DIY Office Desk From an Old Aircraft Flap

As I have been working from home, I decided to spice up my office with an engineering-inspired desk and as soon as I saw the flaps being sold locally on eBay, I just clicked "what else could have done that other than this piece of aviation history".

One 5 minute trip later, got myself a nice set of flaps from a dismantled Panavia Tornado.

RIVET NUT TOOL image 0.1

M8 Rivet nut image 0.2

Rivet Tool + Rivets image 0.3

Aluminium extrusion profile 40x40 image 0.4

Corner Bracket 40x40 image 0.5

T slot nuts M6 image 0.6

M6 screws 16mm or 20mm source : eBay image 0.7 shared

M8 screws 45mm source : eBay image 0.7 shared

Laser cut stainless steel parts from a local machining business - in my case, Fractory UK image 0.8

For this particular project, I have used a Tornado Panavia right side flap source : eBay image 0.9

A set of 4 adjustable leveling feet source : eBay image 0.10

A set of 4 , 20mm length , 20mm OD , 8.3mm ID spacers source : eBay image 0.11

Not pictured : Hacksaw that I had around the house.

First off, after seeing the flaps for sale on eBay, I made some rough sketches/concepts of what I wanted to do, nothing fancy, nothing precise, just throwing ideas at a wall. image 1.1

Note of advice: I would suggest you take a look at the seller's profile to see if they are genuine and have paperwork for the items, depending on where you are located you don't want to be dealing with undocumented parts. ( you can see mine still attached on image 0.9 )

250 GBP and a few minutes later, hopped in the car and brought them home. I would suggest you clean the items, some are quite dusty / contain oil/fuel/smells, etc.

Noticed they have a set of holes ( image 1.2 ), 11.5 mm in diameter or so ( didn't have any tool on hand to measure other than a 12-inch ruler and you couldn't drop it in to measure close to the hole itself), these will come in use later took measurements and legged it off to the next stage which is CAD design.

Spent a few hours in CAD ( image 1.3 ), doing the sheet metalwork for the legs & logo of choice, and sent it off to be laser cut & bent at Fractory UK ( image 1.4 ) . I find their online instant quotation system quite easy to interact with rather than spending countless emails back and forth for someone to quote, also they don't require / request drawings, you just pop in the STP files and they do the rest. My material of choice was 1.5mm stainless steel as it combines the low cost with strength and resilience to rust - they also offer powder coating but for this project, I wanted to see the metal shine.

From experience, I knew the 11.5mm holes are almost ideal to fit in an M8 rivet nut which will allow me to hook on the flap so I have made my design around those anchor points

Followed up with some orders at various shops for the tooling / materials, nothing fancy again.

In my case, the parts arrived in 2 weeks or so.

Started off by installing the M8 Rivet nuts, which was a close call, had to hammer them a little. but in they went.

Essentially, you would like the rivet nut to be inserted up to the shoulder of it, and then, using the tool, to collapse the thin wall to create a back face, thus locking the rivet nut in the hole ( image 2.3 and image 2.4 )

I've chosen these bulky spacers as they do provide a lot of contact surface with the sheet of metal, also brass has a contrasting color with the steel's silver shine which aesthetically is my cup of tea. image 3.1

I placed the washers in the space between the side panel and the rivet - image 3.2

and used an M8 45mm length 1.25mm pitch screw coupled with a standard washer to fasten it x4 - image 3.3.

I have used 3.2 mm rivets for this project and plenty of them. Normally in aviation, they would be using a solid shank type of rivet, but as the tools for that kind of project are quite specific ( rivet hammer coupled with compressor - image 4.1 ) I used the more easy to install pop rivet type.

To install these, I used a 10 pound/ 12 dollar tool specific for the job, loaded a rivet in the tool - image 4.2, placed the loose end thru both panels lined up - image 4.3 and pulled in until the tail of the rivet pops - image 4.4 ( hence the name, pop rivet ) The body of the rivet deforms in the process, locking the two plates together. If you plan on using these types of rivets you should opt for holes generally 0.1 mm bigger in diameter than the rivet used. Aluminium rivets are easier to install than the steel ones but not as strong and the off the shelf sizes range is 2.4mm, 3.2mm, 4mm, and 4.8mm.

I ordered 2x 100cm lengths as the delivery cost for them + cost per length was cheaper than requesting them to be cut to size or any other variant.

I marked where I need to cut the elements for the H frame - image 5.1 and proceeded with the hacksaw.

I inserted in the slots my T slot nuts, marked where the corresponding holes are so I don't have to adjust the position of the nut - image 5.2, and secured the aluminum part to the frame via 2 M6 16mm screws + washers per side.

During the same step, I've inserted the T slot nuts for the corner brackets - image 5.3 and secured them via the supplied M6 screws - image 5.4, finishing off by placing the supplied plastic cover 5.5.

At this stage, the wing has all the elements of a table.

Furthermore, I have installed a set of adjustable legs, which may come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the needs of the user, ideally, you would want ones that are compatible with the aluminium frame as they would be connected to those.

This is still a work in progress, I am planning to 3d print support for my Ikea Tertial lamp, which would be attached to a set of two holes I have integrated into the side panels in the design stage.

The general idea of the 3D printed part is that you want the minimum amount possible of material while still maintaining integrity under normal load and incidental ( accidental ) load, like banging the chair against it or something - this would lead to the lowest cost for the part you build.

I plan on using Shapeways - I have used them before in the past - essentially you upload your STL to their website and you can A order it for yourself or B have the model posted for others to find it and order it in physical form, and you get a commission. The reason behind choosing this company is that they can do 3d prints in metal. Alternatively, 3Dhubs also works well.

The CAD docs for the Ikea Tertial lamp can be found at this location: https://grabcad.com/library/ikea-tertial-2/details?folder_id=3905703

Managed to get the support done, small mods to the initial design and here it is!