Scratch Build – In Progress Creation of a RGB ROG Table - My First Mod...

Hello and welcome,

I've never delved into the world of modding, so I thought about this when my boss showed me all sorts of weird things that people do with epoxy resin. I have always loved ASUS products and their logo is all over my desk as is with multitudes of ROG gear; it ranges from my motherboard to my mouse pad, it is all ROG ... for the most part.

I wanted to create something truly unique, but at the same time, it is my first attempt at this sort of stuff. I'm hoping that it will turn out as I have yet to perfect any wood crafting or resin pouring...

The concept behind it is rather simple. Create something unique while getting some practice in. The two go hand in hand, so let's get on with it...

My desk currently comprises of a large fire door that they were throwing out at work (we have 25 more of them!) and it weighs around 80 pounds. It's heavy to say the least, which is largely due to it being a fire door with a 20 minute rating. At least it's getting a bit of a diet as I think the epoxy will be lighter than the wood that's within this door.

Within the logo is going to be an RGB strip around its entirety to illuminate the eye. I haven't decided whether it is going to get wired into my rig or a remote RGB controller just yet, but I will get to that later. I think the separate controller might be better due to me being able to turn it on without my rig being on. I'm also not too sure if the motherboard will be happy to power such a large array of LEDs.

I have a number of things that I would love to incorporate into the desk. One of such things is an original ROG light up logo from the X48 Rampage Extreme - my favourite board of all time, as some of you know. I think the REx one might be slightly different, but that's the look I am going for.

Let's get some pictures, shall we?! Yuh huh... I hear ya.

I started off with a 4x4 grid of the ROG logo that I enlarged to make it more appropriately sized for my desk, which by the way is 35" x 83".



Once I had it all stenciled together, it was time to get the outline on to the table. Thankfully, it's easy enough with a Sharpie and a bit of time. Multiple passes over the lines eventually penetrate the paper and transfer the ink onto the surface below. It's hard to see, but you can see the outline if you look carefully.



And, just like that, we have something to trace later on...



Tadaaaah...



Ignore all of those ink splodges on the desk. I actually found out that when you shake a Sharpie too hard, it releases a lot of ink into the cap. Whoops! However, I am going to be painting the desk at some point, so it is no big deal. It's just a vinyl finish that is on it right now, so I am not worried about losing the wooden look.



There we go ... it's ready for the chopping block! I have already started to cut it and do some things to the desk, but those pictures are on my phone. I'll get them off of it later and begin to edit/upload what is worthy of uploading later on or tomorrow.

Until the next time, folks... here's my concept for my first mod.

 

I would recommend using a projector for this kind of thing. That is what a lot of schools use to paint murals on gym walls.
Alternatively, for a simple design, a transparency with a lap could probably sign a clear enough image to trace.

 

Too late. It’s already cut and in need of touching up to get the edges where I want them.

 

Older fire doors were full of asbestos....

I hope this is a newer fire door!

 

It’s a newer door, for sure. It’s a wood chip structure.

 

I didn't get to do as much to the desk as I had wanted to today, but I still managed to get some stuff done nonetheless.

I managed to get the entire ROG logo roughly cut out, which was more of a hassle than you might have thought. This laminate and wood chip combo is tough going.



Roughly 45 minutes later, I am getting to the point where I am satisfied with the rough cut. It needs more work, for sure, but at least I am at the point where I can start the finer detailing...





All cabling for the monitors and peripherals will come through the side of the desk and out the top, behind my primary monitor. Most of it aught to be hidden, but it has to come out of somewhere. I will need to cut the acrylic top out to make room, but this is roughly where I am expecting it to go...



Once I got to this stage, I started to form a hole in the wall for the top of the eye. This is where the RGB cabling is going to pass through. I still have a few more holes to create for the other regions of the eye, but you've got to start it somewhere...



Testing the recess creation for the RGB strip... I want it to be hidden inside the walls of the eye, which should make the lighting a little more effective as soon as it hits the edge of the resin rather than being offset into the resin itself.



Lastly, this is where it had to stop for today as it was getting late and I didn't want to be a nuisance to the neighbours, nor did I want to be doing it in the dark. You can see the RGB lighting reflecting off of my table. Before you ask, yes, my deck is RGB lit too! I believe that the removal of the laminated top is roughly the depth that I need for the glass to sit perfectly flush against the rest of the desk. Win!



