This summer I plan on building myself a custom desk for my computers... my basic design & requirements are that it can support a 21" CRT, as well as 4 17" TFTs, in a screen screen configuration (two 17" LCDs for one system, the 21" CRT for my main with a 17" LCD, and the fourth 17" LCD for a 3rd system) It needs to be able to properly hold the 5.1 setup for my main pc, as well as be unique in my own way. This is my overall plan. I'd like to use 4"x4" legs (30" tall), with pieces of 1/2" plywood and 1/8" frosted acrylic between them. Topped off with a 3/4" piece of plywood.... I want to incorporate both lighting, as well as some cooling (when you have 5 pcs running under a desk, it tends to get a bit warm in the chair if you know what I mean)... i was thinking of adding 12" cathodes inbetween each set of legs on the desk (between the acrylic and plywood panels), as well as a 120mm fan per panel set (it would be mounted inside the desk, taking air from under it and forcing it out between the panels...
(lol I hit the character limit!) All of this excess electronics would be controlled by a custom control center (the red part) which would incorporate a 12v/7v baybus to control each of the 6 fans individually, switches to control the cathodes (I figure 3 sets of dual cathodes, and a 4th set for lighting my room in a color), a 20x4 USB LCD, a 8 port 10/100 switch, and a 4 port USB hub... Basically a command center for my desk... I might even include one of those transfer panels so I can have headphone jacks etc right on my desktop... Does anyone have any suggestions for additions to it, comments? edit: and before anyone asks, I used ProE Wildfire to do the design, so I can just throw it right onto a cnc controlled saw to cut everything! (it's an expen$ive program, not a freebie)
you should make it a curved turn not a 90 degree turn in the middle, be easier to use a keyboard there and won't be such a tight fit. also your gonna want to re-inforce the center attachment with latches.
Interesting... aswell as that centre curve to make it easier to sit up close to the desk, i think it would look better if all corners were curved. Looks a bit more stylish and obviously no chance of you catching yourself somewhere painful while passing. cant wait to see it finished, i want a custom made desk for my system, but i cant justify it as my current one is fine for my measily single monitor set-up. You dont need 4 tft's - send one my way maybe?!!? .: Fillip :.
I agree with curving the bend on the inside corner. You could also use a piece of wood and run it between opposite corners across where the desk angles to reinforce it some. You may also wanna consider using PVC pipe for legs as the cylinder shape will be just as strong without all the added weight. Weight will be a huge problem if you need to move it or flip it over during the construction.
the plan is to make it all modular.. so i can break it down into pieces and move it with me from my house to my apartment at school... will look into making a curved area... as for the reinforcement, thats what the rectangular bit in the corner is for....
A mockup of what it would look like with a 9" radius curve in teh corner where I sit, 3" radius curves on all of the corners, and 1/2" radius curves on all of the 4x4 posts... I also added a 1/4" radius to the control center bit to better imitate the curved acrylic I might mimic the 9" curve on teh outside corner as well.. not sure yet
agreed!!! 4 TFTs man.... thats brutal. right now im having trouble having my corner desk (probably bigger than the one you have) to efficiently support my case, 17" TFT, and 4.1 speaker configuration whereas you are doing 5.1, with 5 monitors good luck, i might design my own desk for the same reason you are someday..... edit: you also might want to think about wiring..... now if you could have all of that with ungodly tidy wiring i would seriously praise you. make the desk PERFECT for your needs.... everything
I plan on routing all of the wiring in between the layer of plexi and plywood.... it hsould work out quite nicely
For wiring you could consider making a box with a big cord coming out the back with all the ports from the back of the computer in it. It would work if you got a bunch of extension cables for vga/parallel/serial/usb/ps2. I've toyed with the idea myself (it'd be easier for when I need to move my computer from my desk to a LAN, or back home again) but I don't know how much money I wanna spend on cables. If you built it into the desk out of the way (sliding or popping out of somewhere for access) it might prove to be pretty handy. The other reason I had suggested PVC pipe for legs was for the purpose of modularity. It's gonna be a lot easier to remove and transport plastic pipe instead of giant heavy pieces of wood. You could also thread the ends of the pipe and attach threaded caps to the bottom of the desk and you wouldn't have to bolt the legs in every time you needed to move it. You could just twist them on and off.
I would probably put that center radius on the back corner too. It would make the entire table be exactly X wide (and look pretty cool) and that area back there would most likely be wasted space anyway. I'm going to do something like this for myself one day too (once I get a house and a room to put it in). Keep us posted on how it turns out... and take lots of pictures And I love the junction box in the table idea
the problem with using piping is that I plan on routing out channels in the legs to slide the panels into to hold them into place... sort of the best way to lock it all together.... screws into the plywood side, nothing really holding the acrylic in place but friction and gravity... it also allows for a more stable base, and fits in the all together theme of my home office edit: unfortunately, i can't mimic the front radius on the back of the desk as if i do, I expose the top of the rear leg...
I'm thinking I might include my web server into the control center for the desk, so I could eliminate the need to route power to it externally.. then just use the LCD separately from it...
