Desk modding count? Yea, that desk.. Whole re-fit augmentation :P

STRESSTEST · Oct 27, 2004

Let's start with the before:

Ok, so it's a pretty cool desk. It's big, 3-sided, holds lots of shit but it wasn't big enough. And I wasnt to excited about the light gray top. I'm into a darker look but not that stuffy mahogany lawyers office crap.

Enter the mod-mood

First off the desk is basically two 6' long desks with a 3' bridge spanning the two, and a large hutch/cabinet. In the room there was quite a bit of room on the other side of the bare desk section for guests to sit at. This is particularly helpful when someone comes over and needs assistance building their PC (I push everyone I know to learn, not let ME do it for them). Some time ago I was thinking that I wanted a desk that would just run on 3 of the 4 walls in here. Screw the area for ppl to sit. If I did this I could easily have more working space for myself

And I'm a selfish bastard anyway, so heck yea. lol

Shopping list:

1 sheet pressboard 10 bucks
3 sheets Formica Noir Envision 85 bucks each sheet
1 gallon Formica glue (rubber cement basically) 23 bucks
1 paint brush 50 cent
1 paint tray 99 cents
1 roller and brush 5 bucks
1 Formica roller press 9 bucks
1 Formica knife/scoring tool 6 bucks
4 brushed stainless handles (to replace the plastic ones on there now) 5 bucks ea.
3 8'x1/2"x1' Oak trim for final dress around surface 9 bucks ea

First off, sanding. Lots of sanding. Over the 4+ years I've had this desk, there have been many spills of beverage on it. Due to small pinholes in the top cover some has managed to get into the wood causing it to swell. So there are these bumps on the top. All needed to be smoothed out for the new laminate.

The hutch less desk section had this bowing edge to it so it would never go against a wall flush. Out came Mr. Skill saw. ta ta to the bow. Now it sits nicely up against the wall.

Sanding the doors to the hutch too

New 7 foot long bridge being laid up

6 footer being laid up prior to trimming

Trimming

What? You thought I'd leave the Dremel out of this mod? pfft

The room looks like a bomb went off in it at the moment. But the next updates will show great improvement.

This shows the new Formica and the old covering on the drawers. Big difference I think

More later.

CrimandEvil · Oct 27, 2004

I so envy you.

Great looking desk, you should post the pics of the lighting.

I think I'm going to build myself a desk like that.

Whatsisname · Oct 27, 2004

shoulda gone glass topped. Glass topped is the best ever!

ness1469 · Oct 27, 2004

Whatsisname said:
shoulda gone glass topped. Glass topped is the best ever!

yeah, except it's really hard to hide the fact that you don't clean your desk on a regular basis. And that whole "weight limit" thing can be bad, too.

Gongo · Oct 27, 2004

glass is a frickin pain in the ass.. finger prints everywhere.. dust and crap everywhere... but man i want your monitor setup...

EGGO · Oct 27, 2004

ness1469 said:
yeah, except it's really hard to hide the fact that you don't clean your desk on a regular basis. And that whole "weight limit" thing can be bad, too.

Don't I know it. I'm really afraid of getting that 22" NEC because of how it would be placed on my monitor hutch.

STRESSTEST, how tedious was the sanding? Usually, something that big, I would expect to form a few uneven spots (but that's really just 1 year of sanding experience talking).

Might as well use a leafblower to blow out the residue though

STRESSTEST · Oct 27, 2004

tedious?

In my old life I used to be a finish carpenter. After that I went to work at Boeing working on multi million dollar interiors for those shiny silver things you see go overhead.

Not really tedious for me, but its all relative, right? But I degress..

OptPrime · Oct 27, 2004

stresstest excellent job so far. I loved your pix of your setup in the workstation thread. However i think you should have mod move this to worklogs... cause even though it isnt a computer it belongs in there with the rest of the elite mods.

mod on my friend

YeaAboutMalmrose · Oct 27, 2004

awsome job but i liked it the other way, but still awsome job

Blackdog · Oct 27, 2004

that's awesome i can't wait to see the finished product.

I myself might be building an entertainment center setup for my room, since I can't find anything that fits and that I like...

any suggestions on a really dark stain that isn't black, but almost black? I'm probably going to sand and stain what I make...

woodix · Oct 27, 2004

So was the original desk a custom build? I was considering this option as well before I installed an Elfa wall unit.

