Furniture building question

[esun127]

This is a desk that is about 85% complete. I haven't finished the edges yet. Each piece is made of melamine which is fiberboard with laminate on both sides.

On a lot of desks that I see at the stores, the edges are all finished with a black plastic edge banding material. Where do I get this stuff?

Some guys here seem to have a good amount of experience with building rack cases and such so I figured someone might know. Thanks.

[longsoughtfor]

esun127 - You desk looks great! Usually where ever you buy the melamine, you can get the banding for the edges. The banding a thin strip of melanime that has an adhesive on the back face already, You apply it by running a hot iron of some sort over it (flat edges are OK with a clothes iron, not sure how to do the curved part).

I have used this method for my desk and racks (though with plywood and wood banding):

http://www.longsoughtfor.org/postn/h...view_photo.php

Would you mind if I add your desk to the gallery?

Cheers
Kevin.

[Track Rat]

Kevin, I had almost forgotten about your site. I finally did a measured drawing of my stuff if you're interested.

[MiXit-G]

What mixer is that?

[Guernica]

...what longsoughtfor said....

...or you can just get some melamine, some glue, and a laminate trimmer (about 80 bucks, avail. at any decent tool store) and do it from scratch

[longsoughtfor]

Track - yeah, get me the file and I'll put it up.

MiXit-G - which mixer?

Kevin.

[scottboyher]

What kind of shoes are those?

[Tonio]

The mixer looks like a M8?( Souncraft spirit).

More like .. what kind of monitors are those? How do you hear anything?

Tony

[TexRoadkill]

Nice job. You can usually get the edging at any store that carries the melamine. Although you can iron it on I have found it much easier to use a hot air gun. Just tape up the ends to hold it in place and use a round piece of wood to press down as you run over it with the gun. For corners use a square edge of the wood to press it in after you hit it with the heat.

You can heat it up in a few places and press it on to hold it in place then go over it more slowly to really melt the adhesive. The real trick is trimming the edging. I bought a special tool but it didn't work all that well. I ended up using a razor and it came out okay. My desk is black and I ended up touching up the edges with paint to cover the little divots I made with the razor.

[esun127]

Thanks for all the replies. Longsoughtfor - feel free to use the picture, althoguh I will take a better one later. I just took a quick snapshot of it to post on this site.

Where do you usually buy your melamine tape? I bought my melamine from home depot and the guys there are pretty clueless as to where the banding can be found.

After I'm finished with edges, I plan on adding a couple features to the desk.

- The backs of the two leg/shelf things will be closed and wires will be hidden inside. One power cable like those used for rackmount equipment will power the entire desk (I'll have a socket on the back for that).

-Those poles that hold up the shelf will hide the speaker wires for studio monitors, The center pole will hide a power cable for the printer and a usb cable.

- The back panel will also have a wall plate with 2 RJ-45 sockets (one to connect the router to switch inside my desk, and one to connect the switch to my 2nd computer (rackmount.)

- Another wall plate with two quarter inch jacks will connect the monitors to the rack-mounted amp, and also connect the output of my non-rackmount computer's soundcard to the mixer (so i can listen to songs, watch movies, etc through the monitors. I won't have normal computer speakers).

- A recessed box with a lid will hide all those USB and AC/DC power supply ends that are currently tied around the right pole

- A monitor switch that swithces the right monitor between the main computer and the rackmount computer will be mounted to the desk. Right now it's just lying there if you can see it. Likewise, the ethernet switch will also be mounted.

- I need to find a pole to connect the two "legs". It will serve as a tunnel to route wires to the left side of the desk and also to support my feet when I want to sit back.

[Chrisjob]

The mixer is from Soundcraft's new E series, but I don't know what the difference is between the E and the M series


And get some monitors, my man...

Even Hi-Fi speakers will be better than that. If you can't afford monitors, invest in some studio headphones until you can

Peace
Chris

[TexRoadkill]

The sell the banding at Home Depot's here. You might try some Plywood wholesalers. It's about $25 for a big roll.