Building a studio desk??

[itsme1234]

Hi. I was thinking about building my own desk. I had a few questions. How much, average, would you say it is to buld your own desk. Im thinking a fairly good sized one about 6' wide, 4' deep.

Also, where can you get racks parts to have a rack rails built into the desk, if they even just sell the rails that is. You can tell I dont know much abotu building my own desk, but the ones I see prebuilt are way to expensive. Though I did find a pretty good one for 600, but I was wondering if buling one would be a lot cheaper than that or pretty much around the same price range. Thanks.

[Micter]

I use an old dining room table with about the same measurements.

[OhSh1rt]

Yes. Much cheaper and when you're done you can be proud (or pissed) of it.


-jeffrey

[Track Rat]

Depending on what you have in mind, 4'x8'x3/4" oak or poplar plywood is about $40 a sheet, one to two sheets would do it. Add about $6 for screews and another $30 or so for glue, stain and polyurethane. If your handy with tools, a little common sense you can make a dandy desk a LOT cheaper than you buy one.

[itsme1234]

Slightly interesting suggestions, lol. I actually have my equipment on my 'actual' dining room table. Its not very comfortable or practical, but is definately cheaper. Thanks for the overhead Track rat. There's also always that accomplishing feeling that you made it on your own.

Anyone know where there's a place to order rack rails to implement into my desk? Spank you

[joswil44]

Hi,

I built my own desk for my Mackie 32 Channel 8 Bus with 2 side attachments for all of my rack gear.

You can see my pics on www.myspace.com/metalworksrecordingstudio

Just click on Pics link and you can see how I did mine.

Its about 10 Feet Wide. 3 sections.

The desk with the Mixer is about 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep.

I would say I used at least 2 sheets of Birch Plywood from Lowes at about $46 per sheet.

Maybe 3 sheets since I made the side units.

Came out really nice other than my painting and clear coating since I painted it black.

I got a few boxes of wood screws for about $4 each.

Some Wood Putty to fill in the screw holes and joints. Maybe $5

The rack rails can be bought from Musiciansfriend.com.

Try Middle Atlantic or Oddysey.

I used 2 sets of 14 space rails for my side units and 4 space rails for my upper compartments.

The rails were probably around $20 or so.

Spent about $10 on paint and clear coat that I brushed on by hand.

I also used the metal brackets that they screw onto 2x4's for framing houses.

Gives nice support in the joints and corners of your desk.

Kind of L shaped. Like .25 cents a piece.

Lowes and Home depot are pretty cool about cutting sheets to size. Especially if you cant fit it in your car.

So if you know your large dimensions, have them cut them and you can do the smaller pieces.

I used a Skill Saw on parts of it and later bought a cheap Craftsman Table saw.

The Angles can be cut with a Jig Saw as well and sanded to keep strait.

Another piece I used for bracing along the back instead of wasting Plywood was the long solid poles for coat hangers in closets.

Its nice solid wood and fairly cheap.

I cut it to size right there at Lowes.

Made a nice brace in the back between the side panels.

I got vinly or fake leather for the arm rest at Jans Fabrics, Im sure any fabric store has something.

Was probably about $40 or less for the 2" green Foam I used and Black Vinyl.

Staple gunned that to pieces of plywood to make my arm rest.

I focused my design off of an OmniRax unit.

I built my side units separately so they can be moved easier and I can always put one side somewhere else if needed should I move my gear around.

The best thing you can do is figure out where you want your racks and how many rack spaces you want.

Buy the rack rails.

Measure the Rack rails length to determine how long your measurements will be. And how Deep you want to be able to go.

I basically took my largest rack unit, put it in the rails, then measure the depth in the back and how wide the rack rails were while attached to the rack unit.

That told me the width of the tops and bottoms for the opening.

Leaving a little space is ok since the rack pieces have some flexibility in move ment when you screw them in.

Give it some play to slide to the left and right, cuz not all rack units fit the same.

So its ok if its a 1/16 over sized. Better that its a little over sized than trying to squeeze a rack piece in 1/16 undersized.

I may have speant around $200 in the end.

But I ended up saving about $800 vs buying an Omnirax.

My desk is huge and I made it to my liking.

If you have the tools and skill, go for it. Totally worth it and will save you money for other things like Foam or gear.

If you would like any more info send me a private message.

I can even take better pics for you.

Josh

[itsme1234]

thanks josh...very helpful. i think i am going to build one. you wont find anything that big for cheap. awesome music btw.