SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION: Bench Outlay: A 2 X 4 will be bolted level along the wall about 30" above the floor. The back edge of the plywood lays on that and the front edge is supported by legs on either side and a support brace in the middle. The computer basically sits in the center. About a foot to the left is the disk rack with the area in between for cup, glass, ashtray, elbow, etc. To its left propped up on something is the receiver (or just an amp). To the right is the mouse pad, then printer. The disk rack, receiver and printer are all angled towards you. In front of the computer sits the monitor. Propped up against it on the left are the books and manuals, held up by a bookend. To their left is the left speaker. On the right of the monitor sits df1, as you know, and on top of it sits the moden. Propped up against them are the 3-ring binders held up by another bookend. On their right is the right speaker. On top of the Amiga is the plexiglas table. In the upper right-hand corner of the bench behind the printer sits the printer paper box with 4" X 4" blocks on either side of it. Sitting across the blocks are the drop-in files. Attached to the top of the monitor on either side are those plastic swing-out arms to attach notes, memos & data to. Df1 sits on top of four inches of books to clear the plexitable. The joy- sticks, pencil holder, hole punch, telephone, etcetera are yours to find homes for. The power supply is held up against the underside of the bench, in the back, with bent nails and big rubber bands. The pencils are stuck in between it and the bench to allow for ventilation. Your surge protector, if separate from the outlet box, is mounted the same way..more to just get them out of the way than anything else. Your outlet box(es) should be screwed to the 2 X 4 but wait 'til the end to make the final placement. You might want to mount (one of) the outlet box(es) to the underside of the bench where you can reach it if that's how you're turning on the system. Otherwise you'll have to rig up some kind of ON switch somewhere..there are lots of different ways to do it. Materials: - 4' X 8' X 3/4" sheet of plywood, nice and flat and smooth - 8-foot piece of 2 X 4, nice and straight along the narrow edge - 6-foot piece of "closet rod", or whatever suits your fancy for the legs - 3-foot piece of square 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" board - (4) 3 1/2" X 1/4" lag bolts (have hex heads to fit socket or wrench) - (4) washers to fit lag bolts - (14) 1 1/2" (or 2") nails - (2) 2" woodscrews, panhead okay - (2) 8-foot sections of 3/4" plastic edge molding to go around the edge of the plywood. Looks good and prevents splinters. A little hard to find, only place I know is Southern Lumber. - small can of stain, brush/latex gloves if desired - Monitor stand - plastic swing-out arms for monitor to hold notes, etc (optional) - (2) TALL bookends (stationery store). Those thin metal ones are fine. - 4" of books or something to fit under df1 - (4) large rubber bands - (2) pencils or similar objects Tools: - hammer - screwdriver - handsaw - circular saw if you have one - ratchet & socket or wrench to turn the lag bolts in with - level - hacksaw, vicegrips, anything to cut a nail with - drill gun, drill bit set - 2 1/8" hole cutter, like for installing doorlocks. It's either that or a jig saw. - staple gun, 9/16" staples - tape measure - stud finder, not totally necessary but nice. If you haven't seen the new microwave stud finders (usually $19.95), check 'em out. It's just a personal opinion, mind you, but I think you deserve one. Bench Construction: - Cut the plywood 35" by approximately 7 feet. If you have the room and/ or extra stuff, definitely take all 8 feet. If you have to keep it as small as possible you'll have to determine the width. The 35" measurement is critical; you can add some if you feel you need the extra depth. Ideally, you will set up all the computer stuff on the floor and measure for the size you need. The depth, still, is 35" minimum unless you don't plan on taking the half-hour to make the plexiglas table, which would be dumb. With the 35" measurement the front of the Amiga sits about a half-inch in from the edge of the bench. If you want a little more room there (like to rest your hands on), add it on now. Set the Amiga on the edge of a desk and see what feels comfortable, then make any necessary adjustments to the 35". - Cut the 2 X 4 about a foot shorter than the bench width, just so the ends don't show. If you're making a short bench you might want to wait until you have the studs marked on the board. - If the bench has any warp to it, which it probably does, use it warp up. - Stain the ply and legs. Put the stain on with a brush or rag, wipe the board with a clean rag or paper towels. You can stain the 2 X 4 if you wish..it won't show unless you look under the bench. You can wait 'til later to stain the ply but this is a good chance to let it dry while you're putting up the 2 X 4. You might want to put a coating of Varathane or something over the stain. You also might want a covering material of some type instead of stain, such as a neat linoleum, some stick-on felt, fancy shelf or wallpaper or even paint. - Take studfinder and find where the studs are, mark them with a pencil about 32" above the floor. They SHOULD, ha ha, be 16" apart, but you'll have to make sure. If you don't have a studfinder you can always do the knock-on-the-wall, test-with-a-small-nail method. Ideally you want the ones nearest the ends and two in between. If you can