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Hi John

I too have just read your build, and you definitely have your work cut out for you. Just think you are that much closer to being finished, and still making saw dust. Looking real good, and the photos tell the tale.

Looking forward to your next post.

John

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John

Cleaning my glasses will not make me look any better, but will make what I'm looking at better!

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JMalone

G'day Josh,
I'm a beginner at this woodworking caper and am just progressively taking on larger projects to see if I can do it. Really, this desk project is outside my skill and tool set, and, as you can see from the dates on the thread, I'm well over 6 months into it. But I keep coming back to it, niggling away, making progress.

I have yet to do a floating tenon, unless you count the splines I used to join the desktop together.

In that case I looked at what I was working with and the tools I had and went from there. The desk top is about 1" thick, and will be less after heavy sanding. I figured I didn't want to risk getting too close to either surface and I really didn't want to remove too much wood because that makes it a slower process. I have a 1/4" router bit which looked just the trick. So that's how I came about the thickness of the splines. The depth was pretty much determined by how deep I could go on the table mounted router, which maxes out at about 1/2". So the width of the splines was less than that, allowing for variations in the routing of the groove and the need to have some space for glue squeeze in/out.

I've been bitten before making joints too tight and getting into serious trouble when needing room for the glue. It's probably not good technique to make joints on the 'roomy' side, but it works for me at the moment. I've seen true craftsmen put grooves in tenons to allow for glue squeeze out, but frankly, my mortice and tennon skills are nowhere near that level of expertise. I'm happy if they go together and are with a bulls roar of being straight and level.

I'm not convinced that I really needed splines when making the desktop. The main reason for doing it was to make assembly easier. i.e. the splines took away the worry of whether the long pieces were lining up correctly. It also helped in taking out the minor bend in the timbers.

I've just noticed that I've got a significant bend in my desk top, after leaving it sitting in the garage all these months. It might spring down to level, but I may have to cut, trim and rejoin. I hope not.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

BTW, I don't have a planer. I wish I did. The extent of my tools are a very old 6" jointer which I picked up for a bargain, and a tablesaw with a mounting hole for my router. As a result I do most of my dimensioning work on the table saw, which makes for a LOT of work, but seems to work OK. The table saw struggles and trips the power out a lot when working with timber greater than 2" in thickness, but that's the route I've chosen to go. I don't have any more room in the garage for a planer anyway. I've promised myself that I'm not going to leave the cars outside. I like my shop. It's cheap and nasty, but I've set up for less than $300 and I can get stuff done. Good enough for me.

Cheers,
John

JMalone

Time to get the legs out of the pile of wood and start laying out mortices.
Just to be sure, I'll check that they are the right size and straight.
Well, the first 7 were close enough, but the last one had taken up the appearance of a boomerang.

Hmmm..... I don't have any more 2x2 stock in the right length and I really don't want to stop the project at this point.

So I decided that 1 3/4 square was a much better size of legs on a desk, trimmed them all down and we're as good as gold. 8 legs all the same size, all straight and ready to go.

Docked them all to the same length, after much consternation as to what the correct length should be, and I'm ready to go tomorrow.

Cheers,
John

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Check twice!

Good morning John,

You seem to be moving right along, I was always a believer "it is a poor man that blames his tools for his mistakes" you do not need a warehouse full of tools to build something, you are proof of this. Know your tools and they will do what you ask.

This project is coming along great. I am really interested in seeing the finished project.

John

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John

Cleaning my glasses will not make me look any better, but will make what I'm looking at better!

JMalone

Hello all,

I put in a few good hours and laid out and routed the mortices.
But the first task for the day was to decide which panel was going to go where, along with the preferred location and rotation of each leg.
This can be a bit tricky when trying to hide flaws in the rescued lumber, but today wasn't too bad.

I dusted off the morticing jig I made for a previous project and set it up. Once again I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked and how consistently good the results were. For a few scrap pieces of material glued together it is a marvelous help.

Next I need to fit the legs to the panels. There's always a bit of nudging and tweaking involved at this point.

I'm closing in on the exciting phase - the dry fit.....

Cheers,
John

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mailee

Now that is one fantastic piece of furniture! I just love this sort of work, right up my street. You have made a brilliant job so far, can't wait to see the finished article.

nordhagen

Hi, just saw this thread and I'm impressed! Nothing wrong with ambition if you've got the skills to match and the photos suggest that you certainly do!

Now, I'm a real amateur and shouldn't be giving anyone advice at this point, however I have one bit of experience that might be useful. Somehow timeber has a very high probability of twisting when sawn to a sqare dimension like 2x2 or 4x4. Smaller dimensions are worse than large ones. This is my own (annoying) experience and I've comfirmed this with experienced woodworkers. I've bought pieces of 2x2 that were twisted to the point where it looked like a screw by the time I got around to use it.

I tell you this because I saw the photos of the legs you've made of solid wood. My experience is that you might have better luck making your legs hollow by assembling four side pieces.

Looking forward to following your project!

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JMalone

I didn't know that about square timber. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I've had this wood cut to size for about 7 months and the only real problem was some bending on one of the pieces. (ref. earlier post)
The other 7 seemed to be remarkably stable. I hope so.
I'm also hoping that once I have the desk assembled, glued, finished and in a stable environment in the house it'll stay like I want it.

It'd be a real shame for it to suddenly go 'POP' in the middle of the night!

Thanks for the input,
John

"I'm still learning..."

Check twice!

Hi John

I admire what you have already accomplished with recycled wood. It should be quite dry so a lot of warping may not occur, the design you chose should help eliminate this problem as well.

It is a very aggressive build, and my hat is off to you.

John

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John

Cleaning my glasses will not make me look any better, but will make what I'm looking at better!

jw2170

Hi John,

Glad to see that it is starting to come together..

You must be a patient man to start a task like this in February and keep working through all the pitfalls to get to this point.

Keep up the great work,

James