Tech Reaction

Awhile back, I was doing a review and I had to keep taking my main computer off my desk and setting up a make-shift tech station. Although this worked fine, and I had no problems with it, it was very annoying. After the review was done, I started coming up with ideas of a tech station wonderland. Something that would and could do anything and everything I wanted it to do. I wanted it to be able to handle anything I threw at it, water or air. With all that in mind, I thought about it for a few days. Finally, I wandered out to the garage to see what tools I had and made sure I had most everything I needed. Much to my surprise, I did! A quick side narrative about my garage is that it is known to eat things, only to reappear after you go out and buy a new item to replace the one you lost. Haunted? I don’t think so, but it does have a sense of humor I must say.

Moving on from the garage with a sense of humor… Once I noticed I had everything I needed, for the most part, I sat down with some note cards. If you have followed any of my work, you will know I love my note cards! If you have not followed any of my work, you should be ashamed of yourself. Yep, I said it, ashamed! Anyway, as I was saying, I sat down with some note cards. After about 5-10 setup sketches, I was finally piecing everything together that I liked and wanted for my tech station. Once that was done, I finally came to the sketched conclusion of how I imagined the tech station in my head.

Above is the notorious sketch that started it all. Please control yourself! I know I am an amazing artist, Picasso Jr. some say.  With the sketch done, all I could think about was when would I be able to go to Lowe’s and buy my supplies. I lost a little sleep over thinking about how I wanted it to look and the little details of the case. Yes, I lost sleep, I was pretty excited about this project so leave me alone.

I finally got time a few days later to head to Lowe’s and pick up all my wood and supplies. A monumental occasion? I like to think so. Well, 3 hours later I came stumbling out of Lowe’s with everything I needed. After speeding home, I got to work drawing up some of my first cut-outs for the following day.

The above was the first of many sketches I finished waiting to be cut. However, this was one of two main pieces and was going to be noticeable since it was going on top. The other piece will be revealed later on.

With a lot of the main cutouts finished, I like to think my tech station was happy with the progress.

After a lot of thought, I came up with this type of font for it. It took a lot of talking  and thinking about before finally settling on this, which is the second main piece of the case. It actually turned out better than I was expecting, imagine that.

Once everything was finally cut out, about a week later. Everything needed to be painted, and paint I did. The wood consumed about six cans of red, seven cans of white, and about ten or eleven cans of primer. It was a hungry wooden beast indeed.

The picture above is only one of the first attacks with paint after the primer was finished. There were oh so many more to come. I did not imagine this wood could take so much paint and keep on laughing at me…well, it did and it sure was annoying. Finally, after about 6-7 coats of read and white, the wood surrendered and I could finally move on!

Here is the first installation of wood. It was a great day when everything was ready to start being pieced together! It was also exciting seeing the colors I picked work so well with each other. If they had looked atrocious, I would of been S.O.L. at this point. Then I would have had an ugly tech station, and who wants that? Not me!

After installing the white boards on the first level, I just had to put the second level red piece on to see how it would look. I was really impressed with it, and seeing it shine like that in the sun was even greater. So back to work I went to get it even closer to being finished!

With one of the two main pieces finally installed, this tech station is taking some shape. I was extremely pleased with how well it looked once it was installed.

Now take a gander at the rolls of tape. Here are sixty yards worth of tape. The beast ate my painters tape like it ate my paint. It took about an hour straight to tape up all the white so I could begin the touch-ups with the red.

The touch-ups are done and this is what the back looks like. I cannot wait to finally use the 4×120 radiator rack that I put in. That will be another great day!

Now that everything is done. The real brilliance of the tech station shines through when I assemble a mock setup to see how it will look when I finally test my first piece of hardware.

Final resting place:

Final Thoughts:

Need I say more?