Next on the list is to finish carving for the glass panel that'll sit on the top, and then to flip it and do the same on the bottom of the table. Once that's done, it'll be a case of patching up the mistakes, and then continuing onward with the paint scheme. I can't decide what colour I want to paint the desk. I'm thinking of going with a black under the glass, and perhaps leaving the wood as is... or perhaps painting the entire thing black. What're your thoughts?

Stay tuned! I've got lots coming.

 

This is really cool. Looking forward to where it’s going

 

A fire door with a 20 minute rating? So it's guaranteed to burn for 20 minutes?
Interesting idea, but terrible material to work with. You are going to have a hell of a time getting chip board to look good. You may need to re-cover it with something like vinyl.

 

Ahhh, but that's all in the master plan.

Yeah, it should hold a fire at bay for 20 minutes before it burns through. I don't particularly want to test that theory...

 

I just find it silly they make it out of the same stuff fire logs are made of.
Then again, I'm not a big fan of the new 'veneered' doors anyway. That thinner-than-paper layer of wood on top of cardboard damages too easy.

 

This layer is surprisingly thick and hasn’t damaged after years of service. I just need to get it out of the way for my glass topping.

 

This is coming on quite nicely! I’ve got to buy a sander and a few pads for it, and then I can begin the next stage.

 

what will you do with the hole where the handle was? i'd lend you a router if you were near by

 

I am actually going to leave it as is - that's going to serve as my main cable point for the monitors and peripherals.

It has been a long time since I added anything to this ... so I am going through photos and uploading them very soon. I've made some progress!

I really need to hurry it up as it needs to be done before I go to Punta Cana for 9 days on the 24th, and I also have a young (10 week old) Corgi woofer that is moving in with us the day we get back from the trip.

I've got it all planned out... kinda.

 

Update time! First thing's first, the all important RGB strips. These took an age to arrive from the seller, but it was well worth it as they are super bright, extremely uniform in colour and also have the black PCB I wanted. They are coated in a plastic resin to make sure that they won't have any issues when inserted into the desk with resin over the top of them.



I moved on to creating the legs for my desk, which actually come from an old IKEA desk. It would've been fine to leave as is, which is how they were previously used, but the mounting points just hit into the cut out area. That's no bueno!



So they got a chop. Sadly, my jig saw blade got melted in the process of cutting this seemingly hardened steel. It has no teeth left, but the job got completed.



One side complete, another to come very shortly.



Moving on to the desk itself. I completely finished removing all of the laminated top, and have unfortunately created quite a mess underneath where I dug a little too deep with my tools...



That's what putty is for, though! Am I right, or what?



Cutting the laminate with a Dremel was never going to give me a perfect edge, but it did give me a starting place. Now, I've inserted a much nicer edge that is in need of some sanding.



Around an hour to an hour and a half later, I've got some flat edges to work with and have filled it in with putty to make sure that it will be seamless once painted. I know that there are still some imperfections. I will be going back to put a final layer of the putty in place before giving it one last sanding for a great finish.



Whilst I was cutting the trench for the LEDs, I made a horrid mistake and the middle piece ended up snapping off. However, it actually worked in my favour as it will make it significantly easier to do the rest. I just need to get creative as to how I reattach it in the future.



It also doubles as a pretty neat Pac Man ... I've got to figure out how to put this back together without destroying the look as well. It split clean in half when carving out the channel for the lights.



This is where I am stopping for now, as I have managed to dig out enough to get some of the LED strip into the desk, but have yet to finish the rest of the table. It is on the to-do list for tomorrow after work.



To finish off... here's the beautiful sunrise I encountered a couple of days ago. The image is completely unedited and taken straight from my phone.



Thanks for looking! Stay tuned to see more. I am going to try to post a few more updates before I leave for the trip ... but I can't do much when it is starting to get cold outside. Thankfully, I can start to move this inside once all of the prep is done. I've got some very cool paint that'll be perfect for the job. It will be a plain colour, but it will hopefully have a stunning end result.

 

Never seen clouds like that!!!!!!!

 

It happens every once in a while for me... must be all those V8 pollutant beasts roaming around. You can see my baby in white on the end.

 

You mean the white van which should have "FREE CANDY" written on it? I kid

 

Hah! That’s a guy who works for a painting company too.

Nah, mines two cars over. I love my truck.