A computer desk is helpful furniture you can have in your home. Aside from it serving as a safe place for your computer, you can also use it on the majority of your school or office tasks, the reason why it would be better to have a durable and wide computer desk at home.
Many people chose to buy a ready-made computer desk in stores. However, if you want a more personalized one and enjoy doing DIYs, you might want to build your computer desk right in the comfort of your home. So, read along and list all the essential materials and tools you need to build a computer desk.
List of materials you need to build a computer desk.
To build a durable computer desk, you need to find those materials which have the best quality. But what are these materials?
For the top of the cabinet, you will need:
- Hardwood lumber. Not all woods are fit to use for a desk. Try to find a durable wood that you can use as your desk’s top. Some of these most sought-after woods are birch, cherry, maple, black walnut, oak and ash wood. These are some of the sturdy hardwood lumber ideals for desk construction.
- Wood glue. You will need a lot of it in the construction because it provides another support when combining woods.
- Biscuits. It is responsible for joining the boards’ ends to the edges or grains, which provides strength with expansion from the glue. It’s the recommended joining method although there are other types and methods.
For the drawer and hardware, you will need:
- Hardwood lumber
- Drawer sliders
- Drawer pulls
- File frames
- Nails and screws
- Primer and paint for the finish
Note that some woods need several coats, such as birch wood.
List of tools you need to build a computer desk
After completing your materials, you will need specific tools to speed up your construction and give you a more refined work result. You will need essential tools, such as the following:
- Tape measure. Getting the right and exact wood lengths are crucial in desk construction. You can use a tape measure to get the perfect sizes of your woods.
- Framing square. You might need to trace the cut lines on inside corners and check for its square using a framing square.
- Hammer. You will use a hammer to drive nails into the wood easily.
- Power sander. It would be best if you had an electric sander to finish and smooth the surfaces of the wood efficiently.
- Table saw. You might want to have a table saw to cut large and hard pieces of wood. It can also give you small and precise cuts.
- Miter saw. Mitering perfect corners or edges of your desk is essential, and you can use a miter saw for this job. If the edges are in the right cut, it adds a more polished look to your desk. Likewise, it would be better to use a miter saw with a bevel feature to cut corners accurately and correctly.
- Power drill. A drill is essential in making perfect round holes for nails and screws before hammering or driving it into the woods. If you have hardwood, you will need to pre-drill it using an electric drill to avoid slipping and wasting time while working.
- Biscuit joiner. A biscuit joiner is essential to join boards of wood together the tool makes crescent-shaped holes on the opposite edges of two pieces wood. This is where you insert the biscuits and glue them together.
- Iron. Use an iron for veneer tape edging. You might want to utilize veneer edge banding for your woods to look closer with each other, especially plywood panels.
- Strap clamps. When joining two boards, you will need strap clamps to hold them while waiting for the glue to dry.
Building a computer desk is a great project with fun tools you can use, but it does boil down to just a little know-how and using the right tools you need for the job. You need the knowledge, confidence and complete set of tools to create something you like that you can call your creation. So, are you ready to create your computer desk? It is time to collect materials and start your project right away!
