Lapdesk

**derekcohen** · 30th April 2013, 02:07 AM

This is posted here as most was made with handtools.

After the completion of the box for the bridle plough plane, I was left with the smaller section on the left.

It occurred to me that this could form the basis for a lapdesk, that is, an interpretation of a campaign lapdesk. I love the simple, clean lines of campaign/military furniture, and the thought of building a piece with secret spaces promised to be fun.

There are many really interesting campaign pieces. For example ...

I would call my pieces "campaign-inspired". They are not exact copies of originals, as Chris Schwarz is currently building. Instead they are my interpretations of this furniture type, taken in a contemporary direction. An example are the military chests I built close to 2 years ago (see http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...tedChests.html ).

Now I have a lot of pictures, so brace yourself. The thing is, I need some advice. I completed 99% of this build, and then had second thoughts whether I should ad the last element. I shall leave that for last.

Let's start here. A pic of the outside, to be compared with the remnant above (15" long x 11" deep) ..

The body is clothed in West Australian She-oak, finished in Organoil Danish Oil and wax.

There are two lids, one for the pen-and-ink section and another for the main storage area (which is empty at present - more later) ..

There is a drawer for some of my fountain pen collection (they all get rotated for daily use in the notes I take all day long), a tray for pens in use, and an ink well ...

There is space for a iPad ..

The fun in building this lapdesk was in creating the secret hiding places. There are 4 in all. The first is hidden very securely under the console. To get to this one must remove the console. It is secured on steel pins (in the corners). Lift the console straight up and a hidden panel is revealed ..

The inkwell in the console is walled internally ...

Now, at the rear of the console there is a slot wide enough to hide the key(s) to that important chastity belt or safety deposit box (whichever is more important) ..

**derekcohen** · 30th April 2013, 02:10 AM

The drawer ...

... has a false bottom. This is accessed from the rear of the drawer.

Slide away the rear panel ..

You can also remove the pen tray ...

Now that is three of the hiding places. The fourth?

This introduces the dilemma I have. Sometimes less is more and adding one more item makes the piece too busy, too complex. I have presented the pictures in the order I assembled the lapdesk, and it may be a result of this that I am feeling this way. Do I include the last section or not? I would value your input here.

There is a central cover that was designed for three purposes. The first is that it offers an additional writing surface. This is Jarrah - I thought a wood to link in with the console. Some thought went into balancing the figure with the parts of the console.

The second purpose of the cover is that it hides what lies within.

And hidden inside the cover is another drawer ..

The hinges have not been installed as I am not sure whether to keep it or not .....

Regards from Perth

Derek

**DSEL74** · 30th April 2013, 09:29 AM

With the first fold down lid, do the hinges provide enough support to use it as a writing surface? Would a very small lip be required to keep the pages from sliding off?

The secondary lid your questioning could be used to support correspondence that you may be replying to. ie answering a letter.

**FenceFurniture** · 30th April 2013, 10:22 AM

Hi Derek

I think I'd be inclined to keep the fourth hidey - I don't think it detracts from the overall piece at all.

Cheers
Brett

**IanW** · 30th April 2013, 02:33 PM

I thought you were going to ask if you should let a lap dancer dance on it!?

As to secret compartments, the more the merrier, I reckon. I managed to squeeze 3 'secret' compartments into this 'Journal box' for one of my daughters, & it's probably less than half the size of your desklet. (I also hid the joinery by using full lapped dovetails on the carcase.

).

Box2.jpg Box1.jpg

Apologies for the mediocre pics, but they are scanned off an old negative with a dodgy scanner.

Perhaps I overstated the secret compartments, because one is incorporated in the loose She-oak box you can see within. I was going to add another behind the drawer, which would spring out a bit when released, but in the end I was running short of time and couldn't figure out a neat way to hide the the release mechanism inside the box, so I'll keep that up my sleeve for next time. I put a $5 note in the most difficult compartment - took her a couple of months to discover it, after I dropped a few hints.....

Cheers,

**pmcgee** · 30th April 2013, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

I put a $5 note in the most difficult compartment - took her a couple of months to discover it, after I dropped a few hints.....

Cheers,

Hmmm ... are the compartments supposed to be secret from the user ??

Paul

**IanW** · 30th April 2013, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Hmmm ... are the compartments supposed to be secret from the user ??

Paul

According to an article in an old FWW, some seem to have been! At least unknown to subsequent users.

