Shaker Lap Desk

I made a Shaker lap desk.

Fine Woodworking magazine number two has an article on how to build one, so I used that for the dimensions.

The timber is Elm from Yarra Bend park in Melbourne and Chestnut from Ferny Creek in the Dandenongs.

It has the continuous grain technique for the sides and book matched lid and bottom.

The drawer pull is made by using a tapered plug cutter. Driil the plug cutter into the end grain of a piece of wood, then shape the wood as required and leave/expose the drilled plug. Drill a hole in the drawer front to match the plug and glue it in

Attachment 537086Attachment 537087Attachment 537088Attachment 537089
Attachment 537090

Very nicely done.

Thanks for the show and tell.

Been thinking about a similar project, more as a laptop stand than a lap desk. Although the timber selection would be different, maybe New Guinea Rosewood.

Thanks, Treecycle and Anthony,

Some considerations for the build

• The bottom is only glued on so try and use quarter saw wood for stability.
• Use some scrap wood to layout the dovetails and do some practice cuts as well.
• I glued the bread board end on - should have done mortice and tenon with pegs - see what happens - but the bottom is glued on as per the design - so should be ok...
• The drawer opening is outlined with a bead (cock bead ?). On this box it is flush but I think that having it proud as per the design would be better. The bead is Elm also but lighter in colour for contrast.
• Make the lid a bit thicker than needed and then plane it to size'
• The hinge screws for the lid have to be very short - had to cut down the ones I had and glue them in - brought them from Carbatec - they were OK for the price

Remote.... but does anyone have an original Shaker lap desk or detailed photos of one.... they must be now 250 years old .... suppose in a museum somewhere!

Very nicely executed, and beautiful grain.
I like your pull. Interesting method.
I've used similar but never as you have.

I'd suggest 3 hinges. (trust a suggestion is in order)
Adds considerably more strength to the lid attachment.
Not so careful use could "spring" the lid and with such tiny hinges break one away from the sides.

My initial impression was that the lid was frame and panel, but then saw it was a breadboard end. Breadboard would be easier and accentuate the panel/lid.

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Thanks for the 3rd hinge suggestion,

I also think that building the box to fit the hinge is not a bad idea.

I don't mean this to compete with the original post, just that it inspired me to also build a lap desk.

I too started with the Fine Woodworking article by Christian Becksvoort on the Shaker Lap Desk. My initial Google search came up with a simple plan and explainer, as an intro to the actual article. The design and build was informed by this simple plan. When I came to a couple of key design questions mid-way through the build, I repeated the Google search and came across the actual article on the Fine Woodworking site and downloaded it. My build was adapted when I read the actual article but there still problems with the design in the article.

My wood selection was Victorian Ash and New Guinea Rosewood (NGR). Attachment 537722

The Victorian Ash was used to make the carcase and internal dividers and drawer. The NGR was used to make the lid.

The stock was resawn and thicknessed to the required 10mm, and then rough cut to length. The dimensions matched those in the article.

After jointing with a hand plane, the panel for the top was glued up to get the book-matching.

The first mistake was I put tails on the front and rear boards instead of pins for the dovetails (working late and didn't notice). This became evident during assembly when the divider held in housing joint (dado) kept forcing open the dovetails (something having tails on the side pieces would have prevented). I glued the divider into the dado but the article suggested a removable divider with a curve in the center - too late mine was already glued in.

The next mistake was the drawer. The article suggested a inkwell sized drawer with a sliding stop mechanism. This looked entirely impractical, and as the original poster did, a wider drawer is better suited to contemporary uses of lap desks. I also found historic examples on auction sites that had wider drawers. I made my drawer an arbitrary width of 50 mm in from either side and 70mm high. I overshot the line in cutting out the drawer front from the carcase side, so I thought I would carry on the cut to make the top of the drawer front parallel with the angle of the top of the carcase and lid. This was also how the antique version I found on the auction site had made the drawer front.

The next mistake was on the drawer. I had left the sides of the drawer deliberately 5mm overlength, with the plan to cut and shoot to the drawer spacing. Whatever distracted me, I cut dovetails straight into the sides of the drawer and glued them up immediately (feeling smug that I had done the due diligence on the dimensions). The drawer didn't fit in the space available necessitating the cutting of an opening in the divider to accept the drawer back. Drawer runners and drawer stop were fitted and the drawer fits and runs very well.
Attachment 537721

The next issue, not my mistake this time but I believe an issue with the design was the breadboard ends on the top. I sized the panel to final dimensions and cut the tongues with my moving filister plane and shoulder plane. I then had to cut a 5mm groove, 19mm deep in a 10mm workpiece - you can see where is going. The author insisted that such a groove was feasible (he used a router table and straight cut bit and was using white pine). I used my 45 to cut the groove and straight away the remaining sides of the groove started breaking (both on the Vic Ash and NGR). I found a wider (closer to 13mm) and deeper board and cut workable grooves in that. Until I handled the pieces and sides would just break away in my hands or split off when offered up to the tongue. In the end, I glued up the sides with the grooves onto the tongues - no way on earth could these sides sustain drilling and dowels as is typical for breadboards.

Finally I made the bottom from ship-lapped Victorian Ash nailed to the carcase to accommodate wood movement. The article suggested gluing a single board as a bottom because in the author's view (I must say though, a far better distinguished woodworker than I could ever hope to be) white pine doesn't move that much.

That was my journey on making this piece. I don't talk about the mistakes as a woe-be-tied/poor-bastard-me thing, rather to talk about how they became happy accidents, or post-error deliberate design choices. The lap-desk is my computer stand, and it holds my laptop, notebook, pens, glasses, and other odds and sods.

Thanks for reading

Anthony

Hi Anthony,

Great that you built a lap desk.

They are items / objects that fit in the heirloom category - passed onto the next generation.

I mentioned above that I used the design from FWW magazine #2, this is different to the one you found by Mr Becksvoort.

And regarding the technique of obtaining continuous grain in the box sides, which I did not realise when I built mine, is that to get the best effect the inside faces of the re-sawn board then need to be used on the outside.

Maybe build one with a draw at either end.... back to back with two lids.....hmmm

Continuous grain wasn't a design aspiration but in hindsight ought to have been. The sides and front/back came from different boards because I bought 2 short boards. (I liked the colours across the boards.)

I thought the Becksvoort version (with plans and build instructions) was the only one in FWW. A lot of reproductions online are based on the Becksvoort version. There were a number of issues with that version (2.5mm sides on breadboard ends for example), and historic examples with more practical design elements such as drawers. Good to know about the alternative versions out there.






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Nice lap desks both Jono M and AnthonySeiver - another project to add to the 'get around to it list'. AS - the project Jono refers to is on page 48 of issue #2... from the spring of 1976!