homelab

Handmade Wood & Pipe Modern Industrial Desk (Update)

Back in March of 2014 my dad and I wanted to build me a new desk. Actually, I guess it started by me wanting a new desk and not being able to find one I was happy with. After browsing around online I found some cool ideas about building one out of pipes and wood. I really liked the look of it and decided to layout my own and have my dad help me build it.

There are two main pieces to the desk, the main desk, and the computer riser. The desktop has four 1×6’s laid flat next to each other long ways, meeting in the center of the desk and offsetting each by the others length. Thats how you get the zig-zag effect in the center of the desk. We supported all of this with a 1/2 inch thick piece of wood that helps to hold the whole desk together and also support the triangular inset piece that we made right where I sit. The top piece is very similar and even simpler. Its just the same 1×6’s at a 45 degree angle from the sides all cut off towards the back. We cut a piece off the back corner to have a place for all the cables to run down.

The piping I found all online for much cheaper than buying in town. You could get everything you need at Lowe’s but I saved about half of the cost by getting it from Essential Hardware. I used 1 inch rounded galvanized black pipe. I really like the look that the black pipe has but either black or silver is great. It has six legs, two on each end and two in the back, all linked together about a foot off the ground and then secured to the desk by flanges.

The LED lighting came from Ikea and was really a last minute idea that turned out to be really cool.

Thats pretty much it. We didn’t go too far into drawing things out before we really got started. Let me know if you have any questions about it at all!

SIGNUM Cable management
DIODER LED 4-piece light strip set
Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone
Blue Microphones The Pop Universal Pop Filter
Blue Microphones Yeti and Yeti Pro Custom Spider Shock Mount
RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm
Apple iMac with Retina 5K display
Drobo USB 3.0 4-Bay Storage Array (DDR3A21)
Razer Naga MMO Gaming Mouse
Razer Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat – Speed and Control
Razer Kraken PRO Over Ear PC and Music Headset – Black
Epson Expression XP-410 Wireless Color All-in-One Inkjet Printer
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Magic Trackpad
Twelve South MagicWand for Mac | Connects Magic Trackpad to Apple Wireless Keyboard

Using Your Own Modem With Comcast

With all of the drama happening with Comcast starting to use home routers as public access points for their customers I thought it would be helpful to put a post together about how to use your own modem and router with your Comcast connection. I have had my own hardware doing this for awhile and not only does it give you better security from things Comcast wants to do, but gives you much better control and speeds.

Motorola SurfBoard SB6141The first thing you need is a modem. Some of these come with routers/wifi access points built in, but I prefer to use a stand alone modem so I can upgrade my gear piece by piece when I need to. My current modem is a Motorola Surfboard SB6141. Its a DOCSIS 3.0 modem which can handle up to 343Mbps down and 131Mbps. Until we get fiber into the home this should suffice. When you get this you will have to give Comcast a call to have them activate it on your network. It’s about a 10 minute phone call and they should do it no problem. If you currently have a device that you are renting from Comcast you can get that ready to go back to them. They will activate the modem and from there we are done with them.

Next you will need your router. I use an Apple Airport Extreme. I love these for how simple they are. You don’t get all the customization that you might from a Linksys or D-Link, but I just want something simple that I don’t have to maintain. All you do is use an ethernet cable from the Motorola to the WAN port on the Airport Extreme and then hop on your phone or computer to use Airport Utility to configure the router how you like. Setting that up is an entirely other post that may come soon.90mm

Thats the whole of it. It really is pretty simple to get out from under Comcast’s thumb and use your own gear. Please leave any questions or comments below and I will answer what I can.

2016-12-13T20:06:35-08:00June 19th, 2014|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Handmade Wood & Pipe Modern Industrial Desk Video

This is a tour of my handmade wood and pipe modern industrial desk. Links will follow below for some of the items I used. Please leave comments below with any questions.

SIGNUM Cable management
DIODER LED 4-piece light strip set
Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone
Blue Microphones The Pop Universal Pop Filter
Blue Microphones Yeti and Yeti Pro Custom Spider Shock Mount
RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm
Apple iMac with Retina 5K display
Drobo USB 3.0 4-Bay Storage Array (DDR3A21)
Razer Naga MMO Gaming Mouse
Razer Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat – Speed and Control
Razer Kraken PRO Over Ear PC and Music Headset – Black
Epson Expression XP-410 Wireless Color All-in-One Inkjet Printer
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Magic Trackpad
Twelve South MagicWand for Mac | Connects Magic Trackpad to Apple Wireless Keyboard

2016-12-13T20:23:08-08:00June 8th, 2014|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

My New Hand Built Modern Industrial Desk

Over the past week or so my dad and I started putting together a new desk for my office. I had wanted a new one for awhile but was unhappy with anything I was finding in stores or online.  I found some ideas for the galvanized pipe as the legs and then talked with my dad on how to make the desktops. It only took us about 2 days of work and then some time for the stain and finish to dry. Leave a comment if you have any questions.

2015-05-02T13:04:26-07:00March 6th, 2014|Categories: Blog|Tags: , |2 Comments

How To Configure a Comcast Business Class Static IP Address

This tutorial explains how to configure a static IP address on a Comcast Business Class SMC8014 gateway and a Linksys WiFi router to enable remote access to network clients from the Internet. The SMC8014 gateway is configured for “bridge mode” by disabling the normal routing, firewall and DHCP functions. A static IP address is assigned to the Linksys router for Dynamic DNS (DDNS) services and remote Internet access to LAN clients.

2016-12-13T20:07:12-08:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: Link List|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments