Computer Station

Hey everyone,

 

I've decided, now that I'm finally done first semester and exams are over, I would try something new. The table I'm currently using I've owned for several years, and I'm starting to get sick of it, it's inefficient for my needs, it doesn't fit with the rest of my room, and it's not cool enough!!! So what I have for you today is something I've been working on for quite some time now, with several prototypes and re-edits. This table has been designed to fit perfectly in the space I want to, and hopefully will make things look a lot nicer. This is really my first build to this size, so I hope you guys enjoy and if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to join me!

 

http://i.imgur.com/42t5yQd.jpg

Current work area

 

http://i.imgur.com/aY0GcVP.jpg

The completed station

 

The table will not be going in the same place where it is now. I would show you where it would go, but it's kind of a mess right now

The past couple days have been kind of messy. Because of the fact that I live in Canada, Alberta to be specific, it gets cold. Very cold. And snowy as well. Since I don't have a work shed or any secure area of the sort, I have had to create my own

 

First thing first, I had to get rid of all the snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I set up a tarp to cover the area, because I was expecting more snow to come

 

This tarp wasn't big enough for my liking so I got a bigger one

 

 

Unfortunately, I didn't do a good first job and it was very windy that night, so it came loose. There was snow too :(

 

I tried again in the morning, cleaned up the snow, and tried different ways of hooking it into place, so hopefully it should be strong enough now

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping to get started on the actual building portion very soon

 

 

Wish me luck!

perfect weather for a BBQ :)

perfect weather for a BBQ :)

 

Oh yeah of course :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

When you're Canadian, all weather is perfect weather

So I finally got some time today to go out and get some work done. I only have about 2 hours of sunlight left after I get home from class, so I wasn't able to do much.

Over the weekend I did a mini project again and printed out a bit of a "blueprint" guideline for one of the boards, it's six pieces of printer paper taped together with the schematics on them. The printer didn't print on the margins as much as I hoped it would, so I had to fill out quite a bit. The taping job could have been better too, but it printed unevenly.

http://i.imgur.com/f8XU6pX.jpg?1

This contains most of the main parts I need, which is why it's first

I know this is more work, as I could just take the image of the plan on a laptop or something, but I decided I might as well try something new, have a little fun. Why not! This whole project is about new experiences anyways. If this works well, I'll do it for the rest of the sheets

 

http://i.imgur.com/hjUwDJf.jpg?1

I moved a sheet onto a table, which was quite hard to do alone

 

http://i.imgur.com/aLZLnph.jpg?1

The light you see in the back is more for warmth than light, it was incredibly cold today.

I had to put up more tarp to cover the stairs area (you can see in the previous pictures), as more snow, wind, and coldness were coming in than I would like

Because of the cold and having to set up the tarp I couldn't do much sketching, but hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow as the stuff I had to waste time on is done with now.

Worked on marking out the lines for the table a bit. There was another thing that came up today as well though that took away a bit of my time, I noticed there was an error in the original planning!

http://i.imgur.com/zwfgPLf.jpg?1

 

It's a bit hard to describe, but there were a few problems. Some angles for a couple pieces were off, and one piece didn't fit as it should.*Haven't completely fixed the last one yet, but it's going to be one of the last pieces cut out, so I can take some time if I need to

 

http://i.imgur.com/u36y0wk.jpg?1

Here's the cover I was talking about in the last post. It's not much, but when it's 20 below freezing, and you have to find something that will cover it in the first place, it's much more difficult.

