Thread: Addition to the man cave

Yesterday I finally got around to finishing up the desk area in my man cave.
The computer desk is right next to my workbench, which I showed off here.

The last step for my desk was to hang the shelving that is now home to the 15 year old stereo I got from my brother. The only thing I'll be using it for is the aux input that is connected to my computer. I finally have a decent setup for playing music while I am working on razors.

Yesterday I also fixed the power strip to the wall, allowing me to get rid of the extension cables that littered my desk.



The black machine was difficult to take a picture of, since the light source is crappy, and it is satin finish aluminium with a non reflecting black coating.
It is a core2 duo 6600 with 4GB RAM, 320 GB WD RAID1, nvidia 7950 and an Intel BadAxe2 motherboard. These days it is still a respectable machine. When I built it 2.5 years ago, it was a racehorse.

The beige box is a dual CPU Pentium 3 1GHz, with 1.7 GB RAM and an nvidia 5600 video card. Same story. These days it is still good enough as a dev machine / test server. Back in 2000 this was 1337.

The screen is a 19" Iiyama. It is just over 10 years old now, and still as good as new as far as the image quality goes. I don't like having multiple monitors and leyboards on my desk, so I intalled a kvm box for my 2 machines, with optional inputs for if I am repairing a computer or something like that.

My man cave still needs work though. It is a work in progress. By the time my daughters hit puberty it should be a safe haven from female hormones.
Of course, the oldest already has her own workbench next to mine, and she likes tools and she is interested in knives... well, as long as it is clear that this cave is ruled by 'man-rules', I am cool with that.

My cave must've struck everyone with silencing awe...

Originally Posted by Bruno

My cave must've struck everyone with silencing awe...

Where's the razors?

just make sure the locks are all on the inside or it may become the man cell!

Originally Posted by Pyment

Where's the razors?

My restoration pile is in a locked box inside a desk drawer, to prevent curious kids from playing with them. The workbench is right next to my desk. This desk is just the next phase. Actually, I have some razors in various stages of progress on the workbench next to my desk.

There are still roof tiles / bricks in my basement, which were left over from construction, and which I don't want to throw away in case I ever need them. I am going to move them to the crawling space, which is very large. It's not like I need to have easy access to them.

That way, I can empty the basement completely, so that I can waterproof the floor from seeping water, and then tile it next year.

Originally Posted by Doc

just make sure the locks are all on the inside or it may become the man cell!

That wouldn't be so bad if I had a toilet in there.
You are right, though. Currently, the key is always in the lock on the outside

Cigars? Pipes? Beer? Fridge?

I'm not sure a desk, stereo system and a computer make it a man cave. Looks a lot like a home office. Women use computers and listen to music.

The off screen workbench and power tools help. But some manly vices would help. Some Red Man on the desk would be good. You don't have to chew it, but it tells the womenfolk that you could if you wanted.

Is the still off screen too?

If moonshine is illegal there, I suppose keeping it out of sight keeps the revenooers off yer back. Pretty smart. Obviously the corn likker hasn't addled yer noggin yet.

Originally Posted by Doc

just make sure the locks are all on the inside or it may become the man cell!

Thats a good point I need to remember when I turn the third bedroom in our new house into my man cave. Remember self, locks go on the inside.

I have to say I'd expected something else...probably just because my small man cave (very very small) is full of steeldust, sawdust and powertools. I could never place a computer in there since there's too much moisture and dust. The computer would probably die within a year.

Besides....while using a grinder or beltsander or something like that (which is what I'm always doing when I'm in there) an external soundsource doesn't really help much.

Instead I have lots of tools, a couple of earphones by Sennheiser, gloves, respirator and that's it. I use my earphones as both music source and earprotection.

But I love those machines. They're sure as hell faster than the one I have. (except for the videocard :-P I got a new one a couple of months ago.)

Looks like that suits your purposes just fine.

Atm I don't have a belt grinder so that's not an issue.

I plan on building one, but in that case I am also going to build an exhaust system to get rid of the dust above my workbench. There is little airflow in my basement, and I don't want to have everything covered in dust.