building a Monitor Riser [not a pc] - yay woodworking!

[lazerphazer21]

So ever since I built my pc and got a new monitor I've had the monitor sitting on the PSU box. It was on hand at the time and it's just the right height. However it takes up some of my limited desk space and is kind of an eye sore so I finally decided it was time to make one.

 

My goals:

- build it from scrap wood aka for free

- make it a shelf that my keyboard can fit under

 

 This is what my desk looked like with the PSU box

 

the first step was to measure the box and the wood I'm using and create plans from there, this is what came out of that:

 

The next step was to cut the pieces to size, now I don't know how many of you have tried to make accurate cuts with a crappy circular saw but all I have so say is that I can't wait for the day I can afford a table saw!

I used a straight piece of wood as a guide for the saw, it works but it just means having to make extra measurements and more thinking when laying out the cuts, it just a pain is what im saying.

The guide piece clamped to the work:

My intricate clamping system, as I said I can't wait for a table saw

 

gota mask of the plywood cuts to avoid splitting

 

I didn't take any pictures of this but when cutting the pieces with the saw I purposely cut them slightly oversize so i could go back and finesse the pieces with an electric plane, this fine control of the material removed came in handy when cutting the side pieces which had to both be the same size.

 

Next comes joining the pieces together, I Thought about using screws but gave up hunting through the garage for the right ones and just found some small nails. I also threw a bit of glue in there as well.

I scored the wood a bit on the top piece because I was gluing to cross grain so as to give the glue something to really grip to.

 

After fixing the whole thing together I hit it with some sandpaper to knock the edges and corners down (80 and 120 grit i think).

Here it is now gracing my battlestation. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I was considering painting it but now that it's in there I just don't know if I could be bothered.

 

Did I reach my goals?

- build it from scrap wood aka for free                          Check

- make it a shelf that my keyboard can fit under           She fits like a dream!

 

 

 

 

[Excon]

Is it difficult to type with it under there?  Maybe I should make on aswell. I also need to make a midplate still.

[lazerphazer21]

Is it difficult to type with it under there?

It doesn't live under there permanently (I probably should have been more clear about that) it's just so that I can move it out of the way when I need to work on something on the desk in front of me. although I can hit a few keys if needed e.g. play/ pause, I just lift it out when needed.

[Excon]

It doesn't live under there permanently (I probably should have been more clear about that) it's just so that I can move it out of the way when I need to work on something on the desk in front of me. although I can hit a few keys if needed e.g. play/ pause, I just lift it out when needed.

Ah I kind of figured you would move it if you had to do anything other than a quick message.