Thread: My Study Fitout

Well folks, this is the first proper thing I have made for inside, some of you might remember The Ultimate Kennel project, but now that the garden is pretty much on its way the focus has turned to the inside.

I started this on Bathurst weekend 2009.....it has taken me forever. I have learnt quite a lot doing this.

The desk is spotted gum floorboards - laminated to 7mm structural ply. Not a bad technique, only had one real problem (refer below). You won't see the ply once all the computers etc are in place

Lesson 1 - don't cut curves with anything but a band saw or better yet a router. I cut the curves for the desk with my jigsaw, its a darn good top of the line Bosch, but OMG what a pain it was. The saw or rather my lack of skill didn't cut straight i.e. the edge had a bow in it in that it wasn't 90 degrees to the top surface, I suspect I went too quickly - total pain for when adding the edging. You can see where I had to use filler to fix my mistakes....lesson learnt, wont do it again

Lesson 2 - how to cut thing repeatable strips with a Festool TS-75. Easy if you set it up right. Basically I laid on MDF on saw horses and clamped timber stops and the guide to that. Worked like a charm.

Lesson 3 - buy a stray gun. I painted the darn bookcase by hand.....took forever

Lesson 4 - be really careful sanding into corners of the edging. Some of the shelves have tiny little "cut-outs" or warping near the corners

Lesson 5 - I did a lot of cutting after the finish was applied. I used blue painters tape to stop chip out - worked very well. Thanks to the guys at Ideal Tools for that tip

Tools used:
- TS75
- ETS 5mm x 150mm sander
- Bosch jigsaw
- I got myself a multimaster for cutting in around skirting - awesome little tool
- A new drill for doing the swansdown mop - Bosch 1300 watt jobby, this thing would take your arm off before stalling. Hopefully never buy another drill

Finish:
- Hard shellac (about 20 coats I'd say). I start at 400 grit, do 1 in 4 thinned mix, did as many coats until I ran out of mix, then worked up to 2000.
- EEE buffed off - love this step, its like the great unveiling. Wouldn't do it without a swansdown mop











This is the only real problem. I think I might take the top out, clamp this down for a week or so, might bend it back.