Hi everyone! This is my first post to the forums despite the fact I have been hanging around for a very long time! Now I hope you will accept me into the community and I can comment on some of the amazing bits of art work I have seen here! Firstly though, let me apologise for the pun in the title, this is my A2 level project so strict deadlines for the desk have been imposed however I do intend to take my time with the latter stages, the watercooling and finishing touches. Right, first off, I had to design… I had multiple ideas for this however after many sketches and sketchup models I came up with the design I eventually chose. The above are all different models; my final design idea was a combination of the best bits from all three, which is what is pictured below. For those of you interested, the software I turned to at this point was Autodesk Inventor. These dimensions all change a little bit but this is the general idea of what I am trying to create. Next up was the material choice, I went for Oak… I think my tech teacher thought I was crazy, but I was insistent/stubborn… Then it arrived and I did not regret my decision... It was quite heavy though. In order to know which bit to cut where I had made up some jigsaw puzzles, there are two different thicknesses of wood, 18mm for the main structure and 12mm for the sub frame. Below is one of the four, one for each sheet of wood! Now it was just the small task of cutting it, for this we used a circular saw and set the right measurements with the fence. The next thing I did was cut the shape for the front and back panels on the bandsaw, it then required sanding… Because I chose oak, it required a lot of sanding… In this picture you can also see the template I laser cut to ensure I didn't have the bandsaw wandering off in the middle of the cut. The original plan from my design was to dowel join the pieces together, so I did a test piece. You can see in the picture below that the holes didn't quite line up therefore they did not join together so a rethink was required on that front. The technique I then discovered was biscuit joining, so we commenced this process by using a router to cut the slots in each and every piece of wood where a join would be. You can also see in a few of the pictures below where we have used tongues in the wood in order to make the whole structure stronger. After some more sanding and chiseling, things were looking a lot more shipshape! Now just before I go, some parcels arrived today... Sneak peek of what is to come! I will be back shortly, all comments are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!
Nice start man! Using oak is going to be though but I hope it pays off for the looks! Have you though about cable routing/hiding for the motherboard and stuff? A double bottom is very usefull. Keep it up!
Thanks! And thanks, much appreciated Thanks, your original desk build was the one that properly got me into computers! Thanks! Thank you for the suggestion. Although it wasn’t possible to have a double bottom on the case (the material was too thick and I didn’t want it to be too big height wise) I have got an alternative solution for cable management. There will be a false back wall inside the desk which the power supply will sit behind and that will be where the majority of cables will be hidden. In terms of running cables through the visible area of the desk, they will all be braided and there are various areas I can hide them to make it look good, under radiators and the motherboard tray etc. Now onto the 2nd update! First I had some more holes to router in the front and back panel; here you can see the baton we used to get the hole in the right place. You can also see the template that I used to get the baton in the right place. Then it is just a case of running the router along the baton to cut the hole. And an action shot! Oh yes, I almost forgot the legs! We have cut the corners out here so that they sit flush with the front and sides of the desk, this should make it look less like a kitchen table and more like a desk! You can also see some of the other pieces of the desk in this picture. Quick test assembly of one of the legs, you can feel how sturdy its going to be, Oak is just such a nice material! You can see here the two pieces that I am going to glue in to hold the legs in without having to glue the legs. This means the desk will be transportable as the legs can be removed. On this picture you can see the top of the table leg. The lid for the desk will sit between the raised side panel on either side to stop it from moving but will still be supported by all the table legs and the middle panel. Because of the watercooling integration I then had to cut some holes for the fans, I did this with a jigsaw. The fan guards shown are Bitspower radgards and the fans are corsair SP120’s. First I marked out where the cut needed to be made. Because it is very difficult to get a perfect cut with the jigsaw I set out my cut so that the edges can be sanded down and still be hidden by the radiator guard. I then drilled a hole and started the cutting. A short while later... I'm very happy with how it turned out, here is the view from the inside as well, all I have to do now is do the same for the other side panel! Some more watercooling goodness arrived yesterday, both radiators are here! I decided to go with the Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta 480 as my radiator. I wanted that extra thickness that they provide so that I can run the fans at next to nothing when the PC is doing very little. Also, I designed the desk so that they could fit, so why not! That's all for today, I will post another update soon showing the tricky process of gluing, there are so many different pieces it proved to be an enormous challenge! Take care guys, as always your comment and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
