Thread: Built-in desk wip

Hope it all goes well for you.
Cheers

Those panels are beautiful Mic.

Hope the installation goes smoothly!

Best of British Michael.

Ta muchly all.

Cheers
Michael

The desk is installed and I'm back in cool Brisbane after Townsville turned on some pretty objectionable muggy weather for the last week. Overall, the desk came up very well, maker and client are very happy, notwithstanding some little added 'complexities' along the way. All's well that ends well though.
First job was to lay tiles in the room. Although not visible, I've flicked my grid pattern for the tiles with chalklines. This frees me from using spacers and I can do all my cuts first and then glue them down as I go. The batten along the wall at back held the chalkline, allowing me to work alone.
Attachment 155935
Here I've glued down all the full tiles only and of course this is not what I just said above, but due to 'tile cutter confusion' I didn't have the right size on this day.
Attachment 155936
All the tiles are down and grouted and ready for the installation of the desk.
Attachment 155937

continued...

My work area. I had a few hand tools, router and biscuit jointer, mitre box and not much more. The workbench in the background was my planing bench.
Attachment 155938
I bought some lengths of Tas Oak up there to act as ledgers on the wall. First thing was to stain these to match the jarrah. I used Jarrah Prooftint ragged on after wetting the wood down with turps to stop blotchiness. It worked very well and was a good colour match, which was lucky, as you'll see later.
Attachment 155939
Attachment 155941
continued...

Here's the primary problem. The measurements I received for the room were wrong and despite cutting the desk 30mm oversize to allow for fitting, it turned out to be 80mm undersize. The only thing to do was fit bread board end. After a few call to my home team, my mate machined up some jarrah and posted it up. Here 'tis fitted to the desk. It's drilled to allow all movement to go the the back and keep the front aligned.
Attachment 155952
In this photo, the filing cabinets have been fitted with all panels.
Attachment 155953
Cabinets in the room, and ledgers installed. Note the two different sizes(of the ledgers). Of course because the the desk was too short, so was the apron. So the jarrah apron was relegated to ledger material and one of the stained tas oak sticks became the apron.
Attachment 155954

continued...

Here's photos of the desk fully installed, they really don't do it justice. There is an ovolo moulding fitted around the edge to hide all gaps.
Attachment 155957
Close up of apron and dentil moulding. I should mention that I have a new favourite finish system. Two coats of FW floor seal and a final coat or two of FW Scandanavian oil. Gives a beautiful finish and much easier to apply nicely than the floor seal.
Attachment 155958
Buttons hold it down.
Attachment 155959
Cheers
Michael

Great job Mic, sounds like you had to overcome some major challenges, but isn't that just typical?

Love the grain in that top

Looking great Mick, and well done for devising a slick solution for the undersize measurements.

cheers
Derek

It's come up very nicely.

Solid timber cabinets with large metal drawers slides.

It's hard to pick the stained vic ash from the pictures. Good job!

That is very sexy. I like.

Except the drawer handles. Not so sexy

Missed the wip initially but have now read and enjoyed it all.

Nice work and good save on the sizes. Anyone who doesn't like Jarrah must be blind.