Making my desk

Mostly finished desktop

I made a desk, and if you would like to make a desk I've made a rough guide (below). I did a bunch of extra steps, but the nicest part is the desktop itself so it might be worth just making that and sitting it on top of an existing table to save trouble on all the other bits.

Finished desk in action

As you can see, I live in a palace. My sleeping area had space for a piece of furniture, so I wanted to replace my old desk (http://imgur.com/NsWSs0O) with something nicer. This was a semi-large project that spanned a few different types of making so if you're interested in doing the same/similar but have limited experience with this sort of thing, I would recommend going in small steps.

I've included a long list of all the gear and skills you'll need at the end of the post, as well as some tips on how to acquire.

Playing stick Tetris

First I just line up my sticks of wood. I standardized the width of each row of sticks to 1-inch width using a table saw, but for my approach the height can vary a bit (we'll fix that later).

I'm lucky and work near two woodshops so that's where I got my scrap, but if you're not in the same boat I would try to pick up raw lumber from a yard or order online. Cut the lumber into 1-inch cubed strips on a table saw. I took the approach of basically making a giant butcher block/cutting board, which just means lining up the sticks of wood in a way that I thought was attractive. The only critical part about lining them up is that you create a grouping that's larger than your intended desk size, so you can cut it down to size after the gluing steps (coming up).

The ol' clamp 'n' glue

To make it easy on myself, I did my gluing in a few stages. I tried to get enough glue on each stick so that there was a thin consistent layer between all of them, then I used clamps to create enduring friendship. My eyeball test was to see a tiny amount of beading between sticks once I tightened the clamps. What you're looking at here is just clamp-stick-glue-stick-glue-...n-clamp. It's useful to rest the whole affair on some support scraps of wood.

Superclamp is my favorite band

To make the full width desk, I just repeat the glue and clamp procedure on the pieces I just assembled. Now it's clamp-stick-stick-stick-stick-glue-stick-stick...n-clamp.

An infinity of drum sanding

If, like me, you were short on materials and long on time, you can fix the unevenness of the desktop by running it through a drum sander over and over. This takes an eternity but ultimately it's decerebrate and convenient. A drum sander is just a heavy spinning cylinder coated in sandpaper, grinding away a tiny fraction of an inch each pass so I ended up doing... a lot of passes. Many severals. Since we're just getting to a desired evenness/height and not a polished finish, the grit of the sandpaper can be low which makes for faster sanding.

Robots are always an option

I table sawed off the sides of the desk to get the basic shape and did do a tiny bit of orbital sanding to satisfy my compulsions, and then rented time on a ShopBot at a local maker space to make the mounting points. How these are set up will vary based on how you attach your legs to the desktop (if you plan on attaching them permanently). An easier solution, if you're patient and precise, might be to make a template (out of plywood or cardboard etc) instead and drill these points with a hand drill. It's just cutting holes so do as you will.

Closeness is the essence of nearness

I used a hand router with a round-over bit to to smooth over the desk's edges. Here you can see how the desk will be bolted to the legs. I counter-sunk the bolts so that the next step would be easier...

I'll admit, I got a bit glazy with this part

I'm going a little out of order here for simplicity's sake. Once I was done attaching table legs, I finished the desk's surface with glaze coat, a kind of epoxy that leaves a glossy, thick finish. To apply glaze goat, just pour a thick glob in the middle and use a brush you don't mind throwing away to spread it evenly across the table. Gravity will do the rest.

Glaze coat setting/hardening

I used a bit of tape to keep the glaze from filling in the monitor mount posts.

Glaze coat will set as a hard surface, so that brush you used to spread it around will turn into a rigid piece of modern art after this step. Bye bye brush!

Cutting metal with electricity

I used a plasma cutter to make the steel parts for the table out of a sheet of 12 gauge steel. Plasma cutters are essentially giant electrical circuits that use rapidly moving plasma (state of gas) to complete the circuit. The part of the circuit completing in the gas makes for a useful cutting edge. I tested the edge with a thumb I used to have; can confirm, it's adequately sharp.

I rented time and was trained on this particular machine at the same maker space that had the ShopBot from before. If taking classes and learning how to do this sounds onerous or pricey, you can use services to have someone cut parts for you (eg http://www.bigbluesaw.com/), likely to the tune of $50-$100 including materials.

I designed my file in Adobe Illustrator as a vector file, saved it as a .dxf and imported it into SheetCam for the plasma cutter. If you'd like the files, just message me; happy to share :)

I used simple steel pipe to craft the desk legs and monitor mounts. They were convenient for me because I can run wiring through them. If you use the same approach, you'll need something that can cut steel, like a horizontal bandsaw (above), a blowtorch, or a cutting wit.

Uncomfortable shoes

These are some of the parts I plasma cut, which I prised/folded and then spot-welded into shape to hold my monitors. The curved part goes on the steel post, the flat part snuggles against the back of my monitors, and (not shown) a 2 inch shaft collar bolts them in place and supports their weight. In a pinch, you can use a sturdy epoxy instead of welding to keep these together.