Suicyde · Nov 1, 2004

Nice desk. Wish i had something like that in my room.....too bad my room is toooo small

STRESSTEST · Nov 3, 2004

woodix said:
So was the original desk a custom build? I was considering this option as well before I installed an Elfa wall unit.

Originally from Costco some 4 or 5 years ago.

Couple more pics

Gotta love the disaster

You see 1 leg here for the bridge. I ended up going with two.

It's done now, but I have several more pics that need to be taken with the oak trim in place now.

Some you keep asking for more info on the CCFL lighting I used under it. So here are some pics of the control box and oldschool PSU (AT)

List of parts:
Radioshack project box Cat # 270-1806
Radioshack RCA jack, panel mount Cat # 274-322
2 x Radioshack wire spool Cat # 278-567
Radioshack RCA plugs 4-pack Cat #: 274-319
5 x CCFL rocker switches
4 x LEDs (1 ea. Red, Green, Blue, UV)
12 x Dual Bulb CCFL kits (3 ea. Red, Green, Blue, UV)
3 to 4-pin fan adaptor (3-pin side cut off)
1 hot glue gun
drill

I chose RCA plugs/jacks because they are 2 conductor and all I needed was 12 volts to the CCFL kits anyway. Center pin on the plugs was +12v and the outside was -12v ground.

The config

Here's one of the 4 wire harnesses I made. Every so often I made a junction with a butchered power harness from the CCFL kit to the main wire harness when I needed to hit an inverter. The end has a RCA connector on it for the control box.

They are about 12 feet long overall since I cut each spool in half and had a little extra cut off each.

each cable hits 3 dual bulb CCFL kits (6 lights total per color)

I'll get the final pics up tomorrow

Casualty of war is the lava lamp... I discovered a crack in the glass towards the bottom where it mates with the base

.... Oh well..

Chris626 · Nov 3, 2004

Damn that's nice. Can't wait to see it when it's finished. I'm gonna have to stop coming to this section of the forum. Everytime I do, it just makes my setup look sadder & sadder. lol

DudeItsMe · Nov 3, 2004

Chris626 said:
Damn that's nice. Can't wait to see it when it's finished. I'm gonna have to stop coming to this section of the forum. Everytime I do, it just makes my setup look sadder & sadder. lol

There are other sections in this forum

dbwillis · Nov 3, 2004

Loks like it came out nice !

Im waiting for someone to put a USB jack into the desktop surface, great place for plugging in USB drives and joysticks and such!

STRESSTEST · Nov 3, 2004

Okay, all done

Added some low voltage halogen micro sized canned lights to the hutch for some warm light

Some closeups of the 1 x 3/8" oak trim

Here you see the 2 pord network drop and the CCFL lighting control box. (And that thumpin Logitech sub

)

another lamp

And then Stress said, "Let there be light" lol

Shots of both Herman Miller Chairs

And some shots of all the wiring / management going from left to right

And some last closeups of the work stations and the lateral file/printerstand

Chris626 · Nov 3, 2004

Very nice, great job. Btw, I hate you.

(j/k)

mickey987 · Nov 3, 2004

That is a very nice room you have there! I wonder how it would look if you would have painted the walls too? But I guess it's a bit too late for that...

Very nice job!

Quicksilver · Nov 3, 2004

Ya know, I always come poking around here for random bits of inspiration, but I think i have just hit a solid vein of it right here.

I think I'll be planning my own custom desk mod myself in the near future, and I'll be ripping off your "CCFL-under-the-desk" idea wholesale.

All in all, great job!

Sideroxylon · Nov 3, 2004

Sweet setup. Very nice upgrade. You should consider doing something like that for a living.

DisrupTer911 · Nov 3, 2004

OMG! thats a helluva nice office you've got there!

Kick ass man!

Is that a 3 LCD array of 2001FPs?

what are those other 2 LCDs?

You've done one awsome job there!!!

the under desk lighting is really cool.

norky · Nov 3, 2004

awesome job, i'm envious.

can you tell me where i might be able to find those wallpapers?

thanks

DudeItsMe · Nov 3, 2004

Congratulations, you just owned your bank account

Seriously though Stress, that's awesome. The same level of awesomeness I have come to associate with all your mods. Now if only I were rich...

