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My Homemade (ultimate iMac) Desk

You could always just use wax. If you are going with polyurethane, firstly make sure it's oil-based, as there seem to be a lot of poorly-labelled "water-based polyurethane" varnishes around these days, which are almost universally crap. Secondly, wipe the surface with white spirit before applying the first coat, and use a good brush, not a spray. And keep the coats thin. Three or four thin coats are much better than a couple of thick ones.
 
First off, I must say that you have some pretty excellent woodworking skills. I have some experience with that stuff myself, and you definitely have done a good job on your desk.

One thing I would suggest (and this depends on where you live and the humidity in the air) is instead of a hard finish (polyurithane), why not do a soft finish? All you would need is some copper wool (to smooth everything out), and just rub in some linseed oil. That adds a warmer finish to any furniture, and it will be awesome to the touch. Of course, if you're like me, and live in Nevada, and the air humidity is about 4%, then the wood will dry out fast, so a hard finish is a necessity.

BTW- I probably would not recommend sanding the finishing coat, as you risk damaging the desk (I'm sure you are aware of this). Perhaps a stripper may be the way to go (though you'll probably have to re-stain the thing). Either way- great job with this.
 
EvanLugh said:
+1

The hard work is certainly paying off for you though, you have a little fan base! Why don't you get a few old blocks of wood and test it first, before putting it on the masterpiece?
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A simple intelligent solution. I actually had been doing this, but for whatever reason, the problems still occured! Excellent thinking though...



AppleMatt said:
Absolutely fantastic achievement so far, I'm sure many here are very jealous of your abilities.

Foreseeing a chemical reaction when you have no such prior experience is not something to hang onto. Whilst it may well be a lot of work now, I am confident that not only will you resolve it and achieve an excellent finish, months after it is done the extra time spent now will fade away (as it does when you have decorators that overrun, a washing machine delivery that keeps going wrong etc).

AppleMatt
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Thanks. I appreciate your support (and everyone's support), I really do. I am just going to laugh at the project at t his point, and try and take it all in stride. I know I've got a good foundation built, I just need to get this last step done!

I think I'm going to try a chemical stripper now. It will allow me to remove all of the clear-coat and stain at the same time, hopefully allowing me to start over from scratch with the finishing. This way I won't have to worry about sanding right through the veneer on the ply-top. The only thing I am worried about is not getting rid of the clear-coat completely and having the same 'beading' problem as before. I will try it on a scrap piece if possible and see what happens.

Wish me luck! It will probably be the end of the week before I have much progress to report. Look at the bright side, atleast I'll have one heck of a story to tell, and I'll have learned my lesson for sure!
 
fivepoint said:
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I thought you guys would get a kick out of this post I made in the "best FAIL pics" thread. :rolleyes:
 
dual64bit said:
You'll make it through it, don't worry man!
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No worries... If it take 2 months and 5 attempts, I'll eventually get it done. Thanks for the support.


iJohnHenry said:
How much wood do you have left?? ;)

And I do feel your pain. :apple:
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I've got about 1/3 of my plywood left, and probably about 10 ft of 5-3/4" wide 3/4" Cherry stock. If - for some reason - I have to rebuild the top, it would cost me another $100 to buy another piece of plywood.
 
Hope it works out. Looks like you are almost done. At least this didn't happen to your floor!

savar said:
Well if you're using a journaled system, then the file system won't be permanently corrupted.

Still, I agree with the sentiment. If you're building the "ultimate" desk, it would probably have to include a UPS :) The low end ones are pretty cheap and would give you enough reserve time to safely shut down the OS. I don't know which ones play nice with Macs though.

By the way, I love DIY. Great thread.
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UPS can go between the wall outlet and the desk. Does not have to go inside the table (there won't be room anyway).
 
Well, yesterday I started with the chemical stripper... and I have to say, the look of this process just about made me cry! Instead of a brand new looking, clean, gorgeous piece of furniture, it looks like I am refinishing something 50 years old.

2587610343_42bb7e0050.jpg


Like I said though, I'm just going to laugh about it at this point (hahahaha). The guy who is helping me out is "100% confident" that it is going to turn out perfect... it's just that I'll have a lot more work into it now.

At this point, the only advice that I would give someone who is trying to learn woodworking, is to not look past the 'finishing' stage. Don't be in too much of a hurry, don't think of the process as being simple like painting.... and consult a professional. There are so many different things that can happen, so many chemical interactions, etc. If you don't follow these steps, you'll turn a 2 day process into a 2 month process like me!

I am still really happy with everything though. Like I said yesterday to someeone... "I not only learned how to build a project, but how to finish it, re-finish it, re-store it, and salvage it!" I am going to be pretty experienced by the time I'm done!
 
i feel so bad for you. the wait has to be killing you, cause its killing me. Hey its a learning experience. This desk will be passed down from generation to generation.
 
