The tale of two desks.

Starting with photos of finished products.

Wife and I decided it was time to get matching desks. After looking around, we couldn't find one that fit our style for the price. So we decided to build 2 desks.

I know we have small monitors for the current times. My primary is a 22" which works well for my GTX 1070. Larger or higher refresh rate is going to lower my frame rates below 60. The 2 on the left are dual 21" screens for work (center is hooked up to dual input to my home computer too. Work laptop is on the floor to the left along with wireless keyboard and mouse.

Requirement was to match since both will be in 1 room and to have storage. We liked the wood and pipe style but couldn't find a way to add drawers that looked like they would last. I use to work office supplies and wanted commercial style filing cabinets (not the flimsy type from office supply stores for home use). I liked the HON cabinets but wasn't super excited about drilling holes into a $250-500+/ea cabinet.

Being in a big city has an advantage. Found a few used office furniture locations.

This one is much older HON legal size on sale for $45 used (probably 20+ years old).

The lighter color is a 2 drawer letter cabinet that was the more expensive of the two $140 used but doesn't require a file rack inside.

Texas snow storm put us a few weekends behind due to no power or too cold to work in the garage.

Pulled the drawers, handles, and trim off. Sanded down and painted 2-3 coats each. Paint is a Behr in a cool gray. Thought it would make a good contrast to the darker warmth of wood stain for the top. Make sure to ask the older lady at the paint counter for help to make sure you get one to use on metal without using a primer.

3/4" pipe test fitting to test height. Each desk consists of:
48" x1 (rear horizontal)
2.5" x2 Rt side legs
4" x2 Rt side legs
4 tee's (2 per leg)
18" x3 for 1 horizontal front to back and 2 vertical
10" x1 PC shelf front horizontal
3 nipple caps - 2 feet and 1 PC end shelf
3 flanges - 2 at leg/desk connection and 1 at filing cabinet

Make sure to scrub these down with soap and water before painting. They come with oil coat on them.

Various other hardware:
#12 x1" wood screws to screw into desk top

36x1" angle steel to cut in half and bolt to cabinets to screw on desk top
18ga steel plate to cut down to help reinforce inside of filing cabinets
and about 3 more trips to the store for screws, washers, nuts.

Hand tightening got me to about 1/2" the height of the cabinets. Pipe wrench got it the rest of the way. Important to mark which is for what cabinet due to threading differences between the foreign make pipes.

2-3 coats of paint after assembly.

Desk top is Birch unfinished butcher block 1.5" thick counter top. 2x72" and a 50". Both are a standard 25" depth. Don't pull the plastic off until you are ready to work and seal them or they could start pulling in moisture which could lead to warping. This means sealing top and bottom.

Started with the PC shelf. Cut 9" off each side of the 50" block. Little janky on the straightness due to using a jigsaw (don't have access to a circular saw). Also hardwood doesn't like wood cutting blades. Think I used a fine tooth but can't remember.

Sanded down a bit (can see some swirls due my electric handheld sander but that's why I'm starting with the shelf and not the desk top). Slap on wood conditioner then went with an English Chestnut stain then couple of poly coats sanded in between.

Desk tops a little more difficult. Basically I applied then wife followed due to length or the stain would end up darker on one end. These are the bottoms due to the visible knots.

Tops poly'ed.

Shelf after a few coats of poly (2 bottom and 3 on top), sanded down between coats. Finish shine was from a car polish and wax which worked well to smooth out any fine sanding marks.

Couple of rubber pads on the top of the cabinets. Angle brackets cut and painted attached to cabinets.

The bottom flange reinforcement was a pain to get to due the drawer slides. Rivet in the center to hold. Finally time to attach a monitor stand on the side for my 2 work monitors instead of working on 1 monitor and laptop.

Damn it. Had IT send me a replacement and got that set up a few days later.