Here you can see the monitor supports held up with the shaft collars. Shaft collars have a bolt that lets you adjust their tension to slide things into place. I did some wiring inside of the support shafts but it was forgettable so I'm skipping that part.

Out of order again, but just showing the monitor mounts in place.

Decoration

More plasma cut parts. These I bent into shape as decoration for the legs of the desk. I welded them into place, but again, if welding isn't your thing, a strong epoxy will work. These parts were decorative so you can skip them to save time but lose out on prettiness. I bent these using a brake but you can also use strong clamps, a sturdy table, and a padded hammer to get the same effect (just clamp one edge of the steel in place and go to town with the hammah).

Same part, different view

The final legs; I've welded the steel table legs to the decor and to the plasma-cut piece that will bolt to the desk

Throw your legs in the aii-er//if you a true play-er

Technically, I bolted the legs on before I did the glaze coat (above) but it's easier to follow the steps this way.

And that's basically it! My goal was to be clear enough that you feel empowered to make your own version without getting bogged down in the weeds. Hopefully you enjoyed! :) Feel free to ask questions, I'm happy to clarify or give advice (or receive criticism) as needed ^_^

Drum sander tax!

Your typical "aww" picture in a chef's hat, just here to whore for points.

Here's a list of loot and gear you'll need if you want to do something similar to my build:
Parts you’ll need
Wood -- You’ll need a bunch of this, but fortunately the size can be small since you’ll be assembling lots of little bits together. If you’re woodless, I would try tracking down local woodworkers or woodshops who will sometimes sell you their scraps. If instead you start with raw lumber, I highly recommend looking up some basic tutorials on jointers. Any saw will do for cutting it down to size, but if you can get your mits on a table saw you'll be ahead of the game.
Glue -- I used regular old wood glue, which will do you right. It can be useful to grab a glue roller to make it easier and faster to apply a thin, consistent layer of glue between your boards/sticks
Metals -- I used 2 inch steel pipe, a 2 inch steel shaft collar, and a sheet of 12 gauge steel. I got that stuff at a local steel and materials store, but all of it can be ordered online as well.
Schematics -- if you want the ShopBot files and plasma cutter files, just direct message me and I’ll email them to you! I couldn’t figure out a good way to just host them in the ether.
Glaze coat -- glaze coat or any good epoxy can be bought online or at a wood finishing place. Just a note: depending on how well you mix it, the glaze coat can take for-frikken-ever to cure/set (like days). You may need to babysit your desktop for a solid few hours while it congeals enough to stop dripping all over the place.

Equipment
As a general note on equipment, you can do nearly anything with just a saw and some sandpaper, but that can take a long time and if you don’t have a lot of experience and a steady hand it can become onerous to do things this way. To get access to sweet tools for cheap, I sought out a local maker space, which are popping up in more and more places. A maker space is basically a place with tools you can be trained on and rent. Sometimes woodshops will also let you rent time in their space, but that’s not their intended design so you may run into some challenges there.
Saws -- everything can be done with the saws of your choice, but again, some saws are just easier to use for some purposes. For making straight cuts and getting precise-enough widths, I would use a table saw. For cutting steel, a horizontal band saw is an excellent choice, but you can also be clever and have all your steel cut to length when you buy it.
Jointer -- if you end up processing your own wood, a jointer is invaluable. A jointer is a kind of cylinder of sawblades that just peek over the horizon of a flat table. By sliding wood over the saw, you create a flush/straight edge. Unprocessed lumber is all kinds of uneven and a jointer removes that factor, plus the finish a jointer leaves is nice and since you’re covering your desk in glaze coat anyway it’s probably a sufficient level of polish.
Drum sander -- a drum sander is a cylinder of sandpaper, and the way I used it (kind of wrong-ish) was just to even out the surface of my desk. They’re very safe, so long as you don’t get anything caught in the spinning wheel like hair or loose clothes. If you can’t get your hands on a drum sander, a hand planer may be the tool you want. They’re fairly cheap and you kind of feel like you’re ironing the wrinkles out of your wood, they’re sort of magical. Just be aware that hand planers are extremely dangerous and you should only use one if you really know what you’re doing. Routers and planers have eaten many fingers.
Routers -- a cheap hand router will do everything you need for this project. Just get a round-over bit and run it along the edges of your desk to finish it. This is a totally aesthetic, non-functional move you can make and it’s double unnecessary given the glaze coating, but I like the look so there you go.
Plasma cutter -- you could use a plasma cutter or a water jet to cut your steel, if you go for the same look that I did. If you’re not already familiar with these tools or don’t have access to a maker space to learn them, it really probably is easier to buy pre-cut shapes as I suggest in the post (or to use a different style of table legs altogether)
Welding -- welding isn’t necessary, but it’s hella fun! There are other tutorials for welding around so I won't spend time chatting about it here.