Materials for new desk
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Hi All:
Slowly getting the hang of Sketchup and I've roughed up a design for an 'L' shaped computer desk for home. I'm reasonably handy as far as woodworking is concerned, but I've got virtually no experience with metalworking.
I've attached an image of how I imagine the desk will look. It's constructed from a number of fairly simple components, bolted together with M5 fixings and specially shaped brackets cut and drilled from 1.6mm (i.e. 16swg) mild steel. The majority of the frame would be fabricated from 20mm X 20mm (3/4" x 3/4") box section, apart from the base and the part that the wooden desktop sits on, which would be made from 50mm x 25mm (2" x 1") box section. The general idea is that I'll be able to generate a set of 2D drawings from my SU model, take these to a local fabrication yard along with my raw materials and have them weld, cut and drill everything accurately, leaving me with a giant metal construction kit to take home and assemble.
The part that I'm not sure about is whether steel or aluminium would be more suitable for the main part of the construction. On the one hand, I imagine steel would be stronger, but it would also be considerably heavier than aluminium. I don't want to end up with something that weighs too much, but at the same time it needs to be reasonably strong, both to support its own weight and the weight of the monitors, printer, etc, etc that will be sitting on it.
Just wondered if anybody on here has the 'real-world' engineering experience to be able to offer an opinion one way or the other.
Edit: Just to put some scale to it, here's how the desk would look populated with 3 22" monitors, an inkjet printer and a tower-style computer plus accessories:
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I used to design consoles for police & industrial sites.
I have some companies that have good prefab layouts if you are interested.
They have CAD drawings & 3d S/W (Free) that you can download into Sketchup.They have setups that look like your layout.
Time / cost might be better.http://winsted.com/designsoftware_soft.htm?gclid=CMiXmom3y7YCFYPd4Aodm2sA-A
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Interesting desk design. That frame on the floor would make me absolutely crazy, though.
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Needs to be a bit deeper IMO, keyboard is right on the edge and inevitable wire spaghetti may make things a bit cramped.
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I agree with the comments. I have seen some interesting things done with pipe fittings
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@dave r said:
That frame on the floor would make me absolutely crazy, though.
+1
If you want to store some books, paper, ... on the top board, you will probably need some supporting structures.
Edit: image added
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Thank you to everyone who replied. I've revised the design based on some of the comments made, it now looks like this:
@Cotty, the desk I'm using at the moment has a very similar construction, i.e steel box section of the same dimensions. The top part doesn't have the diagonal supporting struts that you suggested and it has coped for several years with a succession of fairly heavy printers and speakers perched on it. I'll see what the guys at my local yard say, but thanks for the heads up on that.
@Olishea, I've increased the depth marginally from 55cms to 60cms. Again, this matches the dimensions of the desk I'm using at the moment and I find that to be more than enough.
And everyone who commented on the frame, you're absolutely right. After spending some time trawling through pictures of commercially made furniture, I've concluded that the cantilever style construction in the revised design will be plenty strong enough.
Just have to persuade my other half how nice it will look in real life...
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It's coming along but I think that foot on the left end will make you crazy every time you trip on it. I don't see that it will be doing you any good. Why not shorten it like the others?
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I think Dave is right with an L shaped desk there would be no need for the foot to be longer than any of the other feet.
Your doing a nice job of it BTW
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