I my case, I just wanted to see how good they were. Her female curiosity would probably have been enough, but a little incentive didn't hurt. I simply told her there were 3 secret places and it might be worthwhile finding one, in particular. She found #1 & #2 quite quickly, as I expected - I was pleased it took quite a while to find the last one, even when she knew it had to be there, somewhere.

Cheers,

**derekcohen** · 1st May 2013, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by DSEL74

With the first fold down lid, do the hinges provide enough support to use it as a writing surface? Would a very small lip be required to keep the pages from sliding off?

The secondary lid your questioning could be used to support correspondence that you may be replying to. ie answering a letter.

The connections and build is pretty solid.

In any event, I imagine myself writing notes on the top of the case, lifting the rear lid to access a pen or ink. The front lid folds down perfectly (by design or luck) at the correct angle so that the inside of this lies coplanar with the centre lid/cover, thereby creating a long working area. I cannot see myself using it this way, however. The inside is really for storage.

The desk is for writing, not reading. Hence there is no "lip" at the end to prevent papers or books from sliding off. This would be awkward for writing. Without the lip, papers/pads may be moved to their ideal angle, moved up or down or along.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**derekcohen** · 1st May 2013, 03:50 AM

Nice journal box, Ian! I bet that one is cherished.

As to secret compartments, the more the merrier, I reckon.

Yes, I am going to keep the centre section. I'll post pics when it is complete.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**derekcohen** · 6th May 2013, 12:15 AM

The dilemma faced where we left off was what to do with the centre interior panel. Keep it or ditch it.

I must admit that I preferred the simple basic version (sans centre section) where I could see the nice console ...

... versus ...

I did come up with a new idea for the centre section - I removed it, pulled it apart :O and rebuilt it .. smaller ...

The idea was to create a stand for an iPad (and save the fourth hidden drawer). This could be built on the inside of the main lid.

It can be hinged back to support the iPad, like this ...

The edges of the "cassette" are beveled and the result does make it thinner looking in real life ..

... and the hidden drawer was there all along!

But I am not convinced. The hinges remain on the shelf. I shall sleep on it awhile.

Thoughts?

Regards from Perth

Derek

**IanW** · 6th May 2013, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

.....But I am not convinced. The hinges remain on the shelf. I shall sleep on it awhile.

Thoughts?

Derek, I find that if I'm not totally happy about some aspect of a design or some extra touch I'm thinking of adding, I'm invariably dissatisfied with it if I go ahead & include it, or find it's not at all missed if I don't - a bit of restraint is sometimes the best touch. It's your design, and you will live with it, either figuratively or literally, so do what your instinct tells you, after that sleep.....

Cheers,

**pmcgee** · 7th May 2013, 10:42 PM

Derek, I've been looking at some antique lapdesks to try to understand what I like.

Do you think the extra weight of that panel on the front section would be an advantage? or a disadvantage? or neither?

I also saw first one pic that intrigued me ... then another kinda the same.
What do you think about the way these drawer dovetails have been made (laid-out)?

Thanks,
Paul

rwb11.jpg lap 2.JPG

**derekcohen** · 7th May 2013, 11:31 PM

Hi Paul

I did consider adding a drawer, however my build was not from scratch (it used the left over section of the plough box lid), and it was difficult to incorporate on so that it looked seamless (the only way I would do it).

The dovetails on the drawer? I did exactly the same ...

This allowed me to place a drawer bottom in a rebate along the lowermost edge (and build the sliding drawer above it) since I did not have to deal with a lower pin.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**pmcgee** · 8th May 2013, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

The dovetails on the drawer? I did exactly the same ...

This allowed me to place a drawer bottom in a rebate along the lowermost edge (and build the sliding drawer above it) since I did not have to deal with a lower pin.

Derek

I was interested first in why the pin was placed up there (instead of the bottom corner) - which you have answered.

Then there was the shape of the pin ... a half-sized pin. I thought it was a mistake/strange when I saw the first one ... but then there was the second one the same.

Is your bottom pin a half or a full pin?

Thanks,
Paul

**derekcohen** · 8th May 2013, 01:27 AM

Hi Paul

I think those half pin/tails are just poorly cut. It is likely that they were not marked out first - just freehanded.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thread: Lapdesk

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Lapdesk

Similar Threads

Lapdesk - my first project

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions