My Desk

Goals

I love carpentry, but until this project I had never pushed my skills to my limit. I decided to go all out with this project to create a custom desk that I can use for decades. I made the desk in a C shape so that I would have as much space accessible.

I used Fusion 360, a CAD software, to design the desk. Having not built furniture on this scale, I reviewed the design with a family friend who designs furniture

I was advised to consider wood expansion in my design. I adjusted my design so that wood expansion wouldn’t tear the desk apart. I was recommended to add more boards between the legs for stability.

CAD First Draft

Final Design

Board Prep

Staining

I used a scrap board from my lumber order as a test piece to see how an array of stains work on maple. I decided to use a darker color as it contrasted with my bed.

I used a lint free cloth to apply the stain along with a clear coat of polyurethane for protection.

Failure

My original method was a failure. Through a fluke the first glue up succeeded. My method involved too many times sensitive tasks being completed in rapid succession to be consistent. I panicked on the second glue up and broke dowel pins trying to hammer them in. I tried to salvage the glue-up by drilling out the holes but the glue had already dried too much. I decided to cut my losses and clean the glue before It cured.

New Method

To make the process more consistent, I split the glue up into more sections. although I was using the synchronous nature of the glue ups to keep the sections square. I was able to glue the dowel pins before anything else so that wouldn’t interfere with the rest of the glue up.

This allowed for a far less chaotic glue up process where I only needed to apply glue to 4 surfaces and clamp the boards together. This method allowed me to do the remaining glue ups without and failures.

First Glue-Up

I used plywood for the table top and shelves to prevent wood expansion from destroying my desk over years of strain cycles. To cover the plywood edges I used iron on veneer.

I used a circular saw and a router to cut the interior portion of the top and the rounded corners.

I used 3D printed templates with the router. Unfortunately the template slipped, forcing my to cover up the mistake with some hand tooling.

The table top and shelves were finished with the same process as the other boards, however more coats of polyurethane were used for improved durability.

Reflection

This was my first large scale project. It helped my understand how much deadlines help me when trying to get something done. I also learrned a lot of best practices in carpentry.

I felt that the 3D printed jigs were an excellent idea. The alternative would have required purchasing an adjustable jig for upwards of $100. Having to adjust the jig for every hole I drilled would have dramatically slowed down the process