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The Computer Tower in the Cabinet

November 11th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

A popular office cabinet design is to put the computer tower inside of a cabinet. This is possible as long as there is sufficient ventilation. There are several ways to make sure that there is enough air flow in the cabinet so that the PC does not over heat. I will discuss the methods for installing a computer inside of a cabinet and allowing for air flow.

Three Methods for Creating Air Flow

1) Office base cabinetry should have a recessed toe base. The distance from the front edge of the cabinet to the toe kick is a great place to cut the bottom of the cabinet off so there is an air flow space.

2) All the way at the top of the base cabinet drill one inch holes just underneath the counter top. If this seems like it will work with your cabinet design, make sure that you drill the holes down from the top of the computer base cabinet’s edge so there is enough clearance for the drill bit to miss any support rails on the inside of the cabinet’s construction.

3) Purchase a decorative vent from a home center. Trace the size of the vent on the cabinet side and then measure in the proper distance in from the outer edge. Cut the hole and screw the vent into place.



Creating a Pull-out Shelf

If here’s enough room, in the height of the cabinet, you can add a pullout shelf all the way at the bottom of the base cabinet. When designing this pullout area for the computer tower to set on, make sure that you use full extension drawer slides.

While designing your new desk allow for the power strip.

A word of caution, once you have finished building the roll-out shelf for your computer tower, be careful when you pull it completely out with the PC on it. When the weight of the computer is extended so far past the front of the desk’s design, it may have a tendency to want to tip on you. This obviously will depend upon the desk design and the size of the unit. If you need to screw the unit to the wall find a stud and fasten the desk secure.

As a reminder, use heavy duty full extension drawer slides.

When you put a computer tower on the inside of a cabinet, behind the cupboard door, you’re going to have to drill plenty of large holes for the wires to extend to all of the places so that the computer set up will work. Wires to the monitor, keyboard, sound speakers and printer will have to be considered when you are designing the desk cabinetry.

When you can fit the tower inside of a cabinet and get the door closed what a nice clean appearance it makes for the office.

When you take sufficient time to design the computer cabinetry right all of the wires should be completely hidden. This is somewhat easier than what it used to be years ago because now we have remote wireless speakers, keyboards and mouse setups.
Another thing to consider is trying to fit your printer on a shelf inside of the cabinets as well. Then with the computer tower installed inside and the printer installation being the same, your office desk will look amazing.

Categories: Cabinet Making
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