Oryx Desk

The really wild desk. Dream of Africa while check your finances.

You will need about three quarters of a sheet of 15 mm MDF ( 122x244 cm)
Three pine slats ( 2x3 cm?): 30, 90, 110 cm
Wood glue
35 mm nails
some screws

Tools:
Electric jig saw
(Electric sanding machine)
Hammer
Drill ( pre-drill screw holes)
Screwdriver
Sandpaper
Transparent woodstain (pickle) in ebony, mahogany and clear varnish. I used acrylic based colors
brushes and/or paint rolls

All body parts are made of 15 mm MDF board. My tabletop is made out of 15 mm plywood. I think there is no harm in using MDF for the tabletop as well. All squares on the drawing are 10x10 cm.
Draw the design on the wood and cut out with an electric jig saw.
Sand all edges.
The three "egg"parts on the desktop drawing are needed for an extra pc mouse support, and can be disregarded if you don't need that.( you don't know what you're missing).

Attach the two neck pieces on the side of the head with wood glue and nails. Fit the little shelf in. N.B. the 17 cm side goes in front, the 14 cm side in the back. The shelf is also glued and nailed. Check if the back part of the neck can stand upright ( to a wall). The body part should make a 90 degrees angle to the floor. With my desk there is a little gap at the end of the shelf because I made the gap between the front legs in the body a few centimeters to high. Nobody minds.... 

Put the body flat against a wall and place the head-neck part in the right position. Make sure the nose reaches the ground if the body stands upright. At the same time tip of the horns and back of the body should be perfect horizontal. If you are not satisfied adjust the horns or legs. Draw lines where the neck should fit and take the body of the wall. from the backside secure neck to the body with some nails before drilling holes and inserting screws. Add glue. 

You will need to attach two slats to the underside of the table to attach the beast. Put the tabletop upside down on the floor and set the oryx upside down on the tabletop. It should stand upright in a 90 degrees angle. If not adjust the horns. Draw lines on the tabletop behind the back and the horns. This will be your guidelines for the slats ( 30 and 90 cm).
Glue and nail/screw the slats to the tabletop. Place the animal and screw in place.

The table will stand on itself but not sturdy enough for computer and daily use. So, attach the last slat (110 cm) to a wall at the right height, just below tabletop. With two screws secure the desk to the wall.

Cover all the rims of the parts that should remain the natural color of the MDF with masking tape. On the horns alternate: same width of the gap as the tape itself. Don't get confused on the head. Put the tape on the light parts. On the body tape the rim of the black parts first. Then cover the black parts with a transparent ( acrylic) wood stain (Pickle). Don't forget to paint the little piece of wood under the table where the horns are attached.

After drying remove tape witch separates the black and red, but leave tape witch covers the light parts.
Stick on new tape over the edge of the black parts to assure a neat line between red  and black. Then paint body and table top with a mahogany stain.

I covered the table top with a clear varnish to make it more sustainable to moisture and dirt 

This is optional. On the other hand you could make this for any other PC table, and disregard the whole Oryx desk. As the desk is narrow (50 cm) I found it pleasant to ad a armrest/mouse-pad. It is not attached to the table, but simply slotted on.

Three pieces are cut out of 15 mm MDF and glued and nailed together. This addition takes about a a half hour to make and it is sensational. You cannot imagine you could ever do without. Strange that it isn't for sale anywhere.......