My Desk

• The Wood, Lyptus our eco-geek friend. I wanted to make something different. In the process of doing research I considered many different woods before settling on lyptus. Lyptus is a hybrid of two members of the eucalyptus family that:
  • Is ecologically friendly. It grows straight and handles plantation life well. It also can also be used instead of tropical hardwoods gathered from the rain forest.
  • Is business friendly. It grows fast, maturing in 15 years instead of the 70 years typical of many tropical hardwoods.
  • Is very hard and dense. The sales literature says it is harder than mahogany, but it seems about the same or a little softer depending on the specifics of the mahogany tested. It is still a great wood for anything you'd use mahogany for.
  • Is beautiful. I think it has a pleasant sort of appearance similiar to teak. My desk was finished with tung oil, the color you see is the natural color of the wood.
  • Is inexpensive. It's priced about like red oak.
• The Design, or the impossibility of finding someone willing to make a 36" cut across a 12' board on a radial arm saw.

  The design was pretty simple.  I wanted an L shaped desk that was
  discretely supported.  I decided to support the back of the desk
  with a 2x2" oak rail mounted on the wall.  The rail screwed into
  studs to support brackets that transfer force at an angle into
  the wall.  The brackets bottoms attach to the studs with 3"
  deck screws.  The top was a 28"x12' solid lyptus piece, 3/4" thick. 
  
  The rail was started by cutting a 2x2 into an eight foot and 6 foot
  piece.  I mitered them to fit together in the corner.  I then used
  a router with a straight cutter to cut out a 3.5" wide by .75" deep
  notch.  The notch would be used to hold a 1x4.  Centered under the
  notch is a countersunk hole for a #8 x 3" deck screw going through
  the drywall into the studs.  The supports were unevenly
  spaced because the studs were not evenly spaced under my window.
  What follow is a close-up of one of the notches.  Next to it is a
  notch with a support placed in it.  The screws are 1.5" zinc plated
  deck screws used to hold the support 1x4 into the slot.
      

  
• Wall Supports

    The next thing I did was make the wall supports. The basic
  process was simple, but tedious.  I cut an oak 1x4 at 20" leaving
  a 3.5" x 3.5" remnant.  The remnant was drilled to accept two 3/8"
  dowels and is used as a wall cleat to attach the support at the
  bottom.  The 20" long section has rounded at the end, sanded to
  remove machine marks, and drilled to accept similiar 3/8" dowels.
  
  An oak 2x2 was cut to length and mitered, and drilled to match
  the aforementioned dowels.  The bottom half of the resulting
  assembly (the wall cleat and angled support) were glued
  and allowed to dry.  All this was done with a hand drill, a hand
  router, a dowel jig and a square.  Oddly enough, the result was
  pretty close to true and square.  Here is a finished shot of
  two supports after installation.
   
    Note the wall cleats and the horizontal supports were made
  from the same 8'x1x4", cut into 4 pieces, each 20.5" and 3.5"
  long.
      

  
• Leveling and Load testing

    The wall cleats were glued to the angled vertical supports in
  the basement, but the final gluing of the angle supports to 
  the horizontal support was done after the supports were installed.
  They were then leveled and the wall cleat screwed into place.
  I then did a few lateral raises on each pair of supports to ensure
  they could take a load of a (not very) light gal.
      

• The desktop

    The desktop was too large to cut on a table saw, and a radial 
  arm saw able to cut precisely across a 45 degree miter 36" deep
  was unavailable.  So I made a jig from a red oak 1x12" attached to
  a 2x2".  The desk was carefully measured and the jig was clamped
  in place and cut with a hand-held circular saw.  The result
  was two tops, each with a 45 degree miter matching the other.
  
    Once cut, a trammel was used to make a 12" radius on one
  side of both tops.  The radius was cut with a handheld jigsaw, and
  then routed with a 3/8" roundover bit.  The resulting desk
  was placed on top of the support for final scribing and fitting.
  
  The completed desk, before finishing, unmounted.
      

  
• Fitting the desk.

    After the desk was in place, I needed to use a straight bit to
  shave off a little to get them to flush to the (not very square)
  wall.
      

• Finishing, or Adventures in Tung Oil Finishing.

    I finished the desk with a coat of tung oil and allowed
  it to dry overnight.  I'll add more coats periodically.
      

• Almost Finished!

    Other than drilling a few vias for wiring and similiar things
  the desk is done.  I've mounted the power strips to the angled
  supports so no power cords are on the floor.  The DSL router
  is attached below the desk, and the computer will be replaced
  with a rack mount model mounted under the desk RSN (real soon now.)
      

  
• Next steps:

    I intend to make a wall bracket to hold the monitors off the
  desk and buy a cordless keyboard and mouse.
  Here the monitors are in place, but not mounted to the wall.
      

  

• Other Images:

  • A view from under the desk.
    
  • An unleveled support, viewed from under the desk.
    
  • One desk side on, the other not.
    
  • The desk resting on the supports, unmounted.
    
  • Yet another view.
    
  • Yet another view.