Hehe, thanks a lot, Jinster, you're a real encouragement

With the drawers and drawer faces all finished and ready for installation, it was time to turn to finishing up the two cabinets.

First up, finishing the piece that goes on the front of the left-hand cabinet.



And, well, not a lot of writing today, as the rest of it should look pretty straightforward. I had to cut up a bunch of trim pieces, and somehow arrange the clamps to hold them in the right place. A few of the arrangements required some creative thinking, but in the end, I got the whole cabinet trimmed up over the course of a few days.





Mmmm glue.









Enjoy! We're getting close to the final assembly, yay!

With the trim all glued up and dry, and the weather nice and warm, I decided to take the cabinets outside to have the trim sanded flush. I start with 80 grit to get all the bits nice and close, and then move to 120 grit with the random orbit sander in preparation for staining.



Everything looking pretty good on the right-hand cabinet





And now for the left-hand cabinet





I'm under the impression that I mistakenly sanded this edge too much prior to installation, because I thought that I was going to have to squeeze this end into the dado cut at the back of the drawer. Woops! Hopefully that won't show up too much after staining.



And, a bit of glue squeeze-out that I missed previously is easily taken care of by the sander



I'll be staining over the weekend, so some fresh and shiny cabinets await for next weeks early update!

Have a good weekend folks!

hope u won't mind me asking..
would white ants / termites favour those wood? or there's a way to prevent it

Good question... I have no idea! We don't have white ants here, and I think termites are also very, very rare. Maybe it's the cold!

Well, got some time to start the staining of the cabinets this weekend, and overall, everything went pretty well. Started off with a bit of detailed sanding by hand, and then a good dusting with a tack cloth / cloth with paint thinner.





And then went to work applying the stain with a clean cotton rag





They both turned out pretty well - these pictures were taken after only the first coat (A second one will go on). I find that this stain really shines once a coat of poly is put over it.

Let me tell you - getting the inside of the cabinets was quite time consuming and I really did a number on staining my arms...



Eww! It looks like a heart!

gooding!!

yea...TS done a very nice job...U got a very nice hand skills on this...

more more !!

looks awesome~ haha
so i guess u won't have problems from termites
that's good haha!!
back here in malaysia is a different story
need to be careful when diy woodwork

Thanks!


Thank you!


It's coming, it's coming!


Yay Jinster, thanks again - I'll have to keep that in mind if I bring my desk over there!

I kind of forgot to take some pictures of the cabinets after I applied a pair of coats of polyurethane, but here's the status of the project so far



Both cabinets have been poly'd, and there are only 3 more pieces to stain + poly (The two caps for the end spaces on the top shelf, and the door for the right-hand cabinet). Otherwise, I am pretty much ready to assemble.

Before assembly, however, I wanted to try a technique I had been reading about - rubbing out a finish.

You start with some baby oil and a product called rottenstone (It's a very finely ground stone)



Apply some baby oil liberally (This slows down the cutting process. If you use water, it will speed up the cutting process)



Sprinkle on your rottenstone (Once again, fairly liberally. I didn't find the cutting action very aggressive at all, especially with all the baby oil)



Take a block of wood with a soft material wrapped around it, in this case, I used a piece of cut up fleece from an old blanket, but I think a felt block is the most recommended for this.



Go with the grain in long strokes, and rub the slurry into the wood. Its very fine cutting action should almost eliminate all dust marks, brush marks, and any small scratches.

This took quite a long time, and it was very, very messy. Baby oil rottenstone slurry everywhere. I then went through a ton of rags soaked in paint thinner cleaning it all off the desk surface in preparation for some good 'ol waxing.



Applied with a lint free rag, I swirled it onto the table a little bit too liberally



I then let it dry for a few moments and "attempted" to buff it all off by hand with a clean rag. Much to my dismay, after spending 10 minutes trying to buff only but a small corner, I realized that I would never get the shine I was looking for...



So I made a trip to my storage unit (My mom's garage) where I remembered I had an old electric car buffer in a bin...



Booya. It was late when I got back home, so I left it and went to sleep. Have a good weekend everyone - Canada Day tomorrow here in Canada, so I'm going to enjoy the long weekend. I'm moving this weekend too, so hopefully the desk survives the trip!!

very nice colour haha

are those the legs??
or it'll be wood all the way

TS moves from a small house to a big mansion XD

superb !!

Wood all the way!


Hehe, I wish!


Thanks! More to come!

So, I finally moved this weekend, and I'm glad to say everything went pretty well. A few small parts of the desk got scuffed up, but nothing major. Here are some shots from just before being transported.

The car buffer partially worked. I ended up actually taking some more paint thinner and totally removing the wax. For some reason it didn't stick well - I think it's because I didn't remove the baby oil enough before adding the wax. Either way, it's shiny as glass and looks great.



Then I took some 3/4" weather stripping and put it on both cabinets to prevent the desk surface from slipping and sliding:







And, here's a sneak peak. Right before the move was pretty much the moment of triumph - assembling the 4 stained and poly'd pieces, and actually sitting at it. The monitors come in at perfect eye height, and the desk height is perfect as well, providing lots of forearm and elbow support.

Ahhhhhhhhh.... 8 months.

Now for the details

o~h..the top and the cabinet is not 'stick' together but rather it just sits on the cabinet...i tot TS will 'glue' the cabinet onto the cabinet..

Nicely done

sweet n shiny~!
btw...there's no keyboard drawer?

wow! nice work bro

cool...
i wish i can have that table...
juz using an ugly small table...

cool

No need to glue! The top is so heavy, it will not fall off easily

Thanks!

No - the keyboard and mouse will slide under the monitors when I need to use the whole desk surface. You can see below a bit!

Thank you

Thanks Unleashed! My ugly small table is what inspired me to make something better! You're next!

Thanks!

So - I finally had some time this weekend to do a bit of work on The Ultimate Computer Desk.

Here's a little shot of the desk as it sits now. Note that the drawers aren't installed, there's clutter everywhere, the two cabinets are not lined up in any particular fashion, and of course, no hardware has yet been installed.



If you didn't notice, I finally said to myself "Ok Mr. You've been working on this desk for 8 months - time for a present". I ~finally~ ditched my old CRT monitor (Which was nice, at 1600x1200 resolution) and purchased myself a brand new 27" Asus. Sweet!



That was my first new computer component in ages!


I moved on to the next part of the project, which was installing the drawers, so I got to work. Sorry about the pictures, I think I accidentally turned the auto focus off!





Imagine my surprise when I went to go and slide the drawer in. The drawer was too wide! I accomodated for 0.25" on each side of the drawer, for the width of the drawer slides. Unfortunately, these particular drawer slides were 3/16's of an inch wider than I accounted for... Here's a wonderfully in focus shot:



So my options were:
1. Redo the drawers completely, making them a total of 6/16's (3/8's) skinnier, or
2. Shave off 3/16's" from each side, about 1.5" tall, along the length of both sides, of each of the drawers.

What a bummer! I thought oh well, it'll actually look pretty tidy with the sides shaved anyways, and also give additional support, so here goes!

Time to tape up my poor drawers. They're about to get scratched up pretty bad!



Setting up the tablesaw for some "guidelines" - 3/16's of an inch deep, set the fence at 2" and then 3.5" if I remember correctly.



And there you go, some proper guidelines for the material that will need to be removed.



This was a pretty big surprise, but not too major, and nothing that cannot be done well.