up the work.

 

Sick man, I'm a terrible carpenter...so it's better you're safe from me behind my computer monitor

 

I am very impressed, keep it up man

 

cjloki: if u want something done right, u gotta do it urself dad compared his pagola to his other mates,, and man.. the one dad built.. if there ever was a hurricane.. the pagola would be all thats left of the house lol its that fkn solid and yet flexible hahah its insane

Thanks Andrewr05, gabrieltessin, and mattyamdfanboi Heh, funny comment there IVIYTH0S, I'm sure you're not THAT bad, we'll just put you in a suit of chainmail (And everyone else in the shop too) before you come on by

 

the entire entourage of the cirque de soleil couldn't put the hurt on that thing ...it looks like it could withstand a magnitude 7-8 earthquake...is there a reason for the extra heavy duty engineering/materials? oh, or maybe you have a 2-3 year old in the house, that explains it !

I've got to tell you, I put some trim on the actual desk surface yesterday, and at 1.5" thick, it truly is a beast of a surface. There was no requirement to make it as heavy-duty as it is, however, the deal for 3/4" plywood at the local store was so good, that there was no point in going smaller. I hope to keep this desk for many, many years, so, it'll survive quite a few moves I hope! And nope, no kids running around just yet When there are though, they'll be able to use the desk as a jungle gym!

 

 

 

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...

 

On to that first I/O plate - I need to dremel out the section that I need

 

 

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!

[ultimatedesk]

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!

[SpeedCrazy]

Cant wait. You should market this. I would definitely buy it as i would ivy look like an expert carpenter. I mean given the time i would try it myself but probably mangle everything.

 

EDIT: Btw, you know you can buy in/out plates?Here, are some, they are rather hard to find.

Edited December 15, 2010 by SpeedCrazy

[Savan]

Wow! Great build. Glad I ran into this thread.

 

As someone who knows their way around a shop, I must say that this is excellent craftsmanship. I could probably do something like that, but I would never have the patience (or cash for materials). I'm really looking forward to seeing this completed.

 

And ya, Sketchup is a great program. I use it for everything I design.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Savan

[ultimatedesk]

Cant wait. You should market this. I would definitely buy it as i would ivy look like an expert carpenter. I mean given the time i would try it myself but probably mangle everything.

 

EDIT: Btw, you know you can buy in/out plates?Here, are some, they are rather hard to find.

There's an interesting idea - it would be pretty cool to sell "modular" computer desks that could accommodate actual components, eh? I have seen those I/O plates, and you know... there just may be a surprise in the future with those... Thanks for watching and commenting!

 

Wow! Great build. Glad I ran into this thread.

 

As someone who knows their way around a shop, I must say that this is excellent craftsmanship. I could probably do something like that, but I would never have the patience (or cash for materials). I'm really looking forward to seeing this completed.

 

And ya, Sketchup is a great program. I use it for everything I design.

Thanks Savan, that means a lot to me - I don't have a lot of experience being in a shop, but I've always thought applying a bit of patience and measuring twice goes a long way! Thanks for watching and commenting! (Oohhhhh Sketchup, what I would I do without you..!)

 

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?

[_TheAlexO]

lookin good. keep it up im anxious to see the end product

[SpeedCrazy]

Well its coming along nicely.

You have inspired me. My desk will not be so precise as i am a duck out of water with our shop, but i am rather going over the top with the electronics of the thing.