 

http://i.imgur.com/IuDmmMA.jpg?1

I'm going to Edmonton tomorrow morning, so I won't have time to do anything over the weekend unfortunately. I was looking forward to it. I'll probably work on it again on Monday, as we'll be coming back Sunday night

So I came back from Edmonton last night and, unsurprisingly, it had snowed in my area :(

It was too dark in the moment to assess the damage, and I was too tired, so I just let it go until tomorrow morning

http://i.imgur.com/BKlwTIg.jpg?2

 

The snow had caused the tarp to become too heavy and was unable to hold itself, causing the rings to rip

 

http://i.imgur.com/PHHn9jH.jpg?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/sb8TLp8.jpg?1

covering my planks with snow

Its a good thing it's cold, and I'm glad this happened sooner than later, because snow doesn't damage the wood, melted snow or rain. So this was actually, even though it's a waste of time, a good thing

That's twice I've had to fix the tarp, so this time I decided to use an even bigger one, and support the rings by folding the edges three or four times over themselves

 

http://i.imgur.com/vHpH8Gc.jpg?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/Lv5vjRL.jpg?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/S9LfacL.jpg?1

This one completely covered everything, which I'm really happy about

 

http://i.imgur.com/FQ3lU9j.jpg?1

After going through so many repair jobs and obstacles, I finally decided that I would have to make at least some progress, so I cut out one of the pieced I had finished marking out

 

http://i.imgur.com/qhst3Kf.jpg?1

It's a very simple piece, but it gave me a good idea on what settings to use for the jigsaw (which I bought for this), and how it would turn out

Hopefully I'm done with the setbacks and can start making some real progress in the coming days

The new tarp I've put up seems to be holding together well, but I haven't pinned down the opposite sides to ensure it doesn't rip again, so I have to clear the top of snow and ice every time I get to work. It's a huge tarp so nothing splashes onto the inside, and a little bit of cleaning at the beginning is a great trade off to ensure it doesn't rip

http://i.imgur.com/QuQYsRv.jpg?2

 

The next piece I had sketched out is my monitor stand. This was a huge one, and having to do it alone is quite tricky so I will most likely be getting help for the rest of the big pieces.

http://i.imgur.com/19WEd1w.jpg?1

 

It turned out pretty good and all the dimensions seem to be what they are supposed to be. Two pieces down! I'm getting better at using the saw, so cutting should begin taking less and less time, and I will be able to cut more out. Drawing out the lines seems like it will take the most time, but as I get more practice at it I am getting faster and learning new techniques as well

http://i.imgur.com/ftwBeFN.jpg?2

 

I decided that, just to be safe, I would cover everything up. You can never be too careful, even if it requires a little more effort.

I apologize for the lack of content, I'll try to take more pictures if I can, and if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know!

Felt I was posting too often with too little to the update so I've held back for a few days, but I feel I've done enough for a new post

It's been incredibly cold, reaching down to -30 or so, so I had to skip a day that I could work on the table as well

http://i.imgur.com/8T7y8M9.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/jys3rXr.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/Yo8sz2F.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/s6NFvPc.jpg?1

I've finished cutting out all but 4 of the parts, which are inside of another piece for which the measurements have still not been corrected, so for now I'm basically done cutting out all the parts from this sheet!

I still have to make the angles on a lot of these pieces but I'm debating on leaving that to after cutting out all the pieces from the sheets.

New update for you guys. Been working for the past couple days, skipping some days as well because of the cold and snow. Also, I have some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the bad

 

First of all, it's not all that bad lol. I have finally run out of wood sheets to cut and will have to go to buy more, but the rear door of our car is not opening so going to have to figure something out for that.

Now the good, I have cut out enough pieces (as I planned) to begin a test build of the main areas of the table! I might get started with that tomorrow, or maybe tomorrow will be for getting more wood, I haven't decided yet

 

http://i.imgur.com/ginqZzI.jpg?1

One of the sheets was damaged like this on two of the edges, so instead of cutting around or keeping it, I just decided to trim that part off

 

http://i.imgur.com/xwjx8mX.jpg?1

the first side

 

http://i.imgur.com/Sbakfh7.jpg?1

and the next

 

I didn't end up taking as many pictures as I though I did, so this is all I have for the day I worked on this sheet

 

 

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/PCH9Ov3.jpg?1

This happens almost ever other day, but I'm posting a picture today because it hasn't been this heavy and stayed up before

 

http://i.imgur.com/j13TIb1.jpg?1

got it all cleared out and placed a new (and the final) sheet onto the table. The smaller piece you see on top I was just using to make straight lines

 

http://i.imgur.com/m6mGA7i.jpg?1

the final cut of the last sheet

 

http://i.imgur.com/OxAzqTE.jpg?1

and all the pieces I have cut out so far! The long one laying horizontally at the bottom isn't actually a piece, I just couldn't' find anywhere else to put it because it's too tall.

