Making My Own Keyboard Drawer w/ PICS (WIP)

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cmosdos

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Aug 26, 2002
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When I bought my desk a few months ago, I decided not to add on the keyboard drawer. It cost about $60 bucks, and it was plastic and flimsy. The rails were very light and felt like it would fall apart.

Well, I've been checking the office stores and online places... most under the desk keyboard drawers are plastic and to get anything decent you gotta spend about $90 bucks. I decided it was time for me to build my own.

I headed down to Lowes and picked up a nice piece of Poplar wood, some stain, polyurethane, foam brushes, keyboard drawer rails (medium duty), and a wood saw. After I finish the project I'll itemize everything out for total cost analysis.

Now, to get started. I opened up the keyboard drawer rails and attatched the harneses for top mounting.
rails.jpg


Here's my wood... as you can see, I've already marked it for cutting.
wood.jpg


Mmm.. sharp edges
saw.jpg


And the finished cut. I sanded down all the edges, and made it extra curved and smooth on the end that will be facing me during use. No splinters from this baby.
cut.jpg


I've already been working on this project for a day. I tested out my origional Olympic American Cherry stain on the extra wood and it was a little too dark for my desk. I went back to lowes and exchanged it for Minwax Maple. This should be a better match. I'll get pictures up of the desk soon. This picture doesn't show the true color and beauty of this wood/stain.
stained.jpg


I'm waiting for it to be completly dry and I'll check and compare it to see if it needs another coat. If not I'll be putting the shine on it later. Stay tuned for more pics and updates.
 
Originally posted by jamezzz122
Possible cloggage is what he is thinking...
Click to expand...
As long as you run the faucet for a few minutes, it'll end up beyond the house piping before you even know it.

Looks like a nice choice of wood to do it with. Personally I've never been able to use keyboard drawers, but it looks like yours will be a nice one.
 
Lol.. yeah, nothing to worry about that saw dust going down the drain. Wasn't that much and no wood chips or anything. I had the piece up on top of a 4in text book... i knew those things would come in handy for something. That prevented the saw from touching the sink or any surrounding areas. I had to do it inside because it's 10F degrees outside... way too cold. Figured the sink was the next best option. I'm doing the staining in the tub! Lol. Doing really well though. So far no problems. When your in college, you have to improvise ;)
 
looks nice so far.

my dad made the desk i use:cool: it sits right between the two dressers he made:eek:

he's good with woodworking like that.

(not bragging, i know i wouldn't do something like that, i'd screw up my desk putting it in)
 
Nice color choice. Working up the plans for my full desk/entertainment center now.

Oh and when I lived in my apartment I did all my dremeling in the bathtub. No outlet outside. Just make sure to run the shower for a while to get rid of metal shavings and youre fine :)
 
Nice progress so far. I'm doing a similar project for my desk real soon. Where did you find your drawer slides? I've looked at just about every home improvement store and could only find non ball bearing slides. What are the dimensions of the slide closed/opened? Thanks alot, and good work.
 
lmao @ the sink thing. good idea i guess. dont see too many (if any) custom keyboard drawers. this should turn out nice.
 
Originally posted by vekz
Nice progress so far. I'm doing a similar project for my desk real soon. Where did you find your drawer slides? I've looked at just about every home improvement store and could only find non ball bearing slides. What are the dimensions of the slide closed/opened? Thanks alot, and good work.
Click to expand...

I bought them from Lowes Home Improvement. I searched on their site for you, but I couldn't find it there. The people there were very helpful in showing me where everything I needed was. The description on my receipt is "16" Adjustable Keyb". Fully extended the rails are 27.5". Closed is 16". Max hight is 3.75" which is adjustable down to 2.5". I'll post up my "blueprints" in just a little bit. I gotta go put my first coat of poly on it right now so that it will have time to dry, me sand, and put another coat on before going to bed. I'll take a closer pic of the rails for you too.
 
Alrighty... here's the diagram I'm workin off of. The 30" x 11" is the size of the wood. It is 1" thick. The 3.25" is the height I plan to have the drawer at. Or rather, how low it will hang under the desk.
diagram.jpg


Here are a few other pictures of the rails for you vekz. As you can see, these rails use ball bearings. Much smoother and higher quality than ur standard roller drawer.
rail.jpg

railuc.jpg


I'll try to get a picture up of my desk later tonight so you can see where this will be going. I just put a coat of poly on one side of the wood. I have to wait about 4 hours before I can turn it over and do the other side. I'll let all of that dry over night. I'll sand down both sides tomorrow and repeat today's steps for the 2nd coat. I'll compare the semi-gloss finish to my current finish and see if I need to put a 3rd or 4th coat. I might do that just for the added protection benifit. So, I'm looking at a completed project by about Thursday. Possibly earlier if the weather warms up enough for me to do this outside.
 
Hey thanks man, I really appreciate the pics. I guess I'll have to keep looking for something similar to those slides. The ones you are using are exactly what I was looking for.
 
Lol... no, not 10K... however it is in the "K" field ;) Here is a pic of it that i said i'd post up. Its a panoramic shot, so you may have to scroll. Ignore the fugly text ;)

The desk's size drawfs everything else. The monitor is a 21" Dell 2001FP to give you an idea of size. As you can see, the keyboard and mouse are on top now... not too pretty, but more importantly, not comfortable. My arms are tilted up at an angle, and the wrists down. Painful at times. So, hopefully this new keyboard drawer will help.
desk.jpg
 
That is an awesome desk. I wish I could afford one, but I don't think it could even fit in my room.
 
If I may make a suggestion. My desk came with a kb tray that's disguised as a drawer. You pull out the drawer, and the front part where the handle is folds down and you get a tray. Imagine a regular drawer but the front panel is attached to the bottom of the drawer with hinges. It's pretty stealthy. If you want some pics i can take some.
 
Yeah, size with this desk was a problem... it covers my window up by an inch or so.

BatteryAcid, I know what your talking about. I've never liked those too much. Also, in the pic you can see that my desk is curved where I will have the keyboard. This poses a problem with your suggestion. Thanks anyways!
 
And, the final result... putting on the rails were pretty much straight forward. Just a few calculations and its up. mmm.. more desk real estate goodness.

final.jpg
 
Well done...I am currently building my own desk.....I will take some pics when I am finished. So far it is going pretty well.
 
What type of chair is that? I have a high back chair and want to get another one... but everwhere I look offers zero back/neck/head support. I'm tall 6'1" and need a high hair (no pun intended..lol)

Nice Desk btw!

Thanks,

-Nigel
 
The chair is an Executive Pillowback Leather high-back chair. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head now. I bought it from staples for ~$180 back in July of '03.
 
nice work.

and imagine three of those monitors side by side... it would fit perfectly... :)
 
Man, i know... but at $1000 each... its just too much. Plus, I'd have to get a matrox card or something to run it. It would definetly be pretty though.
 
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