Thread: Desk for SWMBO

I like it, John, classic simple design.

Did you consider:

1. Replacing the bottom two drawers with a single drawer to take suspension files? and
2. Replacing the top rail with a very shallow drawer to take pens, pencils, rulers, keyboards, etc.

Of course, it all depends on what SWMBO wants and how she uses a desk.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I like it, John, classic simple design.

Did you consider:

1. Replacing the bottom two drawers with a single drawer to take suspension files? and
2. Replacing the top rail with a very shallow drawer to take pens, pencils, rulers, keyboards, etc.

Of course, it all depends on what SWMBO wants and how she uses a desk.

SWMBO wants individual drawers, Graeme. I am careful to get royal ascent on the sketches.

The funny part is that the desk we are replacing has exactly the suspension file structure you mentioned ... and so too does my desk ... in both pillars.

There's no accounting for taste.

Originally Posted by John Samuel

... There's no accounting for taste.

Wrong. You have made precisely the correct decision.

..the least painful decision anyway

And here is the pillar.

Pillar made.jpg

Next I'll make the four inch high base for the pillar followed by either the drawers or the aprons and legs.

The sides of the pillar are veneered MDF framed in surian cedar. This eliminates the need to take seasonal variation into account and allows the use of web frames. Sometimes I veneer over lipped MDF panels, and sometimes I fit frames instead of lips. This time it's 70 mm frames.

These days, to speed up assembly, I fasten the top and bottom web frames only to the sides with floating tenons (at least one tenon per 100 mm. Then the intermediate web frames are screwed and glued into place. It means I don't need to race like an idiot during assembly when all five web frames were tenoned into place.

Progress ...

IMG20240301164143.jpg

The drawer fronts are only sitting in the frames. Drawers are yet to be built, but that comes next.

The Surian Cedar is inclined to a woolly finish, making it a bit more difficult than nice firm timbers to work with and finish.

The upside, for someone fast approaching his 71st birthday, is that it is easy to pick up the cabinet and move it around the shop. That's why I took delivery of a pack of Surian this week.

Right now the drawers are underway. First the drawer fronts were raised, as per pic.

IMG20240302104521.jpg


Then the drawer fronts are rebated with dado blades (set to the width of a side section) to fit the sides into the front. The pic shows the sled used to cut these rebates, as well as one drawer front with its rebate already cut. After glue up, 50 mm dowels will be run through the sides into the fronts.

IMG20240302094540.jpg

Then slots are cut in the sides to accept the backs of the drawers. Because the desk is 660 mm wide and the drawers are only 450 deep, the sides were extended by 50 mm and this allowed these slots to be cut to accept the backs.
IMG20240302094648.jpg

Coming along very nicely John. I love the look of the grain on all the drawer fronts.

Originally Posted by Woody1

Coming along very nicely John. I love the look of the grain on all the drawer fronts.

Yes, Woody ...

When I first started woodworking I used to take great care to make the tops of my cabinets pretty.

I soon realised that The Law Of Horizontal Surfaces made that pointless in many if not most cases.

This law states, "No horizontal surface may remain uncluttered". My ex was a profound believer in this law.

These days I pay more attention to the front of the cabinet, because that's the part most often seen. In this case, I went through my boards and selected a nice firm, reddish board with decent grain that was just big enough for all the drawers to be cut from it.

The law of horizontal surfaces is also one of the reasons I'm so fond of the "doors over drawers" approach. The Frilly Nickers cabinet recently made for the spare room is a good example, as noted below. It's the front of the cabinet we want looking nice.

Final Placement.jpgDoors Open.jpg

Here's another example of doors over drawers.

After.jpgIMAG0147[1].jpg

John
I never gave it a thought until you just mentioned it (The Law of Horizontal surfaces). I will give it some definite consideration on my future projects
I definitely agree. My Wife is an expert at covering up bench tops.
Lovely pics of your previous projects.
Cheers
Graeme

Getting organised to make the top which will be veneered MDF.

First a new vacuum bag was needed because the old one is not big enough. Made up the bag and slipped a piece of MDF into it for a test.

IMG20240303134354.jpg

Two hours later it was still holding vacuum. Good enough!

Made the laminated top for the desk today.

Here it is in the vacuum bag.

IMG20240308104644.jpg

Balancing veneers on the back are the last remnants of a rainforest timber very similar to northern silky oak left over from my dining table.

My Vacu Vin pump gave me a little grief today ... it felt good ... like a good vacuum was formed ... but it refused to "click". Sprayed a little PTFE dry lube into the mouth and it happily clicked away. I'm guessing the clicker was jammed/stuck.

Ummed and ahhhhed for a while about how to fix the legs and aprons to the pillar.

On previous similar desks I glued and screwed them together. This time I decided to use locating dowels and screws. The desk will be in three bits that can be disassembled if needs be. The pillar, the legs and aprons and the top. The pic shows the locating dowels in position ... as the glue dries.

IMG20240309105253.jpg

Filled the flaws in the veneers with epoxy.

This time I used a touch of red as well as chocolate oxide colouring I have used with cement mortar in the past. It worked just fine. However, it gives a smooth looking finish, which I needed to rough up. Previously I've generally used epoxy mixed with sawdust to fill the larger voids. I use a flour sifter to separate the fine and coarse components of the sawdust and then mix it again in the proportions required. I prefer the "grainy" effect this gives.

However, the colouring works. Next time I'll either stain the sawdust or mix a bit of colour with the epoxy to get both effects, the "grainy" effect and the colour I want.

Veneer repair.jpg

There were some sizeable voids in these veneers, and I am happy with the repair so far. Just a little more stain is required to "paint in" the grain in the repair.