 

 

 

 

 

That's all I have for this update! Hopefully I should be doing a lot more soon. Also, let me know if you guys prefer more frequent updates, with the stuff I completed that day. Or would you like less frequent updates with progress over a course of a couple days or a week.

I could barely get to sleep last night because of how eager I was to get started on working on this again, yesterday was too cold to work. Today I decided to try something new, something I would have to do eventually and didn't have any certain idea on how it would go. I decided to make the angled edges on all the pieces (I have cut so far) that need them.

 

I wasn't sure how I was going to do this. My jigsaw only had the option to cut 45 and 22.5 degree angles, and the ones I need are much more odd. I also thought about using the circular saw which has the ability to cut any angle between 0 and 45 degrees, but it was too cumbersome to work with, especially on small 6 inch by 4 inch-ish pieces.

I figured I would try again with the jigsaw because it would probably be the easiest. I put the long edge of the piece on the table, and left the piece hanging over a bit. I then took the jigsaw, holding it vertically, and followed the line I had made for the angle

http://i.imgur.com/QG4wfIxl.jpg

This was good, but not good enough. The piece was shaking a lot as I cut, and I didn't want to risk getting any closer

So then I figured I should just file the rest down

http://i.imgur.com/7iZAAafl.jpg

This allowed for more precision with less risk, but it took a long time finishing up all the pieces this way.

http://i.imgur.com/p8RQE64l.jpg

In the end I managed to cut them all out to my satisfaction, hopefully they line up well enough with the pieces they will be joined to

 

I had some time left until sundown so I decided to quickly do one more thing before heading back inside

I had to cut out a "hole" from another piece

http://i.imgur.com/iYFPY6ql.jpg

My level of skill at performing insertion cuts is improving as well

http://i.imgur.com/OkMFsDLl.jpg

Managed to get the piece cut right as the sun had almost set, so I had to use the camera flash to take this picture

http://i.imgur.com/bIpiyfTl.jpg

And with the piece removed

I'm planning on going to get more sheets tomorrow, but we'll see how that goes or if I end up doing something else.

Managed to find some time to go out today and get 2 more sheets of MDF, and then had a little left over to start cutting one of them out

http://i.imgur.com/qKmDhJGl.jpg

 

Didn't have time to print out a bigger copy, so quickly made a sketch of one of the boards

http://i.imgur.com/7pGcxpml.jpg

 

Same piece of the sheet, but moved to the whole backside because of its complexity

http://i.imgur.com/LygQ4eOl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/8i4B60Zl.jpg

 

Got 3 pieces cut out and some of the next sketched before the sun was beginning to set

http://i.imgur.com/C2YTcu6l.jpg

 

And everything I have so far

http://i.imgur.com/xW8PIcll.jpg

 

You may remember that a post or two ago I said I had enough to make a test build of the table.

Wellll

I may have missed a piece

BUT I HAVE IT NOW I CAN MAKE IT I PROMISE

Don't know when I'll actually get to it though lol, don't have a lot of room outside

We'll see how it goes

Lot's of pictures for this update! Even removed some so it wouldn't be too overloaded, and I'll just post the links to the images this time for your convenience, I know how annoying it is to have to scroll forever because the images take up so much space. Is there a way to add spoilers or something similar? Let me know

Anyways

Spent most of today outside and got a lot done, just had a banana for breakfast and went straight to work.

