A Home Built Office Desk

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

2. With 1" screws, fasten sides to base, but don't tighten all the way.

Cut and Attach Rear Panel

1. Measure inside of cabinet and cut a back panel to fit from thin plywood.

2. Drill small pilot holes through ply and fasten the back board to the cleats at rear of side boards with glue and small finish nails.

Even Up, Place Shelves, and Trim

1. Place cabinet under table, square up all around, and slide thin shims of wood under base as needed to correct any wobbles due to uneven floorboards. Using contact cement, glue keepers to underside of table, hard-flush with inner surfaces of plywood side boards.

2. Measure to fit and cut middle shelf or shelves. Place on cleats inside the cabinet.

3. Cinch all screw-fasteners tight.

Trim

1. Following illustration, fashion face-trim boards for top, bottom and sides of cabinet opening from 1x2 pine and attach with wood glue and finish nails. If desired, fashion a door-bigger all around by a half inch than the cabinet opening-from pine boards or plywood. Attach with offset hinges and a magnetic catch. Select a pull handle to match the hinge set, drill a hole through the door and bolt the pull on.

WIRINGTHE OFFICE

Computers, modern telephones and other delicate electronic office machines prefer clean, uninterrupted electric current. Most of them must be grounded as well, which means that old-fashioned two-prong outlets are not adequate. Plus, they can't handle serious voltage spikes, sudden bursts of energy caused by lightning strikes, generator startups, and other anomalies down line.

The best way to provide even, safe, grounded power is to have a separate hi-amp circuit with a main-panel surge protector installed by an electrician. This is especially true if your house wiring is old, supplied by a small rural electric system, and subject to frequent brown outs, cutoffs and lightning strikes. It isn't cheap, but better than experiencing frequent crashes with attendent loss of computer data or having to replace or repair powersource damage.

If an electrician is beyond your means and your house wiring is a mystery of tangled wires, taped up connections, and odd fuse boxes so common in old country homes, learn as much as possible about the office circuit. Plug a radio turned up loud into each wall socket in the office and disconnect fuses or circuit breakers till you find the one serving the outlet. Note if any lights go out or clocks go off when each fuse is unscrewed.

Note the value of the fuse or circuit breaker (15, 20 or 30 amps) Write down the amperage draw indicated on the little data tags you'll find on the back of all appliances you'll be using in the office (and any others on the circuit in other rooms).

If the total approaches the value of the fuse, you are asking for an overload, a crashed computer or blown fuse. If this is the case, or if the office is on the same circuit as the kitchen or a furnace, you'll have to relocate the office, call in the electrician or be careful not to operate too many appliances at once.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print