desk leg support

[Scott Welty]

I've drawn the desk shown and now my client wants me to actually build it! I'm good with everything except will there be enough support for the left outside leg? I show a panel connecting the front and back legs and there will be 3/4 ply under the drawer into that panel (dado). Also probably a partial 'back' in the leg hole. The legs will be about 2" square. All cherry.

Thanks in advance,

Scottjohn desk.jpg

[Yonak Hawkins]

I think you've designed in plenty of stability. Not only is there a very large apron (the top section), the front and side skirts afford exceptional additional support as long as all components are firmly attached to one another. Nice design.

[Yonak Hawkins]

I don't wish to hijack this thread but I've run across a Google issue I've faced before. I wanted to make sure I identified the component with the correct terminology, "skirt", in my above post. I have no idea what to type into Google to get an identification of the components of various furniture. This is one of the very frustrating things for me with Google.

[Lee Schierer]

I don't wish to hijack this thread but I've run across a Google issue I've faced before. I wanted to make sure I identified the component with the correct terminology, "skirt", in my above post. I have no idea what to type into Google to get an identification of the components of various furniture. This is one of the very frustrating things for me with Google.

Google tends to give you sources to acquire an item. If you ask for definition of a word you get something like this:
Capture.JPG
In the case of your desk, skirt is properly used for naming the hanging down parts around the edges.

[Stan Calow]

There is a downside to the great reliance we have on google.

[Andrew Seemann]

If you are worried about support, you can do a stretcher across the kneehole, about half or 2/3s the way back, about 3 - 4 inches off the ground. It will give the left side a lot of stability and makes a nice foot rest for the user.

If you are doing a solid wood top, make sure to take wood movement into consideration, 2 feet of cross grain cherry could move up to an inch or so, between summer and winter depending on your location and seasonal humidity change. Same with the sides if they are solid.

One other bit of advice is to make sure only the legs touch the floor and that there is some clearance on panels at the bottom, otherwise the desk can rock a little bit if it is on thick carpet.

[Wayne Lomman]

Solid as a brick s...house. Get to work! Cheers

[Scott Welty]

Well that's encouraging. Not sure all see that there is no skirt in the front. Just a drawer. This change anything for anybody?

Scott

[Jim Morgan]

Presumably, there is framing to support the drawer. Traditionally, the lower rail gets mortised into the leg, while the upper rail gets dovetailed into the top of the leg. Or you could use Dominos for both joints.

[Scott Welty]

Presumably, there is framing to support the drawer. Traditionally, the lower rail gets mortised into the leg, while the upper rail gets dovetailed into the top of the leg. Or you could use Dominos for both joints.

Understood but in my sketch there is no framing there. There is a 3/4 plywood slab under the drawer connecting left and right panels together via dados. I can redesign with a narrow upper and lower frame around the drawers if that is necessary. Is it?
Scott

[Jim Morgan]

Understood but in my sketch there is no framing there. There is a 3/4 plywood slab under the drawer connecting left and right panels together via dados. I can redesign with a narrow upper and lower frame around the drawers if that is necessary. Is it?
Scott

That depends on how precise the dados are; without some sort of reinforcement, dados don't provide much resistance to separation. Are you cutting out the corner of the plywood to accommodate the leg? You will probably want to cover the front edge of the plywood, so you could just cut it narrower to eliminate the corner and use a solid front stretcher dominoed or whatever into the plywood & the legs.

[Wayne Lomman]

My advice does not change - I had assumed a drawer. The skirt at the back and a panel under the drawer are plenty. Even the panel under the drawer is not absolutely essential. Do the joints properly and it will be ok. The glue will hold in the dadoes. The doubters of this will be heading to the workshop to butt join a table top or similar any day of the week and a glued dado joint has more surface area than that. Cheers