 Making progress after some delays
Hello All,
At last I've got back to the desk project.
I've done a LOT of research and soul-searching as to how I'm going to achieve what I want.
I finally decided that I need to have a plan if I was going to get anywhere. What to do, what to do? I couldn't find any decent free plans on the Internet and anyone who's read any of my previous posts knows that I'm way too cheap to buy one, so I figured that it was time that I had a go at designing my own plans.
Hmmm... While that seemed to be a great idea, I didn't want to do it with pen and paper because the design was going to be such a fluid thing. Try this, try that... so I downloaded Google Sketchup and learnt how to use it. NOW you'll start to see why it's been a while since my last post!
I'm happy with the plans, and the good lady approves, so now it's time to make some more sawdust. I spent quite a few days just dimensioning the lumber. Working with rubbish leftover wood can be very frustrating in this department, but I think I've pretty much got the carcass wood cut and now it's time to make it all work.
Since I'm going to be using solid wood for the whole desk, I've had to learn about frame and panel construction, adding another delay to the whole process. Read some books, scoured the Internet, and decided that I just might be able to pull it off with the tools at hand; a table saw and a table mounted router.
I started routing the slots in the frame stiles for the panel and my router fence slipped. Just enough to ruin the piece and really tick me off. This has happened in the past and it's because I don't really have a good way of anchoring the fence to the table. I inherited the shop-built fence when I bought the table and I couldn't be bothered to make my own, so I spent a couple of weeks thinking about how I could make it work better, the main requirements being that it doesn't move, and it be easily adjustable.
Got THAT out of the way, and I'm very happy about it. See the photos of my crude modifications that work a treat.
Back to making frame and panels....
Drat and bother! My 1/4" straight router bit broke. *Sigh* Just what I DIDN'T need! However, the last couple of days I've managed to route the panel pieces and have a go at the raised panel. Did I mention that I got ambitious and thought I'd do raised panels? I was a bit worried about my panels because they warped BADLY after I glued them up. I had them sitting under a pile of ceramic tiles in the vain hope that it'd straighten them out. No joy. Bloomin' dodgy rubbish timber....
As a proof of concept I took the panel with the most bend and set about raising it. Oh dear, I need a panel raising jig.... So I set about making a jig, which I finished yesterday. This whole process is starting to become a real enterprise.
Today I cut my first panel and dry fit it into the frame. See the photos. It fits and looks reasonable. Needless to say I'm dead chuffed.
Now I've just got to do 13 more panels. That should keep me out of mischief for a while.
Feel free to comment. Hopefully I won't hit too many more
major milestones on this one. Most of the new processes are behind me now and all I've got to do is execute the plan. Sounds easy when you say it fast.
Cheers. |