Side-Effects of Finally Buying a New Computer

Some months ago (well, last November, if you must know), I finally broke down and bought myself a new computer. I resisted for a good, long time, because my old (emphasis on old) computer works perfectly. By "works perfectly," I mean that it's not broken....

It was never top-of-the-line (I couldn't afford that), but it was a good, solid, middle-of-the-road model. It was a dual Power Mac G5,  2.0 GHz (I think), with 1 GB RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. I added a 2nd internal 250GB hard drive. It had a 20" Apple Cinema Display and ran OS X version 10.5, which was the last version to support PowerPC processors.

 Of course, mere months after I bought it, Apple announced the transition to Intel processors. So, years later, the computer still works just fine, but doesn't have the horsepower to do what I need it to do anymore. There's no new software that will run on it, I can't upgrade the OS any further, and even my favorite browser, Firefox, is letting me down. I can't upgrade it any further, either, and more and more websites require a more recent version.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought an almost-top-of-the-line new computer: a 27" iMac with a Retina 5K display, 4GHz quad core Intel Core i7, 32GB RAM, 3TB Fusion Drive, and a few other bells and whistles. With my luck, it will be obsoleted in a month and a half, but I hope this lasts me just as long as my previous computers....

 

First problem: I need a new desk. My old desk has served me very well - it's a fairly inexpensive Sauder computer desk I bought almost 25 years ago. It's actually outlasted 3 or 4 computers, so was worth every penny, but it's at the end of its useful life. It's starting to fall apart now anyway, and it's getting tougher to repair (the bottom is falling out of the drawer, and top is held in place with a few sheet rock screws, ...)

Even if my old desk were in perfect condition, my new computer just doesn't fit. The old desk is proportioned for a good old fashioned 4:3 CRT. I could fit the Apple Cinema Display in it, but nothing bigger. The 27" iMac would have to sit far forward on the desk, leaving hardly any space for the keyboard, let alone anything else. Nope, definitely needed something different.

As long as I was going to get a new desk, I wanted something better than what I had, and something that (hopefully) would last just as long. The old desk was a bit small - 42" wide x 24" deep. It had a single small drawer, but a decent hutch with an 18" wide bookshelf for manuals and things. I was hoping to find something wider and deeper. with a hutch and more drawers.

I looked all over the place, but couldn't find quite what I wanted - either the size wasn't right, or the price was too steep, whatever. I finally found something that met most of my needs at a used office furniture store. It was a brand new desk, mind you, sold alongside some *ahem* well-used bits of corporate flotsam. It was the perfect size, 48" wide x 30" deep, with 2 small drawers and a file drawer, and was available in a variety of finishes. I picked the American Dark Cherry, because it had the most steampunkish look to it. The only downside - no hutch or shelves.

A quick look around the store and online led me to conclude that there was no equally perfect, reasonably priced, matching hutch commercially available. Like any good engineer, I decided to make my own. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Bob Vila. I've never built anything out of wood that you'd want to show off in the dining room, but I figured that I could probably make something worthy of the man cave. And as long as I'm building it myself, I can go for a steampunk/industrial look, and make exactly what I want.

Well, almost exactly. I couldn't find an American Dark Cherry stain to quite match the desk, so I went with a Mission Oak stain/poly combo finish. It's not a color match, but looks mighty nice just the same.

While wandering through Home Depot on my way to the lumber department, I ran across a vast stack of wooden crates that were on display in the middle of the floor. They were 18" wide x 12.5" high x 9.5" deep. Perfect. I did a quick mental calculation, and decided  I could fit four of them between the desktop and the ceiling.

 

 I figured that I'd have a stack of four crates mounted at the right rear of the desk, and my computer at the left rear. Mounted about halfway up the stack of crates would be a 10" deep shelf extending all the way to the left edge of the desk, to hold a paper organizer I have. Nice!

So I bought four crates, a quart of stain, some brushes, and some hardware to hold all the bits together. The crates came out really nice, but took 3 coats before I was satisfied with the finish.

 

 One thing about these crates - the boards from which they're made are only sanded on one side, the outside, and are pretty rough on the inside of the crate. That's fine if you're going to use them for storage, but not if you're going to use them for books. I didn't need a glass-smooth finish, but I did sand down the interiors of the crates quite a bit. 

 

 

I figured I'd start with a stack of two crates, just to see how they looked and fit. I decided to use ordinary aluminum mending plates to hold them together, but silver doesn't really fit into the color palette I was working with.

 

A can of flat black spray paint took care of that problem. I used two mending plates on each side. If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see that the manufacturing tolerances of the crates is a bit loose. In fact, no two are quite the same! I only put hardware on the sides of the crates because the wood is about 3/4" thick there. The slats on the back, top, and bottom are only about 1/4" thick.
 

 

Here's the finished stack of two crates. Notice the missing slat from the back of the bottom crate. I removed it so I could easily run cords into the bottom crate. I plan on putting my telephone and a power strip there.

 



 

Had all the crates actually conformed to the given measurements, a stack of four would have fit between my desktop and ceiling with a fraction of an inch to spare. As it turned out, the stack was about 1/2" too tall. Drat! Compounding the problem was an epiphany I had about the shelf I wanted to add. Rather than attach the shelf to the side of the stack of crates with L brackets or some such hardware, I realized that it would be much sturdier to sandwich the shelf between the 2nd and 3rd crates. This added an additional 3/4" to the stack height.

The only real option I had, short of eliminating one of the crates from the stack, was to cut one of them down. I cut down the bottom crate by 1-1/2", about the height of one of the slats, so it actually looks like it was built that way on purpose. The result was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Here's the finished unit, without the big paper organizer in place. The tan-colored bits you see on the shelf are felt pads like you use on the feet of furniture. They keep the organizer from scratching up the shelf - or vice-versa.

One thing you can't really see in that photo is how I supported the left edge of the shelf. I used two 3/4" diameter lengths of steel pipe and threaded flanges on each end, screwed into the shelf and desktop. The cool thing about using threaded flanges is that I could use them to level the shelf before screwing them down.

Here's the finished unit with the paper organizer in place. I'm very happy with it! Please note, my desk is about as clean as it will ever be, at least until it's time for a new computer....

Here's a closer look at the pipes supporting the left end of the shelf. I bought 3/4" diameter x 24" long steel nipples, which come threaded on both ends. Unfortunately, they were just a little too long - by about the same amount I had to cut down the bottom crate - so I was faced with the problem of cutting (easy) and threading (not so easy) the pipe. I was going to rent a thread cutter from Home Depot, but a very helpful employee told me that they'd cut & thread the pipe for me for free in plumbing department. Oh, happy day!

Like I said, I'm no Bob Vila, but I was very happy with how this project turned out. Bit by bit, I hope to continue to Steampunk-ify my man cave as time and budget permits.