Homemade 2×4 Desk

In my HAM Radio Update Update 1 post, I mentioned that I had converted a section of my room into a HAM radio shack. One of the first things that you need in a HAM shack is a worktable for doing your projects and storing your equipment. I had a very specific corner of my room in mind for my ham desk and after a trip to IKEA, I determined that there were no desks there that fit the space I needed. Most were way too big and some were too short. Instead, I decided on building my own desk. I would build the frame out of 2×4’s and the top would be MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard). After a quick run to the hardware store for the 2×4’s and some more long screws and paint, I was done gathering the materials. I assembled the frame and attached the MDF to act as the table portion. One of the main reasons that I chose to build the desk myself was because the space I wanted to fill was an irregular polygon (looked like a rectangle w/ a little square sticking off of it on the upper right side). Anyway, my idea was to build the table in two sections: one large rectangle and one small square. I would then join the rectangle to the square once the desk was in place. After building both sections of the desk, I sprayed them with multiple coats of blue spray paint. Unfortunately, the newspaper that I placed down to protect the surroundings from my beautiful shade of blue wasn’t big enough… oops.. sorry driveway :/ After I was done spraying the tables blue, I hit them with two coats of clear lacquer. After it was all dry, I screwed both pieces together and pushed them in place! Done! For about $25 in materials I made tables that would have cost about $200 – $250 in a retail store. I was pretty impressed with myself, albeit a bit upset that I had accidentally painted the driveway. Like I said before, if I could do anything over, I would pick a bit darker shade of blue for the tables, and not paint the driveway on accident.

As usual, the pictures are below:

-Ben

(Above is the desk in its final resting place. My ham equipment needs organization.)