Mahogany/Steel Computerdesk [SCRATCHBUILD] Dreamhack Summer Masters Winner

[Huskybongs]

Hello,

I've been building this a while but wasn't confident enough to put it up on these forums before now.

The idea is to take that grand piano feeling to a pc. We'll be using fairly nice materials for this such as teak, mahogany, oxygen resistans steel and a lot of chromed parts. The build has been in the works for about 2 years with an estimated finish this spring. (currently doing bespoke cables). With that being said let's go over the parts and into the actual buildlog.

A massive shoutout to Mikael who's helped me with a lot of the woodwork. This build would not have been possible without your help

PC parts:

Motherboard: MSI BigBang Xpower 2, x 79 lga 2011¨
CPU: Intel i7-3930k @ 4.6Ghz
RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator 1866Mhz
PSU: Corsair ax1500i
GPU(s): 2xGTX 980s overclocked to whatever I can reach
HDD/SSD: 2xWD red 6tb+3xV-Samsung 500gb. 2 in raid and 1 as bootdrive

Watercooling:

Radiators: 2xmonstah 560mm,1xalphacool 360mm
Pumps: Plexitop EKWB d5x2
Piping: Iodized copper
Reservoir: Custom Singularity Dual loop acrylic reservoir.
Fans: Various Noiseblocker fans 25 in total.

Sponsors:







Lets start off then.

Solid drawing



Let's weld. Starting off with the basic shape. Table will be roughly 1800x780mm



Radiator bay:



Parts started to come in



After a few more hours I have room for my legs and some placement for the fans

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

Space for knees



Gonna want some monitoring



The wood was ordered like this. Huge chunks of birch. The will be shaped to be the outer panels of the chassi. It's a really dense wood and it's been dried for years properly before being used.
Quite heavy actually. These 3 parts weigh about 50kgs or about 110 pounds



After using different bits and sanding roughly down ending at about 320 grit paper I managed to shape them to the shape I desired.





Playing around a bit with some of the parts. That's an ST8 Motherboard tray from a caselabs pc



So I contacted Singularity Computers and he luckily agreed to make my design of a dual loop reservoir come to life. The plan was something like this




Then I needed some legs. Used 60mm hollow steel pipe and some 40x40mm steel for the upper bars.



And the mounting for the screenstand was lathed by some shaft steel





Got ze legs in place



And this will be the placement for the screenstand. Mirroring the design of the legs



A very professional way of planning



Wouldn't be a proper desk build unless we had support for 3 screens



We used some 12mm thick steel for this. It's incredibly overkill but it can handle whatever I decide to mount on it







The legs are connected to the frame with 5 x 8 mm bolts (oxygen resistant)

Trying to make the angles "talk to each other" if that makes sense



Testmounting some stuff

 

[Huskybongs]

Continuation

Had to play around with the parts to see if they fitted properly. They did



Big radiators but they will be completely hidden



Even though it's quite a tight fit



All the major watercooling parts testfitted



Playing around with the fan controller



Got my reservoir back and Singularity Computers also made a video of it. Very very happy with result. It's just fantastic craftsmanship.





Le Video



And on to the interior wood. Now this is actually a pretty long process. But to roughly summarize it:
I had lying around some teak and mahogany plywood and it had been drying up since the mid 1990s so it was just too good to not use for this. I'm just in love with this stuff






Very tedious process of fitting each panel in individually as well as matching the lines perfectly








After several hours all the panels fit.



Had to rework the starboard side a bit



Got a new cover plasmacut from the local workshop



Looking decent



Time to make the holes for the fans and PSU



In order to cut this out a special tool had to be made.



