New Computer Work Desk!

[the elephant]

I like some of the things you can build using black iron pipe. I was a fan of some of the very early steampunk stuff in Greenwich Village, SoHo, and TriBeCa when I lived up there in the mid-1980s. It was not to be called "steampunk" for some time, though. I am not sure it had a name other than "industrial".

Many years later it became pretty mainstream and many folks wanted that look and feel in some of their possessions. Now that it is less popular (and far less spendy) I finally decided to make my black pipe desk that I had worked out in my head about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, I did not work out the whole "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" thing as regards what is physically possible when trying to assemble things. Parts can fit together fine, but if you cannot physically thread them together… well that's no bueno.

So after sitting for hours on the floor of Home Depot back after Christmas in 2019, I figured out that some of what worked out so well on paper could not actually be built. I went home and worked out a new design and finally had one that was what I believed to be both excellent and suitably inexpensive.

I googled a bunch of images of black pipe desks, found one very similar to what I wanted, and carefully compared how all its joints were constructed. I learned about some parts that would have made my initial design work, but it was too late. But I incorporated them into my design.

I went back to HD and scrounged up all the parts using the dimensions of the desktop I wanted to use.

Then I discovered a company called Pipe Decor dot com that sells kits. I found "my" design, which was a supreme pisser for me. They are not identical, but dang it, I thought I was doing my own original work rather than parallel work to a design sold as a kit by some company. RATS!

Lots of LIFE intervened and I never got to work on this. I think I posted elevation sketches of this at the old place, by the way. It was a long time ago.

Today I got off my fat behind and started to build what I have at hand.

It will be a very cool desk once it has been tacked together and the top, a 1.75" thick slab of solid birch butcherblock that is 50" x 25", has been stained and given a nice urethane finish.

Original (failed) plan…




Lots of parts…






Stripping off the paint, grease, and printed code numbers… blech…


I clear-coated everything and stored it all away years ago. Today, when I assembled it all it looked like this…






I have to stain the top and apply a urethane finish. It's just resting there right now, not yet screwed down.

[bloke]

It's EXTREMELY handsome.

The great room in this house is very difficult to heat with the wood stove - even though it's a wonderful wood stove, because there really is no ceiling (as the ceiling and roof line are the same), and it's stupid high. It's also really expensive to heat this place up in the winter or cool it in the summer because of the "wonderful spaciousness" of it.
There's a garish chandelier in the middle (which is extremely large, and I can't afford to replace it with a tasteful one) which used to blow fuses until LED bulbs were invented, and there are also two effects lights that shine straight down several feet away from it along the roof line. I would rather there be ceiling fans hanging from where those effect lights are located, to move the heated or cooled air around more effectively, rather than (particularly in the winter) heating up the upstairs loft area where no one really lives. The horizontal logs - up there - which horizontally brace the room are put together with black iron, so I would kind of like to use black iron pipes to support the fans, rather than those fake brass pipes that they sell which are no longer than 6 feet long, as I could probably use 9 or 10 ft long pipes to bring the fans down to some point like 13 ft high.
I've looked at the black iron pipes (that are just fine as far as length and already pre-threaded on the ends), but the ones that are specifically for ceiling fans have tapered threads on them which end up the size of the black iron pipe threads, but start smaller on the ends, so I guess I'm stuck with just hanging those fans down six feet from the roof line and using the crappy fake brass ones that offered for sale in the big box stores, unless I want to purchase some giant thread tap and retap the female threads on the fan hardware.

...I realize that I tend to post a bunch of all-about-me stuff when you've shown off your cool things in your threads, but I REALLY do like what you've done there and it got me thinking again about what I have NOT done, and those fans that are just sitting in their boxes never unpacked and the heat that's rising and costing me a bunch of dough.

[the elephant]

I would do it. It is easy, sit-on-your-a$$-type work. The tapered NPT threads can be rough to work with so that some parts do not fully seat, but — for me AND for you — this is okay because these would not be carrying pressurized gas or water, so you can just whack the threads with a Dremel to neatly remove small thread imperfections (whether weld spatter or burs). I had to do that to one pipe that had been dropped or slammed into the ground so that the first thread was rolled over pretty badly on about a third of the tube. (It looked suspiciously like "young scholar" tuba damage) After going after it with first a pick and then my jeweler's saw to rechase it I gave up and did some "creative reshaping" with the Dremel. Now it threads to its neighbor very nicely and fully seats. I have to use my heavy leather welding gloves to fully thread the parts as they are very hard to get to fully seat in most cases, due to the threads tightening as you turn them.

Of course, I am not clear on what your issue is, but I wanted to toss that out in case it applied. I am sure it does not, but hey, it was free.
____________

I am building a new cat table for under my front window. For about 12 years we have used an over-large, cheap copy of a "farm kitchen table" from Target. I like it, but it is too dang big, protruding into the living room about half an acre more than I want, and it is cheaply made. I will use a different arrangement of pipes (as per the graph paper in the photos) that are a bit thinner, and I will use my table saw to rip the desktop down from 2 feet of depth to about 18" — I think that will be enough for the cats and will give me back 60"x18" of floorspace in our small living room. (The "farm table" is 36" deep.) The Target table will go into my shop where I can properly ruin the top with chemicals and flames.

[shovelingtom]

I built a roughly 6ft x 7ft bookshelf with iron pipe a few years ago. Need to put some supports on the bottoms of the shelves to eliminate sage but it works and looks nice enough.

