Heavy Metal Computer Case Desk

heavy-metal-computer-case-desk

This desk is also a computer case. From this view it may not seem like much, but the build log has hundreds of images which could be called metal fabrication porn. The desk surface is made of wood, but all of the other parts were crafted from stainless steel.

The three components that weren’t fabricated by [Paslis] are the pair of legs and the column supporting the screens. These pieces are actually lifting columns that allow you to adjust desk and screen height at the touch of a button. The build starts off with a sub-surface to house the computer guts. After careful cutting, bending, welding, and polishing this comes out looking like the work surface in a commercial kitchen. After attaching the lifting legs to that assembly a foot for the desk takes shape from square pipe which is then skinned with stainless steel to match the finished look of the sub-surface. After spending countless hours on brackets, trim pieces, grills, and wood accents he sent everything off for painting before the final assembly.

Certainly this is in a different realm than the case desk from yesterday. But a mere mortal can pull that off while this is surely the work of an experienced tradesman.

[Thanks Andreas]

40 thoughts on “Heavy Metal Computer Case Desk

  1. That is glorious work.

    My one question is whether having that big glass/plastic window is going to result in annoying reflections of the screen… It might not… I just know that if I have my iPod Touch sitting face up, screen off, in front of my monitors, the reflection quickly distracts me. This might be less mirror-like.

    Now, back to metal porn I go!

    1. I suspect it won’t be *too* bad, since what makes the ipod really mirrory is having something immediately behind the glass, which acts like the silvering on an actual mirror.

  2. For the quick precis, see the video from his last post:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djma6H0z2LU

    It’s certainly a beautify piece of work, and I love the rise/fall action, but for me the noise of the fans would be too much, and I’d only ever see through the window once, within about 3 hours the desk would be permanantly covered in junk again.

    I have a (massive, 2 meters tall, 2 meters wide, and more than half a meter deep) cabinet with tambour doors in which I keep my PC (complete in a standard case), printers, external drives…, I just cut a hole in the back to feed some long DVI cables through and have a wireless keyboard & mouse (USB thingee sits on top of the cabinet in one of those WiFI dongle base extention cable things). Shut the doors and unless the CPU is really cranking up you can barely hear anything.

    1. I agree completely with the noise level. since it’s water cooled it seems like it’s overkill on the number of fans blowing through the desk. He should have rear mounted the radiators and then been able to simply move the required air through only the radiators, instead of the entire desk.

      The rise/fall of the whole desk was really impressive.

  3. First of all, magnificent job!

    I have a few worries however.

    First, can the blue light be switched off? You’re going to have blue screen glare and depression if you keep streaming blue light into your eyes.

    Second, is the glass countersunk into the wood? It doesn’t look like it and personally I’d find it irritating not being able to adjust my keyboard and mouse position at will.

    If this is irrelevant to you then feel free to ignore it completely! :)

    1. I don’t know if the light has a switch (common sense says yes and this guy doesn’t seem to lack much of it) but the monitors have matte screens and those LEDs aren’t blue, it’s just LED cool white, they look blue because the room’s light which is likely warm CFL throws off the white balance of the camera.

  4. Nice work (and who here isn’t jealous of his workshop).

    Thru the build pic’s I was thinking what a clunky monstrosity, then the very last pic that showed him sitting in front of it put it to scale and it all seems to fit very nicely with the equipment.

  5. Awesome metal porn! But it says aluminum dozens of times in the build log, which is much easier to work than stainless.. Those welds are freaking incredible.. All I end up with is structurally sort of solid worm poop when I weld.. :)

    1. My mistake! Between the drool over the aluminium fabrication and this tiny phone screen I didn’t even see the outer frame being fabbed out of steel! That welding table is incredible too! Need to fire up the PC and check this out on a real screen!

  6. OMG that is the one of the most beautiful things i’ve seen, he must have spent 4 grand in materials alone, he could charge10k for something that nice, if he found a nice rich idiot. I wish I qualified for the rich idiot part myself cause i want.

  7. “But a mere mortal can pull that off while this is surely the work of an experienced tradesman.”

    Wow. What a tasteless, pointless comparison. Why was it necessary to belittle yesterday’s featured hack?

    1. Given that most of us (myself included) fall into the “mere mortal” category, I read that sentence as a compliment to both makers while giving a nod to the level of skill that elevates the second project to a different plane. I didn’t detect any belittling, and I don’t think any was intended.

      1. That’s what I said a few comments up, but if you read the whole thing only the tray is aluminum, the rest of it is all stainless and a bucket full of awesome. Why use hose for coolant when you can fab up some perfectly bent polished stainless tubing? Wow…

  8. Nice to see this build here. I’ve been following it on tweakers.net since the beginning, and as others also mention, the level of metal craftsmanship involved here is astounding. While building this thing, [Paslis] would often offhandedly talk about fabricating parts in an afternoon that would be complete projects by themselves for most of us.

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