Legend of Zelda Steampunk Desk : 8 Steps (with Pictures)

Inspired by the franchise and mixed with a little steampunk flare this desk was built as a birthday present for our youngest son who just loves Zelda.

It is constructed primarily from MDF for ease of painting.

Supplies

(3) 4' X 8' sheets of MDF( Medium Density Fiberboard)

(1) 1/2" diameter 36" long wood dowel

1/4" 48" x 48" polycarbonate sheet

assorted screws

wood glue

Finishing materials (paint I chose metallics)

Step 1: The Design

Although I do use Fusion 360 for my 3D printing designs I wasn't using fusion when I designed this.

I used two pieces of software for this design Google Sketchup and Vectric Aspire.

I made a 3d mock up of the desk in Sketchup to work out the proportions first and then converted the parts to a DXF file format which Aspire could work.

I used Aspire to program the paths for the CNC to follow.

Step 2: Cutting the Parts

I cut the parts using my home built CNC which I made several years ago back before home use CNC's were a thing, it has a fairly small cutting area 26" x 34" but I was able to cut the larger parts by creating an index point whereby I cut the first half of the part, paused the machine, moved the part and aligned the index point with the cutter and finished cutting the remainder of the part.

Step 3: A Fiddly Bit

At first I tried to make the gears on my own but I was having trouble getting the teeth to mesh I mean it had to look like it could actually move right?

I ended up finding a free gear generating software that made DXF files for cutting.

Gear Generator

Step 4: Glue, Glue and More Glue

If you have ever worked with MDF then you'll know it soaks up glue like a sponge! The trick to a good solid glue up with it is to apply a light coat of glue and allow it to dry partially before applying the coat which will bond the parts together.

Step 5: Dry Fit

As a final step before painting you should dry fit all of the parts together to make sure nothing needs to be adjusted or sanded.

Step 6: Painting

Painting MDF is fairly straight forward but to aid in keeping the board from soaking up your paint you should first apply a "fill primer" fill primers are heavy bodied to fill in imperfections and as a result do not soak into the MDF as easily as thinner primers so it takes less finish coats to get a good finish.

I chose Rustoleum Aged Metallic for my final coat to give the desk a worn look

Aged Metallic