The lower cross brace you put on your desk look great (and the rest too, but I particularly like that detail). Also really like the butcher block.

[bloke]

LOL...
Most of my storage is out in the barn...so shelving is mostly made of scrounged lumber.
The last few shelves that I put up out there were made of bottoms of drawers (surprisingly thick, and NOT Masonite) from a busted-up dresser sitting out on the highway in Brownsville, TN.
At least, more of my (work-a-day, not "band instrument repair") tools are attaining "homes" - vs. sitting on the concrete floor in a messy pile.

[the elephant]

Nice!

[MiBrassFS]

That is dang nice. Seriously, seriously, nice!

[bloke]

If we already had a steampunk theme going here (yeah...and If I weren't broke...LOL) I'll steal both of those designs.

[the elephant]

I dug out the parts that had rusted and were bagged and tossed into a dank hole a thousand feet below my laundry room (okay, in a Walmart bag on the shelf under my bench). The wife and I decided to inventory the remaining parts for the cat table. Since I decided to steal the cat table base for my desk, that left the desk base (the aforementioned "failed" design) for the cat table.

I had sorted out why it would not work. Then I discovered parts that would allow it to work… but I never bought them.

Today we pieced together the other desk (table) and made a list of parts needed from HD or Lowes for about twenty bucks. Headed out to buy them now. I am getting rid of the shelf underneath as I will no longer have to rip the butcherblock top to a narrower size. (We took the top off of the computer desk and set it on top of the current huge farm table and it is perfect exactly as is. No trip to the carport with the table saw, and a lot of table hardware rendered useless. Also, I have to BUY less at Lowes, which is nice. Without the shelf the design is much less "interesting" and "clever" but it will be sturdy, functional, and decent-looking. The cats already like it, as they have been lounging on the computer table since last night.

So now we will have both tables/desks completed very soon.

Most of the day we cleaned out the nascent office and moved tuba cases and furniture around to make an assembly space for the computer table as it would be difficult to get into the room fully assembled with the tight 90º corners the insane home builders decided to put into this place in 1937. Easier to build the base in the living room and carry it and the top into the new space to screw it down. If I can make enough space in the office I'll just assemble everything in there.

Pics someday. Probably.

[the elephant]

Here is where I am before heading into Jackson for supper and a trip to buy more pipe and fittings.

The top is a closed box, the bottom is an open "U" (to allow space for your feet and the chair). The left side is joined to the right with the three 36" connectors via unions. The sides are a "U" with two pieces joined via unions on the bottom to close the boxes. In the photos you can see the shelf mounting flanges from "underneath" on one side, with the gap for the currently missing 8" piece of pipe I have to buy tonight. Since there will be no shelf I can remove all that coolness and replace it with a piece of straight pipe. (That leg of the side box has to be broken with a union anyway, or you. cannot put it together. so the missing front 8" pipes will have two additional ones to replace all this stuff.) I have no idea whether any of that made sense. I have to hit the road.

See y'all…

Under-window "cat" table…

[bloke]

Here is where I am before heading into Jackson for supper and a trip to buy more pipe and fittings.

The top is a closed box, the bottom is an open "U" (to allow space for your feet and the chair). The left side is joined to the right with the three 36" connectors via unions. The sides are a "U" with two pieces joined via unions on the bottom to close the boxes. In the photos you can see the shelf mounting flanges from "underneath" on one side, with the gap for the currently missing 8" piece of pipe I have to buy tonight. Since there will be no shelf I can remove all that coolness and replace it with a piece of straight pipe. (That leg of the side box has to be broken with a union anyway, or you. cannot put it together. so the missing front 8" pipes will have two additional ones to replace all this stuff.) I have no idea whether any of that made sense. I have to hit the road.

See y'all…

Under-window "cat" table…

Is there sound with this post? When I looked at it, it was muted.

[the elephant]

New desk, in situ… Of course, I still have to apply a finish to the top, but that has to wait until the pending winter storms pass.


I am still cleaning out this former storage room and setting up my office. I still have some cleanup to do. Then I have some paint to apply, a Persian rug to roll out, and furniture to putz around with. I need a new futon mattress (so I have a decent couch). [My cat Ginger peed all over the old one years ago and I had to toss it after a lot of work trying to save it. It was her first day ever indoors as a semi-feral kitten, and she was fairly certain that the couch was a bathroom and the litter box was for playing and sleeping in. I am here to tell you that you cannot, under any circumstances, get cat piss out of memory foam.]

Then I have some fantastic artwork that has to be hung. Who remembers when I bought this very expensive poster and had it very nicely framed for $$$? I have a lot of great tuba art for this room.



It will be a really nice space for me to work in when it is finished.

When everything is done I will post back here. Until then, I guess this thread is done.

Here is the roughed-out version of the new cat table that will live beneath the pair of double-hung windows in the living room. It is the perfect size. Once it has been properly assembled/stained/finished and has been placed in its new home I'll add that to this thread.

This design appears to be simpler than the computer desk, but it was a bear getting it to work. This was the so-called failed design. I figured it out and bought the needed bits at Lowe's last night. I pieced it together today without tools to make sure everything works. And it does, happily.

Note the last bits of mess and the mattress-less futon…

[the elephant]

Quick followup… FINALLY hanging some of my prints and actual paintings in my practice studio. Have had these things ready to go for YEARS and then some personal setbacks caused me to stop working on this room. It is good to get back into this project. Thanks for reading.