Starting off where I ended the last post, I had to finish cutting the rest of this board. The main area is one of the 3 pieces of the desk-top, around it is two more pieces that had to be cut out, and inside it are several pieces to be cut out (it's going to have an open top)

 

First off, the outside pieces

http://i.imgur.com/kldfcxy.jpg

Already have one cut out as you can see

 

http://i.imgur.com/1CN0U4V.jpg

After cutting those out, and trimming the rest off, you get this giant piece which needs to be hollowed out

 

http://i.imgur.com/OcWLUCd.jpg

And looks amazing afterwards! I'm getting excited already (I have been throughout this project though so that's nothing new)

 

http://i.imgur.com/fd0fY0D.jpg

Placed it with the other pieces because I couldn't wait any longer and everything looks good so far. Feels a bit smaller than designed (but its's still huge), probably just because it's not elevated though.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QJLdqoC.jpg

Cutting out the inner pieces, there were 8 more I cut after this

 

http://i.imgur.com/pPKY2Bp.jpg

And had to make the edges for many of them as well using my new technique! I'm very thankful that I figured this out as it made the work so much easier. I just clamped the piece down onto my work table, flipped the jigsaw upside down, and carefully went along the angled line as much as I could. Sanded the rest down to a smooth finish

 

http://i.imgur.com/1PCPRnA.jpg

Got most of them done, except the top two. It was getting too dark and I had to squint too hard to see the lines on the ruler so I just left it aside for tomorrow.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SK1rrbn.jpg

Another picture of the pieces I have so far

 

http://i.imgur.com/7lzK67t.jpg

Lots of minis

 

I'm thinking of doing a proper test build tomorrow

I have all the pieces I need to put most of the table together, and then some. I might change my mind tomorrow though

Sorry its' been so long. I've started working, part time with school, and the weather hasn't been very favorable either. But I should be back now hopefully, with somewhat more frequent updates.

 

http://i.imgur.com/mmKz0J6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mmKz0J6m.jpg

Strong winds and the weight from new snow caused the tarp to rip in the places being held up by beams

 

http://i.imgur.com/3ENDn3q.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3ENDn3qm.jpg

Just taped it down because I couldn't be bothered to do anything more

 

http://i.imgur.com/T8Z78e0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/T8Z78e0m.jpg

One of the 3 pieces that will hold the monitor stand up. Gotta glue these together

 

http://i.imgur.com/sP0zyxt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sP0zyxtm.jpg

Cutting out a lip for this board

 

http://i.imgur.com/EjevIRi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EjevIRim.jpg

And cleaning it up

 

http://i.imgur.com/534MQis.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/534MQism.jpg

Made a decently big pocket inside this board as well

 

http://i.imgur.com/spevL0y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/spevL0ym.jpg

And put together the frame for the shelf to see how it would look. Looks good to me, and is fairly strong as well. With glue it will be much stronger

 

http://i.imgur.com/lPnGDyu.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lPnGDyum.jpg

And moving my bed to the opposite side of the room to make space to store parts as I finish them

 

That's really all I have for this update!

Should be finishing more sooner, especially now that I have a bit of a deadline

See you soon!

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last update, and I've done quite a bit since then

 

http://i.imgur.com/0zktouD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0zktouDm.jpg

Started off with priming most of the pieces I've cut so far

 

http://i.imgur.com/nwqIphP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nwqIphPm.jpg

The table-top pre-primed

 

http://i.imgur.com/6yfVU9l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nwqIphPm.jpg

The table-bottom post-paint. I used a generic black paint with an eggshell finish for this one since it won't be visible anyways. The good stuff I have saved for later, for the visible parts

 

http://i.imgur.com/PO6ghwN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PO6ghwNm.jpg

I had one final sheet left to cut. I still have some parts left to cut out because of water damage due to snow, and some angles left to make.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Z2xlb8u.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Z2xlb8um.jpg

All but one piece cut out

 

http://i.imgur.com/wCavKwE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wCavKwEm.jpg

And the final one, the base of the compartment where my computer will go. This is the outline of the piece, it was a struggle to cut out.

