I had purchased and L-Shaped desk to use as a operating station, but even as large as it is I did not have enough room for all of the radio equipment until I made a second shelf for the longest portion of the desk.
I found a local fellow that had some kiln dried 1" cherry planks and was able to pick up one that I had him plain and drum sand on one side and then since I did not have knives large enough I had to straight cut the ends and two sides with his shaper. Next it was my job to get the board do to the point where I could start mixing stain in hopes of coming up with something that would match the finish of the deck. All this work was done just so I could bring my "Old as dirt Drake system out to play with. To support the plank I just made to stands out of 3/4" plywood and then painted them semi-gloss black to match the drawer pulls and locks on the desk. The stain came out as close as I think I could get and all in all I am satisfied with the way it came out and I had forgot how good the drake sounds and it can hear everything the TS-2000 and TS-590 can hear except on 10 meters.
This last picture is just so you can see it a bit better, I have since added a center support since the power supply for the Drake is smack tab in the center and weights a bit to much. Plus after seeing how grungy the VFO and Speaker looked I disassembled them and cleaned them up.
I found a local fellow that had some kiln dried 1" cherry planks and was able to pick up one that I had him plain and drum sand on one side and then since I did not have knives large enough I had to straight cut the ends and two sides with his shaper. Next it was my job to get the board do to the point where I could start mixing stain in hopes of coming up with something that would match the finish of the deck. All this work was done just so I could bring my "Old as dirt Drake system out to play with. To support the plank I just made to stands out of 3/4" plywood and then painted them semi-gloss black to match the drawer pulls and locks on the desk. The stain came out as close as I think I could get and all in all I am satisfied with the way it came out and I had forgot how good the drake sounds and it can hear everything the TS-2000 and TS-590 can hear except on 10 meters.
This last picture is just so you can see it a bit better, I have since added a center support since the power supply for the Drake is smack tab in the center and weights a bit to much. Plus after seeing how grungy the VFO and Speaker looked I disassembled them and cleaned them up.
I looked long and hard for a decent operating desk myself as everything was either too small or too flimsy so I decided to build one myself. It measures 32x74 inches with a shelf 16x74 above it and already I am think about expanding/reconfiguring it to allow for some gear changes I have made in the past two years.