Lathed out room for the fans as well. Despite the desk being really big there's not any extra room to work with



Happy with the result



The starboard side



Fused 3 panels on each side together to get them in and out of the table



Custom PSU mount that also fits 3 ssd's and 2 hdd's





Made a bottom plate for the Reservoir also to mount it more easily



Slowly but surely getting progress



Got some parts back from paint








Time to mount the sidepanels. Had to make incredibly sturdy mounting for this since they weigh so much




From the side



The front



Started with the varnish. Ended up redoing all this but you'll see soon enough



Couldn't cut these at home due to the thickness so went to the local woodshop. They were rather confused when I said it's a pc





Angles worked out fine



Starting to look better





Wanted to get a feel for how it will be to work at this thing



DX racer for scale



Got the hardened glass that I ordered



Rounded corners same radius as the fans



After some work with a CNC I got the sidepanels fixed to have openings for the fans and the fancontroller





Liking the look now



Was a bit worried before I testmounted this whether or not it would line up properly with the interior. Gladly it did











This is not the actual fancovers but wanted to get a feel for how it will look before I drew them up in CAD for the waterjet






From the inside





The nightmare of the top part of the wood To get this to fit properly we had to get all the angles right and shave off half a millimeter at a time until it fit properly. This was a lot harder than I expected but it was worth it





It fits!







And now to the gluing. Using Marine glue here. Takes a long time to harden but it's incredibly strong. Also tapping her up so it doesn't move







Gotta protect the painting



Probably not the best method but it works



After a bit of manhandling it it's finally glued and won't be touched for 2 weeks



Just had to test with the glass on.

 

[Huskybongs]

The 2 weeks had passed and I put it back on the legs.







Didn't mention it before but the outer shell is actually removable and will remain so if a fan breaks or something like that



All alone in the corner



Reinforced the on some points just to make sure



Time to get those holes needed done



1 Radiator ventiolation hole



and 2 holes + the mountstand hole



Getting closer







That's not how the mountstand will sit. You'll see later







And the glass hole



Yeah, lets do key ignition. No real reason except it would be really cool





Sits pretty well at it's place



Trying to get some harmony with the design. Maybe you think that's jibberish but there's some thought put into this





The glass is finally inside







My friend testsitting it



And the last cavity needed is for the USB, 6.3 mm audio and volume controls etc. Will be using a homemade potentiometer solution here and hiding the DAC/AMP inside the table





Had to continue filling up the glue until there was enough to go sanding



First round of sanding down to 320 grit paper. Will go down to about 2000 eventually



Wasn't completely happy with the interior panels so I actually redid all of them with 8 layers of 2 component diamond mahogany varnish. It's resistant to heat and water so it will have a long life inside



Looks a lot better now







Had to make a solution for getting all of the pieces together so had some long screws that goes through the interior panel and the steel frame and end in the outer panel. These can't be seen unless you're actively looking for them





Mounting solution for the back panel



Back panel fitted





Ordered some more watercooling parts from Highflow



This is what I'll use for audio. The sennheiser hd 650s and and ODAC amp/dac solution from Mayflower Electronics



Had to make custom hinges or we would never get the glass out easily. Will also install electric motors for this so you don't have to do anything else than push a button









Might as well mention this is just prototyping. The actual hinges will be made out of 6mm steel





Instagram filters jk





Made a short video



Started drawing out the design for the fansgrills. I'll get these chromed



Made some longer videos where I go through the build



Lathing out a volume knob




Playing around with the stains



And a video update again



That's it for now will start cablework very soon!

 

[Huskybongs]

Let's do an update

My ODAC came home. I just love the sound of this thing. Paired up with my sennheiser hd 650s listening to Pink Floyd has never been this good What a beast this little thing is. Lathed a new volume button though since I prefer the feel of metal



Got my CAD drawings watercut. Well they were supposed to be watercut but the machine was broken at the place so they plastmacut it. Also got my custom hinges watercut but you'll see those pictures later.

Gonna be a riddiculus amount of filing and sanding before I can send these to get chromed but we'll get there, fingers crossed.

Sry for the pictures but I cant place it inside yet but at least you get a feel for what I'm trying to achieve here

These are the sides (port-side specifically)



both



Big radiator grills. 566 mm's across



Actually lathed them in so you have a skirt of wood covering the first 4 mm's





Here's the stuff from Icemodz huge shoutout once again! Thank you for believing in this project




So finally getting some components in. They will go out and in quite a bit before it's all said and done but still feelss like a great milestone

Here's some overview shots.