get three in all that's okay..this stuff isn't all that heavy. - Hold the 2 X 4 up on the wall where it goes and make marks on it where the studs are. Drill 1/4" holes through the 2 X 4 at the marks. - Now you'll have to decide how high you want the bench. If it's set up somewhere now and it seems just perfect, measure how high it is. We'll subtract 3/4" to make up for the board thickness and that's our TOP mark for the 2 X 4. - Hold it back up against the wall with a level on it, get it approxi- mately level and the correct position, put a scribe or nail through one of the middle holes and make a mark in the wall. - Using a 3/16" drill bit, drill a nice deep hole. If you miss the stud you screwed up and will have to go back to square one. - Drive a lag bolt & washer through the 2 X 4 until it peeks out. Hold the board back up against the wall and drive in the lag a good ways. If it's too tough to turn re-drill the hole with the next larger bit. - This time make sure the 2 X 4 is exactly level and make the rest of your marks. Remove the 2 X 4 and do your drilling. - If for some reason you don't have studs you can try something like shelf brackets and Molly bolts or something. - Mount the 2 X 4 to the wall and that's that. Vacuum up the mess. - A friend might help a bit here but not necessary: Put the back of the bench over the edge of the 2 X 4, lift the front and prop it up on something. The idea is to measure the height we need for each front leg. Floors can sag a bit away from the wall so we want a nice fresh measurement. Drive a couple of nails through the bench partways into the 2 X 4 to temporarily secure it. - The legs go about six inches in from the front edge of the bench. If you have a short bench, say six feet, put the legs about a foot in from the ends. For a standard bench put them about two feet in. With the level on the bench use the tape and measure the correct leg height, pressing the end of the tape firmly into the carpet. It should be about the same as the TOP measurement of the 2 X 4, maybe a tad more, we just want to double-check. - Cut the legs and try them out, yes it'll sag a bit in the middle. When you've got the legs exactly right drive a nail down through the bench into them. We'll be taking them back off in a minute but they'll just twist right off the nails. Same with the bench pulling off the 2 X 4. - Now for the only "tricky", if that's the word, part of the operation. Use the tape and in the center of the bench figure out how long the 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 center brace should be going from the base of the wall up to the bench about 2/3 out. The tricky part is cutting the angle on the top end of the board to line up with the bench. No, it doesn't have to be exact, just a good exercise to try to get it as close as you can. There are various semi-clever ways to do it, I'm positive anyone smart enough to operate a computer can figure one out. If you feel pro, cut both ends. Just make sure you re-measure between cuts. - Now hold it in position, take a pencil and at the top make a long mark on each side where the woodscrews will go up. Make the mark straight up and down. Remove the board, hold one of the woodscrews along the mark and move it so that about a 1/2" will come out the end (and into the bottom of the bench). Make a better mark along that line and drill two holes side-by-side following the mark as a guideline. Use a drill- bit the diameter of the woodscrews. Put the screws through the holes and verify that about a 1/2" to 3/4" pokes out. Remove the screws. - Now you'll want to prop the bench up, watch the level and when the board is just right, stick the scribe through the two holes and mark the bottom of the bench. Take a smaller drill bit and drill into the bench. It doesn't matter if you go through, it won't be seen. As you raise up the center section of the bench to level it you may actually lift one of the legs off the floor if the bench has a warp, obviously nothing to be concerned about. - Put the brace back into place and drive in the screws. Things should feel nice and secure. - Position all the equipment. Get everything perfect and then make a big X about 3" behind the Amiga in the center. We'll cut a hole here with the doorlock hole-cutter for cables to go through. Make another mark behind your printer and another one behind df1 (but far enough away from the wall to clear the 2 X 4). Maybe another one behind your receiver. The front of the Amiga is about 1/2" from the edge of the bench. Leave 5" between the back of the Amiga and the front of the monitor stand for the plexitable. Get everything lined up just right, get the holes marked then take it all apart. You might want to put a few pencil marks where the Amiga sits just to get it back exact. - Remove the bench, take it back out to the garage, drill the holes and touch-up the bare spots with the stain. Don't blame innocent me if you get stabbed by one of the exposed nails. - Cut the heads off two fresh nails. Take a drill bit the same size as the nails and drill a hole deep enough into the BOTTOM of the legs that just about 1/2" of the nail will stick out. Tap the nails into the holes leaving the 1/2" free. - Reassemble everything, this time using five or six nails across the back into the 2 X 4. Feed the nails back into the holes in the tops of the legs, then put a level against the legs, get them exactly straight up and down then press down on the bench and drive the bottom nails into the carpet. If you're on a hardwood floor you should drill pilot holes for the nails. If you're