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Hi all!
A friend of mine recently gifted me an old IKEA desk, which sadly had a damaged top on it. So, in light of this Mum (@hazesnow) and I decided to take the initiative and replace the top with a brand new one instead of letting this desk go to waste.
The desk itself is an IKEA MALM desk, in Black-Brown. The drawers and the side panel are good, but the top had a huge dent in it. (Fun fact, IKEA makes the tops of these desks in a factory that produces hollow core doors, hence why the dent's such a big issue here...)
IKEA furniture uses these rotary locking devices which are designed to make the furniture easy to assemble and to make it easy to move into apartments (hence why mum made that kitchen island for me in a way that was collapsible), the difference here is that since we're just replacing the top, we just needed to replicate the size of the desk top, and locate the holes so that they'll work with the stock locking devices. After all, since the top's pretty much busted, it makes no sense to let it go to waste! It was a neat little drilling rig.
We used one of Arauco's 2100x900mm finger jointed pine panels to replicate the butcher's block style panels we used for the kitchen island without the fuss of worrying about jointing and thicknessing the wood. Taking measurements using the existing top panel, Mum trimmed it down to 1400x650mm, and using a 4mm and 8mm drill bit, drilled through the old desk top's holes and into the new one.
The original desk's top is about 65mm thick, so this is going to be a thinner desk top (at 30mm), but it's made from a much more solid material, so it should stand the test of time.
Unfortunately, due to some blade chatter with the track saw, the end of the drawer-side cut ended up with some rather unfortunate burring as seen in this photo. However, I've since filled this in to slightly above the material thickness, and I'll then end up using a power sander to get this sanded down. Luckily, this edge will be up against the wall, so it's not much of a big deal.
The intent is to finish this benchtop in a similar way to the kitchen island, and to the upcoming lift-top coffee table we're planning on building together. These light wood accents will be a big part of the design of the new place.
I'll post more as we make progress!
That looks fabulous, @oheyitsbeano! You've got me wanting to do a workstation makeover now. Even your unorganised cables lay shame to mine at the moment. They are actually pretty shameful, and I should do something about them.
That's a pretty impressive gaming rig. What's your favourite game?
Mitchell
Hello @oheyitsbeano
Your not kidding when you say automotive finish! At this point your bench is truly a golden finish. I now understand when you mentioned that you used the MALM legs to attach to the desk. A fantastic add on with the cable organizer! No more octopus mess under the desk. This table should provide you with years of service and for sure will inspire all our members to give this a go! What an amazing effort plus the fact that you repurposed the legs of the MALM in to the pine panel. I'm truly impressed with the routing finish you made on the desk. It gives it such a professional finish. Please keep us updated and we look forward to your future projects.
Cheers,
Red
I am a Bunnings team member. Any opinions or recommendations shared here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Bunnings. Visit the Bunnings website for assistance from the customer service team.
I'm only a casual gamer myself, mostly play older titles like the Command and Conquer and Age of Empires series. Maybe the occasional game of Team Fortress.
@MitchellMc It's mostly a workstation build but with a lot of cooling, used predominantly for video production. I could run an entire thread on that thing as it's got a custom liquid cooling system, hence the big Chunky radiators
There is plans too, to make a front panel for that machine as well as a top out of some of the scraps of this build but I'm looking into how I would go about that. @redracer01 you might look forward to that 
Definitely have to give most of the credit to @hazesnow for teaching me how to do all this stuff.
Hello @oheyitsbeano
OMG! Who can forget Command and Conquer! I always played Cain it was always twice as hard to win with the bad guys. I sometimes still play my Red Alert 3 but it has since been damaged : ( Game on mate!
Red
I am a Bunnings team member. Any opinions or recommendations shared here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Bunnings. Visit the Bunnings website for assistance from the customer service team.
I'm a big fan of the Age of Empires series @oheyitsbeano. The number of hours I sunk into the original Age of Empires on my old Pentium 1 was incredible. When the demo first came out, I'd buildup my civilisation until there were no resources left on the map, then rinse and repeat. These days I'm more of an open-world MMO game type person, as it allows me to catch up and play with friends. Rust would be my most played game, clocking in over 2000 hours.
Mitchell
To cap off this thread, i've finally got one of the last pieces of the puzzle in... the base for my CBS Flo Monitor Arm.
This mount clamps to the back of the desk and allows my monitor to float off the surface of the desk.
I've still yet to purchase the Athena rail for providing above-desk power for additional equipment (such as probes and test tools for my DIY Electronics projects) but there is ample room for my lab PSU and my Soldering Iron.
The deskpad is also DIY. Literally cobbled together from some spare microsuede fabric and some scrap non-slip matting. 
...And here it is, in its completed glory! The armpads do need to be recovered in new fabric, but all in all, it turned out to be a pretty neat little project.
I've got some more tech and wood-related DIY stuff to come in future threads.
Amazing work @oheyitsbeano!
I can't wait to see what project you contribute next, as this one has been sensational.
Well done.
Mitchell
