Desk for my father

[alex grams]

Many years ago my father got permission from my grandfather (his father-in-law) to use the family cabinet shop to build himself a good computer desk. Well, as time went by and the shop finally closed down with the passing of my grandfather, my dad never got around to his desk. I made the offer to build him a desk, and we toyed around with design ideas for several months. Me making a sketchup model, sending him pictures, him critiquing it, sending back sketches of modifications ad nauseum. Finally we settled on a design and I went lumber shopping.

Here is the model of the design. The cabinet panels are curly/figured oak, the top will be a white oak burl, and the doors are crotch grain white oak, with all framing/rail/stiles being Quarter sawn white oak.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3849

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3848

There are a lot of functional design aspects of the desk. He wants to be able to switch a modular drawer unit between the two cabinets, and put a computer tower/ups/surge protector in the other, with adequate ventilation. There are vent holes in the front bottom of the cabinet, and a removable panel which will have a USB powered fan pulling air through the cabinet and a cutout for running cables from the tower, along the back underside of the front of the desk, then through grommets on the main desk to his monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc. The holes under the desk will have slots to hold a 12"x12" air filter, so any air pulled into the desk will be dust free.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3855

[alex grams]

Here is some work in progress. I got the veneers in a few weeks ago and started cutting up panels.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3857

Two panels finished, and looking great! I am donating labor to my dad, but he is buying all material and I convinced him to buy me a vacuum veneer press kit as payment for the desk. All I can say is that I don't know how I ever managed to do veneers before I got the vacuum press. Easily the best tool I have bought in the last few years.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3850

The corners are fluted 45 degree angles. I wrapped the grain around on the corners from a single board and fluted the fronts. I still have yet to find a good way to clean out the router burnout at the end of the flutes, but it may just take sandpaper and elbow grease.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3858

The two cabinets glued up. You can see the removable access panel on the right. It is lipped at the bottom and will have some brass screws through it into threaded inserts in the panel from which to secure the panel with

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3851

Next was a LOT of panel accent moulding. Took a lot of patience, time, a 23 gauge micropinner from Harbor freight, glue and lots of wiping glue squeeze out with a wet rag.

Here is a closeup of a panel and its moulding also showing it wetted down to show the grain of the panel.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3853

The desk will break into three parts, the front panels being a section and each cabinet being a section. These joints will be secured with thru bolts from the inside of the cabinets into the side of the stile on the front panel where I will put threaded inserts.

Here are some pictures of the joints and the threaded inserts. Excuse the burnout on the miters. When you are extra judicious and slow on the cuts, it is difficult at best to avoid having burnout. I just need to scrape it a little to remove it. It seems that these pieces had the worst burn of any miters I cut, maybe because they knew they would be visible, go figure.

Panel joint end:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3860

Cabinet joint side:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3861
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3852

Next is to put the foot and head moulding on the cabinets. This is, by far, the most tedious aspect of the project so far, and took a lot of patience making sure the miters were up to snuff.

Here is the front panel with the toe and head accent moulding.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3854

Here is a cabinet with the moulding:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3856

Certainly a lot more to do. I have started making sample finish pieces which I will mail to my dad so he cab pick a finish schedule/top coat. I am currently experimenting with the mission style finish schedule from Jewitt of transtint/sealer/gel stain, then topcoat(s), shellac then waterlox, Target USL, arm-r-seal.

I have the doors made and am working on the modular drawer unit, which is just tedious doing runners/kickers. I will post some more pictures when I get around to taking them.

Then once I get the drawer unit completed it is on to the top!

[Jeff Monson]

Wow Alex, that is a GREAT design, I like every aspect of the desk. Looking really nice at this point, looking forward to seeing more progress. Great work.

[Sam Layton]

Alex, that is a great looking desk. You are doing an outstanding job. Your father is going to be pleased. I can see your father saying, "Look what my son made for me", to his friends...

What type of panel are you using to glue the veneer to? Keep the photo's of your progress coming.

Sam

[John Thompson]

Excellent design.. post when finished as this is shaping up to be an extremely nice piece..

[Joseph D'Orazio]

That is beautiful. I would be proud to own that.

[Eric Woodruff2]

This is going to be a great looking desk. I am looking forward to the finished project pics. You can tell a lot of thought has went into the design details and lumber selection. Keep the pics coming.

[gary Zimmel]

Wow Alex, that is going to one very sweet desk when it's all done.
Looks like a ton of planning and it sure is going to pay off...
Thanks for the look see on this one.
Keep us up to date on the progress...

[eugene thomas]

great looking desk, but i wish ya all would stop showing use great tools to use like the vacume press. i finialy got the domino and all and told wife done buying tools for long while.

[Tim Mahoney]

Beautiful work. I hope your dad isn't going to stick the desk into a corner. Needs to be in the center of the living room. What veneer press kit did you get. I'm looking to get a press also.

[Dave MacArthur]

beautiful work.

[alex grams]

Sam, the panels are 1/2" cabinet grade oak plywood with veneer on both sides.

Eugene, the vacuum press kit is the Excel 1 (http://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Excel-5-Continuous-Run-Vacuum-Press-System.html) from Veneer Supplies (http://www.veneersupplies.com). I figured there would be very few times I would ever need the Excel 5 with a higher CFM, but now in hindsight, I should have gotten it anyways, though the Excel 1 will still do most anything I need it for. The Excel 1 can do up to 4'x4' bags, but I am going to have to do a couple of 4'x6' bag pieces when I glue up the top.

Hopefully this weekend I can get the drawer unit finished then move on to starting on the top. There will be some new challenges for me in cutting/jointing veneer that long.