DR_K13 · Nov 3, 2004

Stress, you da man, I thought you setup was sweet before, but now, WOW.
I wish I had that much space ( think of all the Folding Boxen I could put in there)
Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STRESSTEST · Nov 3, 2004

DisrupTer911 said:
Is that a 3 LCD array of 2001FPs?

what are those other 2 LCDs?

3 x 1800FPs
2 x Planar 17's
1 x cheeseball 15"

norky said:
can you tell me where i might be able to find those wallpapers?

thanks

here and here

compslckr · Nov 3, 2004

very sweet setup once again. i cant wait to have a place of my own (1st college student living in dorms)

you will be the inspiration for me when i do get my own place

DR_K13 · Nov 3, 2004

compslckr said:
you will be the inspiration for me when i do get my own place

I know the feeling. I get depressed everytime I look at stress's stuff

Ph34rful · Nov 3, 2004

Damn dude. So nice and clean! Everything is just perfect. Me = very jealous.

Hinokagutsuchi · Nov 3, 2004

Could you explain how you did the formica? I'm thinking of doing it to my desk as it's got the swollen places in it as well. The direction's on formica's site made it seem like you put the adhesive on both the sheet then the desk, then let it dry, then put the formica on the desk. I'm sure I'm mistaken, though.

Still, it looks awesome.

roachm · Nov 3, 2004

All you need to put in your will is my name ^_^. Very very nice setup man, thats what I'm striving for when I get out of college! (of course I must finish highschool and get into college, blah!)

Aren't you worried about getting robbed? lol

Maybe now you should be

It_The_Cow · Nov 3, 2004

Cool. Nice work

Black Label · Nov 4, 2004

Nice job man, i really like the blue cold cathodes and it matches with your desktop theme too.

STRESSTEST · Nov 4, 2004

Hinokagutsuchi said:
Could you explain how you did the formica? I'm thinking of doing it to my desk as it's got the swollen places in it as well. The direction's on formica's site made it seem like you put the adhesive on both the sheet then the desk, then let it dry, then put the formica on the desk. I'm sure I'm mistaken, though.

Still, it looks awesome.

Yea, that's how you do it. I didn't read it tho, so I guess I did it right

Actually the process was pretty easy. I bought the gallon of their adhiesive, a paint roller and pan. One word of caution, you WILL need a well ventilated area. I did this in my garage with the door up and a fan outside blowing air into the garage on high speed and I was still getting loopy.

Anyway, i rolled it on the formica and then the stock.. I really didn't wait to long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes max. They sell this roller press dealy too at the store I went too. The idea is that once you have the two halves in place you start at one end and basically put your weight into the roller on the top of the formica and press out all the air bubbles. It's pretty easy but hard on the wrists. I let them sit for maybe an hour or so before I trimmed them with the dremel.

Just remember that stuff is real brittle. Make sure you have some help when you handle the 4x8 sheets if you do this. It's real easy to crack the stuff or knock a corner off of it while moving it.

roachm said:
All you need to put in your will is my name ^_^. Very very nice setup man, thats what I'm striving for when I get out of college! (of course I must finish highschool and get into college, blah!)

Aren't you worried about getting robbed? lol

Maybe now you should be

Rofl, nice

kHz · Nov 4, 2004

What a bastard, I love that setup.
I want one..*jealous*

HRslammR · Nov 4, 2004

so, perhaps most importantly... is boeing hiring?

Pagan Wizard · Nov 4, 2004

6 LCD's on one ass kickin desk.............OK Stress........now I'm depressed.

Malice · Nov 4, 2004

That is stunning work there mate! - I was planning something similar in my computer room & when I was buying the desks my room was about the same size as yours, sadly when I bought the desks (only a corner unit & a long desk to start with thankfully) it seems the image of my room in my mind was a touch bigger than the reality

- If I had bought all the desks in 1 go & would have an area about 5' square in the middle

I should really start to measure things! - I may have to borrow the cc idea though

Good Work!

UT-Jackal · Nov 4, 2004

So did you power the ccfl's with a psu that was not connected to a computer? if so how did you get the psu to work without hooking it up to a mobo? Cause i have an extra psu and some extra ccfl's and that would be cool to do in my apt

compslckr · Nov 4, 2004

to make a cpu work with no MB

you just need to put a paper clip or piece of wire between the green wire and the black wire right next to it

Desk modding count? Yea, that desk.. Whole re-fit augmentation :P

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