 

http://i.imgur.com/hmh4tLP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hmh4tLPm.jpg

Trying to put it together

 

http://i.imgur.com/bb6j0Vc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bb6j0Vcm.jpg

Looking okay, got some sanding to do though

 

http://i.imgur.com/Xce381P.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Xce381Pm.jpg

Got it all glued together and did a test placement to see if it was a decent fit. To my surprise, it was better than I anticipated! Will look even better once I've done finishing touches, filled it in, glued all together, and painted

 

http://i.imgur.com/Wcrhtym.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Wcrhtymm.jpg

Bought a new roller with a 1/4 inch nap because it's supposed to give a smoother finish. From what I noticed, it seems to have helped a little, but I would have preferred even smoother. I wanted to go the spray machine route, but a good machine just wasn't in my budget yet, I don't have an appropriate area to do that, and it would have used more paint (from what I've heard). Maybe for my next build. Being restricted to no spray paint also meant having to paint each before assembly

 

http://i.imgur.com/Wcrhtym.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7Gmpt8jm.jpg

Priming some more sheets

 

http://i.imgur.com/Hm4yBRM.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Hm4yBRMm.jpg

And the first layer of paint. I've done some more layers and the other side. The pictures look exactly the same, so I didn't bother uploading those ones.

 

I hope to be done all cutting and painting soon so I can move onto building, installing parts, lighting, and finally using it!

 

One last thing. I've noticed the paint seems to be a bit sticky on some of the earlier ones I did, and even causes it to strip if it makes contact with anything for long enough. Anyone know why? Or have a solution? I'd appreciate that

Hey all, it's been a while. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have a pretty good excuse. As you may have heard, there was a huge forest fire in the Fort McMurray area, which as you may have figured is where I live. I've been out of town for almost 2 months now and have just gotten back today. I don't know when my next update will be, but I want to get to work as soon as possible. Take care, see you soon.

http://i.imgur.com/62iVnC7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JkSD3A5l.jpg

Since I wanted to have as much natural movement possible, these supports keep annoying vertical posts in the middle from interacting with me, while at the same time are extremely strong.

 

http://i.imgur.com/62iVnC7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/62iVnC7l.jpg

I placed the (unfinished) table top to get even more clear of an idea of what the finished product would actually look like, and to provide some motivation because things just keep going wrong

 

http://i.imgur.com/4Eu6vmn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/4Eu6vmnl.jpg

Another view. The piece of wood where my hand is, doesn't belong, it's just to hold those new pieces up. Those are mostly just for aesthetic purposes, and will house some of the electrical components to come.

 

http://i.imgur.com/zLYdwvr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zLYdwvrl.jpg

Cutting out a raised platform for the inside of the "case"

 

http://i.imgur.com/99XhSnk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/99XhSnkl.jpg

Here's what it looks like after being cut and bent to shape. It's half an inch high and the edges are half an inch inwards

 

http://i.imgur.com/Va14ywe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Va14ywel.jpg

Placed inside the "case", and also giving a better view of the protruding front face of the case, which have been glued together and screwed in place until the glue dries.

Got a nice big box in the mail a few days ago (Thursday).

 

http://imgur.com/MS8eTKi

http://i.imgur.com/MS8eTKil.jpg

Wonder what could be inside! (of course, I knew what it was mostly, but still exciting nonetheless)

 

http://i.imgur.com/Vqv9TWE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Vqv9TWEl.jpg

Ah it's my new Xbox One and all the other goodies

 

http://i.imgur.com/Vqv9TWE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RbVN3Wul.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/pCZGRJK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pCZGRJKl.jpg

Got such a good deal on the Xbox bundle. 4 games, the console, and an extra controller. I might just sell it and go for the elite one

 

http://i.imgur.com/rR5tQbR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rR5tQbRl.jpg

The RAM was too good of a deal to pass up as well. And since I`m planning on going with more of a black and white components theme now it works in my favor, even if it`s not the fastest (I don`t need extreme speeds anyways)

 

http://i.imgur.com/udeuKlF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/udeuKlFl.jpg

Got this the next day for a great price as well. Excited for the jump in storage!

 

Thank you to the Amazon Prime day deals for being a little more generous to Canadians this year! Here's hoping the gap between the US and Canada sites is closed and we get the same perks and prices.

very good forum

 

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