I have quite a small living space, one wall of which is a desk for myself and my partner. For a long time, we had a simple piece of MDF sitting on two filing cabinets; now we have a very fancy piece of considerably smarter varnished and shaped strong MDF. It looks wonderful, and it will look even more beautiful when I get it off the filing cabinets onto legs, with smaller rolling pedstals underneath.
My space requirement was very specific; I had a certain amount of wall space for two people to sit at, and I coudn't find a desk that would fit snugly into that space. I decided to make my own. By googling for words like "MDF" "sheet" and "cutting" I found a place that would be able cut it for me (The Cutting Room) and on the phone they gave me a rough estimate of how much it would be; happily I then got on with designing.
I liked the look of curvy desks and I had enjoyed sitting at desks where there was some kind of side-section at my elbow, so I designed a shape with a "bulge" in the middle, coming out into the room.
I decided on the outside limits of the desk first; how far out from the wall could the bulge protude? How shallow could it be at the inside of the curve, where I would be sitting? How wide could the bulge be without taking too much space from the sitting areas on either side of it/ These basic dimensions gave me a starting point for drawing the curve. I also researched cable gromets online, and found out what size hole the standard shape requires. I decided on four holes; two towards the ends of the desk and two towards the centre. At the moment, since the desk is still sitting on the old filing cabinets, only two of the holes are usable, and I haven't yet ordered the gromets. However, the holes are useful even as they are.
For some reason, I did not at first take advantage of the free version of TurboCAD available on the Cutting Room's website. I started to design with Smart Draw. This was a mistake. Turbocad has some very clever ways of assisting in geometrical shapes, and I got on much better with it.
I had a few false starts while trying to draw the curve.
An early version:
Eventually I worked out how to use the spline function with absoloute coordinates.
Spline selected:
Absoloute coordinates selected:
I drew the desk so that a corner of it was at 0,0 and then I measured off the angles and curves in millimetres from this point. I drew a rough shape on paper which I annotated with my calculations when trying to perfect the curve shape, and to help the curve be symmetrical, since I couldn't find a way of automatically doubling a half-desk. On the piece of paper, I notated the coordinates I was using in TurboCAD for the left half of the desk, counting from 0,0, and then I calculated the mirror point on the right half of the desk by subtracting that figure from the total length of the desk. I played around with different coordinates, using the spline function on TurboCAD, until the shape of the curve was smooth and elegant-looking.
I then printed out the curve in real size onto many sheets of paper sellotaped together. I printed at 1:1 ratio, using the page layout section in the print setup to select areas to print, in order to (mostly) avoid overlap and create a fairly accurate template. I sat in front of this long floppy chain of paper to check it out before I committed to ordering it from the Cutting Room.
Choosing 1:1 ratio:
Selecting the area to print:
I added dimensions to my drawing, using the dimensions toolbar (insert image) and emailed the Cutting Room a copy with and without dimensions.
I asked for very thick and strong MDF, with a maple veneer. I asked them to champer the front (sitting edge) and to varnish the top side of the desk. The varnish gives the veneer a somewhat warmer and darker colour, so I am glad I asked for the palest veneer they had.