My New Desk

Steve1

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Joined
Jul 5, 2017
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I normally post from my "office", but I also keep a second computer in my bedroom. I send mp3's over to it to listen to at night, and also use it for a weekly backup onto it. But it was in desperate need of a nicer desk.

So I made a new desk. Solid maple. Finished first with General Finishes die-stain, 2 parts Cinnamon, 1 part Amber, 2 parts Reducer. Then 3 coats of General Finishes waterborne High Performance topcoat satin on most of it. 4 coats on the drawer fronts and 7 coats on the desk-top. Used my Graco Ultra airless with a 308 tip for the topcoat. I am still on the learning curve on the sprayer.  Quite a bit of overspray.  I also had some spitting, just as I was finishing up the spray job.  The plan was 4 coats on the desk-top, gun started spitting on coat 4, ..... and on coat 5......and on coat 6.  But coat 7 was pretty good.  That thick topcoat on the top does look pretty nice.    Slightly more "blotchy" than ideal -- I might try applying some sizing before finishing, next time.

The two boxes are each made from one glue-up, so that I have the waterfall effect on the grain.  I have blind splines on the miters to give the joint some extra strength.  On the drawer box, however, I made a bit of a mistake, and the spline has the grain running at right angles to the panels. 

The drawers are dovetailed birch with maple fronts.  Blum undermount slides with soft-close.

I used the "low dollar" tools for cutting the miter spline and biscuits. 

I wanted to hide the computer, so it resides in the LH box. I can slide it out, and tip it forward 45 degrees, so that I am not crawling on the floor when I need to connect cables to the back. I have a 4" vents on either side of that box, and the back is open, so it should have enough airflow.
 

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That is Solidworks.
I find it really helps to have the project thoroughly designed before I start work. 
 
Steve1 said:
That is Solidworks.
I find it really helps to have the project thoroughly designed before I start work.

Thanks! I'll take a look at it and see if I can learn it myself :)
 
I LOVE the way the tower drawer slides out AND TILTS!

In the new age of laptops and NUCs, it's nice to see this level of thought put into keeping a tower computer running smoothly and accessible for maintenance.

Also love the floating-style top!

Great work!
 
That's very nice. I especially like the floating look to the top and the tilt feature to the PC drawer. That has to be helpful with the connections.
 
Crazyraceguy said:
That's very nice. I especially like the floating look to the top and the tilt feature to the PC drawer. That has to be helpful with the connections.

Thank you.
Yes the spacers give the desk a bit of style, and are simple to make.  Only downside is that it tends to hide the waterfall grain flow.  There are identical spacers above and below each box.  The desktop has some locator blocks on the underside so positioning the desktop at assembly is simple (just falls into place when you find the spot).    The desktop has Rampa steel threaded inserts on the underside, and then from inside of each box I have 1/4-20 large head screws that hold the desktop.  The screws are about 3" long, so if the desktop wants to grow, it should have the freedom.
 

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mattbyington said:
[member=65451]Steve1[/member] this is awesome and looks great!! Great work!!

Matt

Thank you.
You post very good pictures of your projects.  I looked at a number of your projects when looking for ideas.
 
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