Chassi only





Body on



Made some custom steel mounting pieces for the pumps. They've been powdercoated after that



The motherboard tray is also in it's natural habitat now. We made a cable hiding tool behind the motherboard tray and had a panel lasercut to make it look nice. The 2 holes are for some temp-monitoring







And on the starboard side there's the 360 rad, the ax1500i psu as well as the custom mounting bracket for the psu, harddrives and ssd's





Had to level the reservoir. This was a bit of a headache but the solution was to cut a 3mm thick solid steelplate and have that as the reservoir mounting and at the same time leveling it perfectly.



Bolts and bricks Cheesecake



Decently happy with how the radiators are being hidden, but they are big. Hopefully the fangrills will clean up everything a bit



That being said I can't wait to see these things in action



Redid the back holes and added these hexagon nuts. they look better



So I've been waiting for the watercut parts for a while and they finally arrived! There's a fair amount of sanding needed before I can send them to get chromed but I'm back on track now



Temporary workbench




Tested how they would look before they got screwed to the frame



Pretty painful as we had to lathe the entire inner wood in about 2 mm's to fit these



I will be updating more often again as I'm not waiting for parts now




Test fitted some hard drives. I'll take away the stickers don't worry!





Gotta have key ignition. This solution is a bit overbuilt but when in rome



From underneath



Gotta have an usb panel for the usb audio and especially the ODAC. So i cut some holes for the usb and then proceeded to measure out. Had some welding help from michael again. Thank you







This oughtta be strong enough



Anyone know if I voided the varanty here?









Will get this plate engraved with some stuff. You'll see later



Well I can connect my headphones now but there's not a lot of sound yet



There's some plans for decent audio outside the headphones too if anyone was worried. Gonna have to change the membranes on these and change the shells but they pack a hefty sound. More on this later too



So after a lot of work which you will see later the table is finally getting the stain and varnish it deserves. I had to move it in order to get it painted because I'll be using some fairly toxic stuff.
That being said here's the painting rig and the color which I'll be going for.



Underneath is a pingboll table frame



Here's the color. However it will be really shiny and not "muddy" as in the photo


Well long time no seen but a lot has been done!

Finally it's stained to the mahogany colour I wanted varnishing stars the following monday. I should have the table back by friday in it's full gloss and glory.The finish I wanted for this really pushed the amount of work.

For the ones interested here's how the wood has been prepared,

Dried inside for 2 years. several years before before taking it inside.
Then filed down to the desired shape.
Then sandpaper. Going through the different coursnesses. 120 grit 2 times (every step is dried in between with azetone), 240 grit 2 times, 320 grit 2 times, 400 grit 2 times, 500 grit 3 times, 600 grit 2 times and finally 800 grit 2 times.

After the first coat of varnish I'll sand it to 1200 grit and then to 2000 grit before the next coat and repeating this until it has 4-5 layers of varnish.

Mixing 2 different industrial strenght stains.



Made the bottom of the corners a bit tidier



Let's get staining!




The back panel





The rest of the table













I went through a riddiculus amount of rags and asetone. As well as an insane amount of sandpaper.

 

[Huskybongs]

Sneakpeak of what's been happening. Big update coming soon


12 layers of varnish on. I'll get this sucker waxed up and then we'll get a better camera but for now just a few pictures indicating that I'm still alive^^


Chromeprepping at 2500 grit sandpaper



Mobile phone pick, it's really hard to capture the gloss. I'll get back to you shortly




Started with some cablework



My living room is a mess...



Some radiator fan connectors being born



And yeah btw I'll make a keyboard (after the table is done) using ebenholtz and moosehorn like an old timey grand piano.
That black piece is the wood from madagaskar



Well hello again

I'll start off with some pictures of the table after the varnishing (yet to get nanowax treatment) and if you scroll further down you'll see some of the cablework.



nevermind the dust It will dissapear










Now onto the cablework. Thanks again to ICEMODZ for chipping in and helping me out on this!

First things first I had to get everything out. My living room once again is a mess



Just did a bunch of y-splitters for these cables and I run them on 2 different knobs on the fan controller



Might be a tip for anyone new to this to grab one of these so you make sure you get it right without blowing any components up



Then I proceeded to hide pretty much every fan cable in the actual frame.


Sneaky sneaky cable management



Had to heatshrink all the y-splitters





The 360 radiator fans did get sleeved however because they will be somewhat visible



Testrunning everything. Worked



This is just a temporary solution because everything will keep going in and out



For those wondering the fan cables from the back radiators (the 560 monstahs) will be run underneath the side fans and completely hidden



My first sleeved cable this one will run the fan controller



And this is what comes out after the wood comes back down



Last edited: 8 Oct 2017


Well happy halloween, I dressed up as usual to my "homeless elf" costume and did some cablework This is pretty time consuming stuff I'm learning as I go but after 2 attempts on my harddrive cable this is what I ended up with





And by some miracle it worked



Going off the rails here a little bit but I wanted something that suited the table where I could rest my headphones when I'm not using them so I made a custom headphone stand.

Plasmacut some stainless 4mm thick circular plates and lathed and treaded some 30 mm stainless shaftsteel. Then proceeded to make some holes and this is what the mounting device looks like.

And yeah It will get the same Birch style wood with 12 layers of varnish That being said I sent the wood off for some final treatment so it doesn't get scratched by the heavy use. So you will see it all together on friday evening but heres the metal at least



'


Here's the finished headphone stand. It became a little bit overbuilt but I like it. Got 10 or 11 layers of varnish cant remember..

Pictures



















Soon I got a complete office

 

[Huskybongs]

Well finally prepped for chrome Or technically nickel-plating. Think is went a bit overkill but these are the hinges that keep up the glass
They're covered in oil atm to not get surface rust so it looks a bit weird but you will get more pictures as they're all nickelplated and shiny

 

[Huskybongs]

First of all thank you for the nice comments!

Ye for those who missed it the screen has been decided. I'm gonna get myself a 49 inch samsung. Drew up a size comparison as well. Unfortunately I will have to remake the whole monitor stand but I got an idea for it which you will see in due time.

 

[Huskybongs]

That is a stunning build, Next step Build me one Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease

I intend to make a version 2 that you can indeed buy. All though it will be a bit more extreme

 

[Huskybongs]

Just letting you know there will be a xmas new years hiatus. Back building with chrome plated parts in the start of Januari. I will also have some cnc milled cable holders etc. But until then I wish you a thoroughly enjoyable christmas and a happy new year!

 

[Huskybongs]

Well time to get back to work after my first vacation in quite some time

Got the cabelholders watercut. Next up is sanding them to about 500 grit and then powder coating. I'm decently happy with how they turned out. I went with 8mm 1365 steel this time for some true strength.

There's room for 6 cabels ontop of each other in each opening and 6 satadata cabels in the wider hole. I'll drill true them and mount them with screws down in the table.

I got 8 of them so I can have 1 every 10 centimeters or so





And then the beast has arrived 49 inches of samsung goodness. Still in the box because we need to weld a new stand for this thing but it's all good.



And lastly some more trivial things like 60 fittigs for watercooling, internal usb 3.0 extenders. 90 degree connections for sata ports etc etc. I got my work cut out for me!

Here's the mess^^

 

[Huskybongs]

Time to show what it looks with the screen on. Bear in mind I'll make a custom stand for it but I already love it.

 

[Huskybongs]

You sir are an artisan, as commented previously the desk is stunning - it's a work of art and the level of engineering (love the hinge mechanism!) that has gone into it is also stellar.

Aside from the custom mount for the screen, have you given any thought to any further customisation to fit the art deco theme of the desk, for example dressing the bezel in the same wood?

Well it is art deco influenced in the sense of materials and grandiosity and some of the lines but I'm not sure it is or was meant to be a representation of that certain art style in particular. It's more an expression of what I like and what "my style" in design (hate that word) would look like. All be it that style borrows from the art deco era. Since I guess my dream would be building these bespoke for anyone interested and tailoring the innards of the table for the customer but keep the overall design. This desk is essentially a prototype and will be my personal computer for the foreseeable future.

