On 20 Feb 2004 08:01:35 -0800, (Alex) scribbled:
Can someone suggest a book or website that covers such projects? Or
if someone has done something similar, can you send suggestions or
photos?

I just moved my home office into a bedroom of what used to be a
basement apartment. I don't have as many computers as you do, and the
room is about 10X10'. L-shaped desk surfaces. The first is 42X18" and
holds the printers and has shelves underneath for paper. The second is
a corner unit, cut out of a 42X42" panel, with a 45-degree cut,
leaving about 35" in the front for the keyboard and monitor. The third
is a bigger worktable 32X72". Here is an ASCII plan. Note that the
angles are at 45-degrees rather than whatever the slashes are.
__________________________________________________ _______________
| 42" | ~72" |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |3
| | |2
| | |"
| /\ |
|4 / \ |
|2 / \~17" |
|" 36" / \ |
| / \______________________________________|
| /
| /
|____________/
| 18" |
| |
| |
| |
| |4
| |2
| |"
| |
| |
| |
|____________|


The surfaces are 3/4 melamine covered particle board edged with
purpleheart. The edging was relieved with a 1/8" roundover router bit.

I hate working with that ****, both melamine and purpleheart. Melamine
is heavy, sags a lot and chips easily when cutting, but it's easy to
clean and doesn't need finishing. I really wanted to use hardwood ply,
but the finishing process would have taken too long. Purpleheart has
all the worst characteristics - it splinters worse than doug fir, the
splinters hurt more than red cedar, it's harder than oak and maple,
and dulls your tools as fast as teak. But the colour is purty and I
had a bunch of narrow stuff left over from another project.

To hold up the tops at the back, I used 1X3 cleats screwed into the
wall. The melamine is screwed into the cleats. The printer cabinet and
the corner unit are held up by 18X28 melamine panels, edged with
purpleheart. As the floor is not level, I put in 2 t-nuts and a
carriage bolt on the bottom edge of the panels to level them. The
joinery between the side panels and the tops is small iron angles
screwed into the melamine.

The big table is held up at the front with two purpleheart tapered
legs. The legs are made of 3 pieces of 3/4" purpleheart laminated and
then tapered on the table saw, scraped and the corners rounded off. I
biscuited a 5x5" piece of purpleheart the top of the legs, and that is
screwed to the melamine top.

Not elegant furniture, by far, but it was quick (the main
requirement), rigid and looks pretty good. I did not use any finish on
the purpleheart (again, time)

Luigi
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