I have slacked on pictures lately of the desk, but will try and remember to take some this weekend.

I started the job July 17th, so am making decent progress.

[Sam Layton]

Thanks Alex for the reply. I am looking forward to more photo's of your progress. You are doing a really great job. I have never used veneer, but I am interested in doing so.

Sam

[Tom Winship]

Alex, only the best for Ags.

Gig 'em!

[Joseph D'Orazio]

Did somebody say Gig Em? Heck yeah. :D

[Stephen Ash]

Alex, that desk is looking beautiful. The design is well thought out, rich with interesting details, and the choice of veneers is superb. I can’t wait to see more...

Regards,
Steve

[Jerry Olexa]

Nice design...Good family project. I built a similiar 3 sided computer unit a few years back. Looks good!!!

[alex grams]

Some updates.

I finished the doors and put them on. They are crotch grain oak and look pretty sharp.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3871

I made a drawer unit which can be moved between the cabinets. This way he can put his computer tower in one and the drawer unit in the other, or if he wants to change arrangements depending on where the desk is, he can flip the drawer unit and computer tower.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3873

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3875

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3872

It was meticulous, but he wanted to be able to open the split drawers with just one door open, so I got that finished. The drawer is anchored in two points to the bottom of the cabinet with threaded inserts in the base of the cabinet which hold some machined screws fed through the base of the drawer unit.

I also got the first glue up of the top finished. These are white oak burl pieces which I glued up. Once again, the vacuum press is a god-send. The 4x6 bag was on the larger side of what the 1.1CFM pump can do, but it still came out great, I just had to be more patient and cautious in setting up the press. Cutting and jointing the long veneer sheets made me nervous as heck when thinking about it, but after doing one test cut it was not nearly as difficult as I had feared it would be.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3876

The red outline shows the shape of the desktop panel. This will be framed in QSWO with a 1/8" strip of american walnut inlay between the top and the frame. I made the panels about 1" oversized, so will trim them down later, which will remove a lot of the sapwood on the top and bottom of the piece.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3877

[Joseph D'Orazio]

Its beautiful. Does the whole drawer unit come out of the cabinet and go into the other? Is that what you are saying?

[alex grams]

yeah, the entire drawer unit is removable and transferable.

[Paul Greathouse]

Alex

Great looking desk. I will be building one soon for my wife in our kitchen area to accent the new cabinets I am now finally finishing up on. I'll be using Black Walnut to match the cabinets.

I used some fluting on my cabinets and intend to duplicate it on the desk. Your trim detail is what I was after but my imagination wasn't as good as yours. Now that I have seen your desk I would like to incorporate some of your trim detail into my desk and also make some modifications to my cabinet trim. If you have time, would you please post some close-up shots of your trim detail, especially in the lower area around the bottom of your fluted pieces?

I don't know if you found a solution yet for sanding your flutes but what works for me is wraping sandpaper around a pencil.

[Jerry Olexa]

A labor of love for your Dad...you should be proud!!!

[alex grams]

Paul,
Here is a closeup of some of the moulding details. I have the entire desk with moulding details in sketchup if you use SU and want to look at the model, just pm me your email and i can send it to you.

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Misc/DadsDesk076.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Misc/DadsDesk075.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Misc/DadsDesk074.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Misc/DadsDesk151.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Misc/DadsDesk081.jpg

[Paul Greathouse]

Thanks for the closeups Alex,

Now I can see the detail better. That looks alot like what I want to do. I PM'ed you my email address. Looks like I may be ordering some new cutters for my moulding machine.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Incredibly beautiful work Alex! I can't wait to see it with finish on it.

Thanks for posting!

[Joe A Faulkner]

Very nice job. Great planning, great execution. Look forward to seeing the final pictures. You may want to rent some packing quilts from u-haul when it comes time to ship.

[alex grams]

I am going to rent a covered trailer for moving the desk, with plenty of room to set the pieces up and pad them.

[Gordon Eyre]

Beautiful work and the wood itself is very beautiful. Can't wait to see what it looks like with the finish. Your dad will be so pleased with this.

[Van Huskey]

Excellent design, beautiful stock and great execution!

[Craig D Peltier]

Thats some nice looking work Alex.

[Hans Braul]

Wow, Alex - I love this piece! Very very well done so far. I am also really looking forward to finished product. Speaking of finish, how do you apply finish on the assemble piece such that you can get a completely even look right into the corners? I've always been confounded by this, which is why I do as much finishing prior to assembly as I can.

Thanks for posting your progress.
Hans

[Hans Braul]

Wow, Alex - I love this piece! Very very well done so far. I am also really looking forward to finished product. Speaking of finish, how do you apply finish on the assemble piece such that you can get a completely even look right into the corners? I've always been confounded by this, which is why I do as much finishing prior to assembly as I can.

Thanks for posting your progress.
Hans

[alex grams]

I am still debating what kind of finish I want to use, but most likely it will be a spray or wipe on finish which I can work into corners pretty well.

On solid wood panels I typically will do the color part of the finish first so that any wood movement wont expose an unfinished piece of the panel, but on veneered/substrate panels where wood movement is not an issue, I don't fuss too much about pre-finishing.

[alex grams]

Some updated pictures. The long weekend was spent BBQ'ing, going to a Texas A&M football game, and working on the desktop.

The top is oak burl framed in QSWO with a 1/8" walnut border between the oak and the panel.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3892

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3890

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3893

The frame profile is a 16 degree slope down. This was specific to eliminate any pressure points on arms resting on the edge of the desk while typing/working, etc.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=405&pictureid=3891