Tooling Up – Shop Admin Kiosk

This blog post is a multi-day wrap-up on my Workshop Admin Kiosk desktop build (yes, I make up eccentric names for stuff out of boredom!).

I started off with a quite heavy 4′ x 8′ sheet of Melamine for the desktop. The desktop will measure about 65″ wide by the proverbial 30″ deep. They don’t sell any smaller Melamine pieces large enough to meet these dimensions, and plywood is just as expensive… and softer. So I picked up this beast.

[Note the blue-green foam on the doors. Within the next day or so all that should be covered with the thinner foil looking foam]

I measured and marked my 65-1/8″ x 30″ and cut away, testing my ability to follow a line… note my 2 cut lines are along the back and side that are not that critical. Mama didn’t raise no dummy. Ha!

If you saw how much wood I have on hand, the few prospects for decent trim wood is laughable. The darker 1×2 was some misused (I’m sure…) piece that existed in the workshop when I arrived. The lighter piece? Dunnage from an Aircraft Spruce shipment.

Moving on… the ACS piece was narrower than the other, and oh, crowned as well. So a few rounds on the table saw got them both within acceptable close widths. Or actually heights.

I then mitered the corners. Both ends for the long piece since it came up a couple inches short so I borrowed a short cutoff length from the ACS stock.

After a quick –albeit comical– round on the router table I got some acceptable rounded corners [I wanted a smooth rounded edge, but in my haste left a fancy edge with a minute square edge on the first piece… did the second one to match. Ugh.].

I then grabbed a tube of biscuits and my biscuit joiner and made quick work of getting my football (American!) shaped holes ready for some major gluing action.

Since I didn’t have long enough clamps to go from one end to the other, I did the short side piece last and then . . .

simply set the desktop up on end on top of the biscuit-glued side edge and let it cure overnight.

Since the weather was dryer, I did a good round of painting (in pic below: remaining spots on the left and right showing poles, as well as the area around the breaker panel).

Yes, the area around the circuit panel was cosmetic and took all of 10 min. As a reminder I’m painting the poles to get rid of every last remnant of tar/pitch smell… which was super strong when I first bought the house. Now? You can barely smell it. But leaving areas unpainted definitely lets the odor hang around a bit. Understandably, it’s worse in really hot weather.

I grabbed the blue Kobalt stool (and assembled it) from Lowe’s yesterday so I’d have a good reference for the height I needed to build the desktop support structure, which I completed this evening.

Besides painting, I also did a fair bit of electrical. You can see I swapped out the 1-gang receptacle above the desk to a 2-gang (4 plugs) and also pigtailed power to a light switch that will power a 48″ 1-bar light under the overhang for good lighting in the Admin Kiosk.

In addition, I added a 15A circuit to the power panel (the last available slot) to add a 2-gang box just below the power panel. This powers the mini-fridge and microwave. Coming soon on top of the microwave will be a Kurig for the COFFEE!

I also RE-connected an electrical line extension on the back side of the right wall near the lathe. I had removed an electrical outlet with both plugs filled with what looked like solid mud that was totally inop. I have since replaced that plug and, again, rejoined the line that continues on to the back wall, ending with a 1-gang plug just below the window (behind where the milling machine will be located).

Tomorrow I’ll spend a good hour finishing up the power receptacle mounting at the back of the shop for both 120 and 240 volt power (240 for the mill).

I will then do a quick sanding on the desktop edge before mounting it permanently in place.

I will then turn my sights on finishing up the top foam inserts for the middle double doors before moving on to the last front section of wall left to do on the shop (#9 of 10 wall segment).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.