Something will always go wrong in the building process. At least it wasn't something catastrophic
 
Consultant said:
UPS can go between the wall outlet and the desk. Does not have to go inside the table (there won't be room anyway).
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In my old company UPS was causing glitches and power failures much more often than the power failures themselves, so we eventually took our servers off of UPS. Considering the UPS was picked by a professional, it probably was not a cheapo equipment, so I don't really trust UPS much anymore.

Good luck with the table.
 
Don't forget to wash the table with whatever solvent is recomended, on the can of stripper. If its a water based stripper, be careful not to let the wood get to wet with water. It can cause the grain to swell, making to wood look old, and need alot more sanding....................
 
Well guys, in the spirit of looking at things from a positive perspective, the little incident with the desk has allowed my wife and I the extra time to get a good start on the den itself. I am about 100% positive the desk is going to turn out great, its just going to take another week or two to complete... so we might as well get everything else done in the mean-time.

Here are a few photos of our 'Den' (which used to be our living room). The first photo is how it looked when we bought the house, and the second one is from a week or so ago. We've painted the built-in bookshelves a deep expresso color and the walls a 'oyster stone' color. The hardest part of this was removing the wallpaper which was stuck on like you wouldn't believe. I think the effect is pretty good. There is a lot more work to be done (installing crown molding, new frames and photos hung on the wall, lighting, window treatments, etc.) but I think you can see where it is going. You'll have to excuse the mess in the second photo... we were in the process of cleaning up after painting, so it isn't in the best shape.

2468485300_3f8d777fba.jpg


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The desk will sit about 5 feet in front of the fireplace with me facing towards the camera. I think the effect should be pretty regal and 'denny', but we will see. The chair you see will most likely be in the lower right hand corner of the photo with a reading light and stand next to it as kind of a little 'reading corner'. I'd eventually like to hang a small LCD TV on the left hand side of the photo adjacent to the desk so that I can watch TV while on the computer. Hopefully the TV will look like just another picture frame on the wall. Kind of 'hidden' since I am already going with the hidden theme! ;)

FYI, I expect/hope to complete the desk by next weekend if at all possible. the only thing that is slowing me down is that the place I am working on stripping/spraying it is about a half-hour from where I live, so I don't go there a whole lot. I will continue posting updates and photos as much as I can.

If you have any suggestions for the Den, or just some interesting ideas that you would put in your Den if you had one... I would love to hear them! There are so many cool possibilities, and since I have the space and will soon have the desk, I'm sure there are some cool possibilites. Thanks!
 
I've been following this just to see how it turns out, and I must say that I think this is the best thing that could have happened. Like you mentioned, you have not only learned what you set out to learn, but much more in the process.

Seeing the response to this has also made me decide to finally go back to my plans for a bed/desk/storage combo I have been wanting to build as well as a chair that uses no fasteners. I'll be sure to document the projects to post as they come along.
 
fivepoint said:
If you have any suggestions for the Den, or just some interesting ideas that you would put in your Den if you had one...
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No offense, but the color of the brick surrounding the fireplace is god awful! I'd suggest looking at some marble tiles to cover the brick. For that little amount, the cost shouldn't be too bad.
 
RBMaraman said:
No offense, but the color of the brick surrounding the fireplace is god awful! I'd suggest looking at some marble tiles to cover the brick. For that little amount, the cost shouldn't be too bad.
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Thanks for pointing that out. I forgot to mention that in my last post. I'm actually way ahead of you on that, man... I'm not sure yet, but I'm either going to go with a whiteish tile or a multi-tone stone colored tile that kind of matches the wall color. I've looked at quite a few, but haven't found anything I love yet. I think I'll probably be able to handle this myself, although I've never used a 'wet-saw' for cutting tile before.

Again... learning experiences I guess!

So many options... It's been a big (yet fun) challenge to bring this house out of the "70s" and into 21st century. We're just going room by room, and this is our second big room to do. It take a lot of time, but it is very rewarding when you're done... not to mention the increased value of the home.
 
creator2456 said:
I've been following this just to see how it turns out, and I must say that I think this is the best thing that could have happened. Like you mentioned, you have not only learned what you set out to learn, but much more in the process.

Seeing the response to this has also made me decide to finally go back to my plans for a bed/desk/storage combo I have been wanting to build as well as a chair that uses no fasteners. I'll be sure to document the projects to post as they come along.
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Sounds like some VERY impressive projects! I would love to see those come together... please do remember to take photos for us if you can.
 
theBB said:
In my old company UPS was causing glitches and power failures much more often than the power failures themselves, so we eventually took our servers off of UPS. Considering the UPS was picked by a professional, it probably was not a cheapo equipment, so I don't really trust UPS much anymore.

Good luck with the table.
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If you have seen lost data and damaged HD due to lost power, then you would think otherwise.

I suspect that the UPS at your company:
1. power load is beyond its capacity
2. is failing

I can put a dollar that it's #1.
 
I will be doing the finishing touches with the chemical stripper tonight. If all goes as planned I should be staining again soon, and the project shouldn't take much longer than a week or two after that!

Wish me luck, everyone. I need it!
 
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