MIDI Workstation #3: MIDI Workstation Part II

This is where things start getting exciting!

MIDI Workstation

After a couple of weekends of work, here is where I’m at. I use the Veritas 32 System to build the lower cabinets based on these designs.

Design Top

I built the top with this plan.

MIDI Workstation Front

Very detailed plans, eh?!?

The one thing I wish I did a better job on is scale. The space I have designed this desk for is roughly 3′ by 6′. The overall size of the project is 2′ by 5.5′. In retrospect this is probably not enough space. The top doesn’t look like it’s going to be big enough to hold all of the stuff I want. Maybe I will feel differently when I finish making the rack spaces (which will also hold the speakers) and the spot for a dual LCD monitor.

Mistakes

As I said earlier, I made a lot of them. If I had to do it over again, I would have built the sides out of one piece of melamine. Instead I made the sides all of the same size, and then put on the 4.5″ tops. As it turns out the Veritas jig moved twice (on the same side) and I had to plug them with dowels. After screwing up twice I gave up on dowels and used biscuits instead. This seemed to be much easier.

The Veritas jig allows you make holes for the Blum hinge and so I went ahead and drilled them. IF I were going to have the door on the outside of the frame this would have been perfect. However, my initial plan was to have the door inset in the cabinet so I had to redrill holes.

Lastly, I don’t know if I’d call this a mistake but the desk is a little TOO square. There are not interesting shadows or small details. It’s functional and it looks like it will work but currently there is no wow factor (except for the fact that I’m building it!). Hopefully when I add the shelving unit I can make up for it there.

The Budget

4 sheets of ’shop grade’ Grey melamine $60 (It looks like I only needed two sheets)
1 16″x97″ Black melamine shelf $17
1 Black Iron Banding $15
1 Package of 4 18″ rack kit $17
1 Package of 4 Leveling kit $ 6
1 Inset Blum Hinge $10
2 Bags of Dowels $12

Total $122

That’s not too bad considering I will have enough stock left over to build a shop cabinet that will house my bigger jigs including my Akeda Dovetail Jig, Homemade sander, my oscillating sander (when I get it), plus another tool or two.

Tim

PS – Here is one more view of the workstation is it’s current state.

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