Insane Geek

Today, I picked up most of the wood needed to build the desk and delivered it to my friend Tim’s house. Tim has a small shop in his garage, and has graciously offered to help with his tools and expertise. Thanks Tim!

Since I have people like Tim to offer advice, I did not go to a big box store like Lowe’s or Home Depot to get the exposed wood, although I had planned to. Instead I went to a lumber manufacturer. While the supplies could be easily purchased at a national chain, the difference in quality was obvious.

I also did not buy dimensional lumber for the trim and cabinet pieces. Tim has a planer and jointer, so I purchased rough lumber which, when processed, seems to be much nicer then the mass produced. Plus, it was cheaper. You can also by dimensional lumber from these manufactures, which will also be of a higher quality.

I live in the West Michigan area, so I choose to go to Johnson’s Work Bench, but if you look you can easily find a similar company near you.

Today I bought:

• 2 – 3/4″ X 4′ X 8′ sheets of Red Oak plywood
• 11 board feet of Red Oak
• 4 – 3/4″ X 4′ X 8′ sheets of White Pine plywood

I still need to get 2 – 1/4″ X 2′ X 4′ sheets of Red Oak plywood. This will be used for the back of he cabinet, and in the cabinet door.

The White Pine is being used for the desk surface (2 sheets thick = 1 1/2″). Since I am going to use a Formica surface, I did not need wood with an extra nice finish for the desk surface. If you wanted to stain the desk surface, then the pine would need to be Red Oak as well (Or another wood, such as birch)

As I have mentioned, I have some friends in the tool and die business, and was able to get some time on a 3D cad system. I ended up using Solid Works 2005 since my desk does not have an complex surfacing, and Solid Works is very easy to use.

Something as powerful as Solid Works is not required. I just wanted to learn something about the Solid Modeling. This design could easily be done with any 2 dimensional cad package, or even on a piece of paper. The 3D solid model does have its advantages, mainly it is a great tool to help visualize the model, and making changes are a breeze. Especially if the drawings are already completed. Since a drawing is just a 2D view of the 3D part, a change to the 3D model is immediately reflected in the drawings. Saving a bunch of time.

I will not bore anyone with all of the details of the design process. Just keep in mind that the final model below is almost identical to my first version, but has gone through a few refinements. These refinements were based on input from friends that work with wood, and had good ideas that would help make a better, stronger, easier to build desk. If anyone has any questions on the design or the modeling, let me know. I will do my best to answer.

Here is an isometric view of the desk looking from the back of the right side:

I do expect a few more changes to occur when I build the desk, but nothing major. I am thinking about adding something to the underside for cable managment.

I have been working on figuring out the design of my desk for about three weeks. Not really spending much time, but just putting in a little work here and there.

I want to have an L-Shaped desk since this will fit well in my office. One side of the L will be used for my computer, monitor, etc. and the other will be where I work on projects.

I began by figuring out the total dimensions that I wanted. I measured the current length and depth of my current desk. This came out to approximately 8′-2″ X 3′-0″. I then measured the width of the wall where the other side of the L would go, which is approximately 11′-0″, but where the desk will be located, I lose some space due to having to jog the wall around the furnace. So, I end up with 7′-5″ at the floor. My basement is a daylight basement, and the office is in a corner, so I have a 12″ ledge on two sides. The actual room is 12′-0″ X 13′-0″.

Now that the dimensions are known, I decided to make the desk 8′-0″ X 6′-0″ This will leave a little room between the desk and the wall for a waste basket.

In addition to having additional work space area, I wanted to add a cabinet to the desk so I have a place to store stuff instead of just leaving it on the desktop. I took some measurements of those plastic storage containers, and I figured if I had 16″ clear space inside the cabinet, I would have plenty of room to store things in the container, yet still be able to remove when needed.

Now that I have some numbers to use, it is time to start the model! More to come…

I have been wanting to get into micro controllers and electronics for some time, and in 2006, I plan to do something. At a minimum, I would like to get an Atmel Butterfly and begin playing around.

To accomplish, I decided that first I should have a better work area. One that has both a desk for my computers and an area for projects.

Here is my current setup, which is just a table top with some metal legs, and an old printer table that my dad and I built when I was younger (circa Commodore 64/128 days).

On could argue that this is plenty of surface area to house a computer and do projects, but it just seems to collect “stuff”. And I am well aware that increasing the available surface area will not solve the under lying issue of stacking things where ever there is space.

I looked at the office supply stores and online, but could never find anything I really liked, or which was reasonably priced. So I decided that I would like to build my own. In addition to building it, I wanted to design it, model it in 3D and create the drawings. Why? To me the fun is not just in the building, but in the design. It also provides an opportunity to learn something new.

I also have the advantage of having friends who work in the tool and die business that could get me access to a myriad of software to use. Plus, I have some other friends who have wood working equipment at home and have offered to help. They have been invaluable in teaching me things I never knew about working with wood. So much so that I wish I had the room to have a small shop of my own!