Today we integrated the computer and the desk....  This involved cutting a hole in the bottom of the wooden panel of the desk for the electrical cables to emerge, afixing the wooden panel to the bottom of the metal desk, adding a length of metal conduit to conceal the wiring, and putting it all together. :-)

I cut the hole in the bottom wooden panel of the desk by drilling 4 holes in a square, and then using a scroll saw to cut out a square.  (A scroll saw has an easily removable / replaceable blade which can be threaded through a hole drilled in your workpiece, so you can make "interior cuts" without having to cut through the workpiece from the edge).

We also had to cut the metal desk to accommodate the LCD monitor in the "closed" position (in the current assembly, the monitor hits the metal desk as it closes).  In order to do this, we needed to know how much of the desk to cut.  Drew and Matthew measured it, and then I used an angle grinder to chop out the part they marked off (pix will be uploaded later).

To hide the unsightly cables within the desk, I thought some conduit, painted brass-colored, would be nice.  The conduit I wanted to use to hide the cords was too narrow to accommodate the plugs at the end of the cables (i.e. we couldn't just thread the cables through), so I wondered if I could "grind" through the metal, push the cables through, and then seal the conduit back up somehow. 

I originally tried using metal shears to cut the conduit, but they weren't strong enough.  Then I tried a sheet metal "nibbler" (voracious as its namesake in  Futurama... ;-), but the nibbler head was too wide to fit through the conduit as well... (below).  You can see that it did "nibble" a small hemisphere out of the conduit, but I couldn't get it to travel further....

To secure the conduit for grinding, I placed it between a couple sticks of lumber, and placed a dowel beneath it to prop it up high enough to grind, and clamped the whole assembly.

This worked reasonably well (wear headphones!), but the links started coming apart as I handled it.  Before Matthew, Drew and I painted it (later), we used electrical tape to bind it together.  Not a great solution; this will still have to undergo an iteration or two before it's robust enough to fit into the desk, I feel....

Now we were ready to afix the bottom wooden panel to the metal desk.  This required drilling some new holes (since we're mounting it -outside- the desk, rather than -inside-, in order to make room for the PC to fit within).  When you drill holes for a screw, you want to make sure that the drill bit is as wide as the shaft of the screw, but not as wide as the threads (so that the threads of the screw "bite" into the hole you drilled).  Matthew and Drew compared drill bits to find the right size...

After we assembled the wooden desk, we took the monitor apart for painting....

Partially assembled, it looks pretty good so far! :-)  At least we have it to the point where we can turn it on and use it.  The rest will largely be cosmetic touches (painting the metal part of the desk, adding some finishing treatments, concealing the cables, etc). 

And assembled together (mostly) for the first time....  (still needs the back of the chair, and cosmetic touches....)