on cement, try epoxy. This is serious business here. One kick and it might be "Good-bye, printer.." - The next step would be to set up the equipment for good, feeding the larger cables through the holes first. When it's all wired and running unplug the power cord and staple the extra wiring up to the bottom of the bench. Be real careful not to staple through a wire of course, ESPECIALLY the big cables. Put the molding around the edge of the board and that's it! Except, of course, for the... PLEXI TABLE: Materials: - 9 1/2" X 30" X 1/4" clear plexiglas, cut by the store. I tried a dark piece but the clear shows the least glare (bouncing down from the monitor). You'll probably have a binder open in front of you most of the time anyway so it won't matter. Tap Plastics is definitely the place to get this done if you live at all near one. - (3) 3" pieces of 1/2" to 3/4" round plexiglas for the legs. They should also cut these for you, just so the ends are nice and even. - Get the smallest amount of plexiglas glue you can, it's only to glue the legs on with. - (6) stick-on rubber feet. Try a hardware store, hobby shop, maybe just pick up some screw-on types (Radio Shack?) and glue them on. Plexitable Construction: - Get two things about 3" high, sit one long edge of the plexi on them, put the legs into position along the other edge, one right at each corner and the third one right in the middle. Everything look good? Now set it on top of the Amiga just to make sure one of the legs doesn't go through the cable hole or something. It will overlap 2" to the left and about a foot to the right. The front edge runs along the indentation line on top of the Amiga (about an inch behind the Function keys). The back edge should almost touch the monitor base. - Yes, it's in the way of the drive slot, and yes, you'll get used to it and after a week or two never give it another thought. - After the legs are glued to the table we're going to glue feet to their bottoms. The other three feet we're going to glue UNDER the front edge, one at each end of the computer and one in the center. They'll nestle up against the inside of that indentation. Get everything marked with a pencil, set it back up on the 3" blocks and glue on the legs, giving them at least overnight to dry. Glue or stick the feet on the bottom of the legs and on the underside of the table. The feet combined with the slight forwards tilt of the plexitable allows for air circulation for the Amiga. - Set it up and away you go! I didn't feel the need for a leg at the front-right corner..you write on the solid part on top of the computer and keep disks you're currently using over on the right. The extra leg just would have gotten in the way of the mouse cord. The Plexi table does raise three new problems, one of which is that it's a little more awkward to insert and remove disks from df0, but like I said you'll get used to that in no time. The second problem is that, unless you remove the table, the cover for your Amiga (if you have one) won't fit anymore. That's life in the fast lane, kid. The last problem is that it makes it impossible to change joysticks, not that it was any easy operation before. I solved that by building a switchbox that allows me to use the Wico, Suncom or mouse in port #1 and the Wico or either Suncom in port #2, but yes, that's a little elaborate. If/when you have to change joysticks just lift the table off, binders, pencil and all and set it aside for a minute. If you can handle a soldering iron you could always make "extension cords" for the port jacks, maybe with the female ends flush-mounted in a little box mirror-taped to the side of something. That's what I was going to do until I decided upon the switches. I'll describe the switchbox just in case you want to do something like it. It's the same size as df1 and sits on top of it, under the modem. There are seven toggle switches and two rotory switches. The toggles control the computer, the hard drive, the modem, a Yamaha keyboard, the receiver just by itself, a Reminder Light (a small blinking red pilot light next to the switch to remind me about any old thing) and a switch that reverses the stereo speakers. Don't mind me, I just like switches. The two rotary switches are for the joysticks and mouse. The three joysticks and mouse plug into the back of the box; two cords come out of it that go into ports 1 and 2. All parts acquired at Quement. The rotary switches are 2-way, 4-position, nice ones, about $10 each. If you're good enough to do this then you'll be able to figure out which joystick pins are used and which aren't. Appendix A of the Amiga manual has the pin layouts and you'll probably also have to do some testing and probing. The joysticks use five pins, the mouse seven. For the extra two on the mouse I just by-passed the rotary switches and ran them straight down to the Amiga. As far as all the toggles controlling the various hardware, I have this mass of wires coming out the back of the box going down through the cable hole to the 2 X 4 where they go into a custom 12-socket outlet box. I also have a few green pilot lights next to some of the switches to remind me something's on, like the power supply to the Yamaha keyboard. More? Okay, inside the box I have one of those Leviton touch-type dimmer controls. I removed the touch panel and soldered a thin wire to the copper prong. Lined up with all the switches is a nice bright brass bolthead, with the thin wire attached to it from the inside. Touch the bolthead and the bench lights dim or brighten. Okay, so I'm like that. SOMEbody has to be! *