In terms of added things to the table I think you should wait for the nickel-plated parts to arrive and for me to redo the top section of the feet and finish the monitor stand. I think it will come together agreeable and you will maybe enjoy it then a bit more.

That being said I intend to make my whole office in the same style. Chair, lightning, speakers etc

 

[Huskybongs]

Please don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it as it is. My comment was not intended as any kind of criticism, it was more "thinking aloud" about other possibilities.

Sorry reading through it again I understood you a bit better. But speaking of tweaks I intend to cover up the backside of that screen (all the plastic) With a sheet of mahogany that follows the curve or just a sheet of metal and I might have to dress to bezels with the same chrome as on the other parts just to make it fit the build.

However it's extremely difficult to machine that so and I'll void the warranty for sure so I gotta think of how I will approach that.

 

[Huskybongs]

I would love to see a bespoke monitor arm made from stainless steel rather than the plasticy one it comes with as it would make this amazing desk look the best I have ever seen. Something simple, clean lines would really match the amazing wood perfectly and the legs as well
BTW- the craftsmanship shown in this build is top top notch- very jealous and well done

I actually said "Bear in mind I'll make a custom stand" and I will. I will also probably cover up the plastic back with wood and give it the same stain and varnish and dress the bezels in nickel plated chrome just to match the build.

 

[Huskybongs]

Time for some time consuming but neccecary stuff

All the harddrives and ssd custom cables have been done. Some small fixes to be made still but it's all there and it works



My custom stand for it all if anyone forgot



Not a fun cable to make:S



All done just gonna tuck it a bit and the cables will flow perfectly



And yeah the key ignition is up and running!

 

[Huskybongs]

Components are coming in a bit more rapidly now

Last night the 8 temp monitors. Had to make the weirdest cable for this. So I converted the ends from molex to 3 pin fan connectors and then rerouted a molex to not feed 12 volt (didn't realize this at first though so the monitors got some good ol' frying time) and theeen another molex end made for the pumps. But all in all it worked well and 10 components running off 1 cable seems very efficient and clean so I'm happy.



Here's a list of what's happening and needs to be done:

-Drive to Sweden to get my chromeplated parts back (first week of february).
-Fasten those parts and get special glue to fit the hinges to the glass
-Redo the monitor stand and route said cables through the stand. These cables also have to be custom sleeved
-Route said cables from motherboard to the stand
-Get cableclamps drilled, sanded and painted.
-Order pumps and then make custom stands for them aswell as lathe new backparts.
-Slight remake of the top part of the legs.
-Get the new monitor stand, legs and a few smaller parts to chrome.
-In the meantime finish the cable work and install the watercooling.
-Do the lighting
-Make custom external ethernet and power cables
-Make internal AC power splitters to power screen, ODAC and computer

So yeah there's a bit to go but I'm getting there and I have a buildfriend thank god because some of these things are not fun to do alone

 

[Huskybongs]

Are you not worried about the heat of the HDDs mounted on the PSU causing problems?

Not really. Worst case scenario pop a waterblock on them but I think the heat they produce is minuscule and it will just spread through the metal. I might monitor during trials just to be really sure

 

[Huskybongs]

Got them cableholders done. Had to outsource the drilling because it was so incredibly tight. Needed 4 mm drilled holes straight through 5 mm of steel. They're ready for paint now.




Pretty happy with them but it was too tight. Next time I'll get some more margin to work with



I got 8 of them

 

[Huskybongs]

Well I got a huge update coming in 2-3 weeks but here's a sneakpeak

This is what will become the new screenholder for the 49 inch samsung. And jesus christ it was hard to find someone willing to bend a 60mm pipe to my specifications. Had to travel quite far to get this done, wasn't cheap either:S Props to Mikael for the welding.

 

[Huskybongs]

Just found this project log and read through it all, absolutely amazing job. I just made a desk for my pc; noggins screwed to the wall painted in wall colour, 18mm sheet MDF painted in bright orange and 2 coats of floor varnish but this project log makes me want to do MORE! Can't wait to see it finished.

It's a somewhat crazy amount of work though