Desk from southern yellow pine

[Jeff Wittrock]

My work has been busy lately since we are very short handed with many working from home, but been trying to still have some projects going on.

This is a simple desk I made form SYP construction lumber. Made mostly with hand tools, but I have been using my wooden bandsaw project to do more of the grunt work.
I have something of a love/hate relationship with SYP. I love the low cost, availability, and sustainability, and when I find it with tight growth rings, it does have its own sort of beauty.

But I hate trying to cut clean mortises thought the layers of soft early wood and hard late wood. Its like pounding on a piece of hard rubber. Very sharp tools help of course.


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[Curt Putnam]

Those exposed breadboard tenon look really nice 0 as does the rest of the piece.

[Tim Nguyen]

Nice. Those exposed ends and square pegs are attractive details.

[William Fretwell]

I do wonder about the seasonal variations in the top and those breadboard tenons. It does have lovely fit and finish.

[James Pallas]

Nice looking desk. The yellow pine works well with that style. Now you need a chair to match.

[Stew Denton]

Jeff, beautiful job with yellow pine. Very nice workmanship.

Also, you wooden bandsaw in the background looks great. All I can say is wow.

Regards,

Stew

[Ron Bontz]

Very nicely done. Nice tight grain on the SYP.

[Tony Shea]

The desk looks great!! Nice job.

How about some more pictures of that bandsaw!! And some information on that build. Looks super nice.

[michael langman]

Jeff, You did fantastic job with the yellow pine. I really like the looks, and the wood will only get nicer in appearance with age.

I can sympathize on working with yellow pine. I made 2 tall standing planter boxes 32"w x 72" l and used pressure treated 4x4 legs with 3/4" through mortices for the stretchers. Going through the pith of the tree 8x with those mortices was not fun.

[David Eisenhauer]

Outstanding work and a good look as well Jeff. Exposed through tenons, square pegs, shaped stretchers, etc. I ran across some recovered long leaf pine when I first started furniture building many years ago and have always like the look (as long as it is displayed in that kind of a setting). I then found out that the "soft pine" that the ww magazine writers talked about was not that pine.

[Jim Koepke]

A beautiful piece.

One of my dreams is of having SYP available on the west coast.


But I hate trying to cut clean mortises thought the layers of soft early wood and hard late wood. Its like pounding on a piece of hard rubber. Very sharp tools help of course.

Doug fir may be a bit easier. My current project has me pounding out some 3" deep 1X2-1/2" mortises.

jtk

[Brandon Speaks]

That looks great, I have been toying with building myself a new desk for my home office. The plastic folding table is out of place in an otherwise nice office.

[Andrew Seemann]

A beautiful piece.

One of my dreams is of having SYP available on the west coast.



Doug fir may be a bit easier. My current project has me pounding out some 3" deep 1X2-1/2" mortises.

jtk

They are both pretty miserable. If Douglas Fir is easier, it is only because the early wood might be closer in hardness to the late wood. And that late wood can be like cement.

[Jeff Wittrock]

I do wonder about the seasonal variations in the top and those breadboard tenons. It does have lovely fit and finish.
William. I was a bit sneaky with those tenons on the breadboard. They are actually loose tenons. They are tight fitting and glued in the breadboard, and loose fitting in mortises in the ends of the top slab with just the 3 center ones glued in the slab. I was worried about movement as well.

[Jeff Wittrock]

The desk looks great!! Nice job.

How about some more pictures of that bandsaw!! And some information on that build. Looks super nice.

Tony,
The bandsaw is a project I started January of last year and finally finished in last fall.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?272918-Wooden-bandsaw-project

I originally built it mostly with the idea of using it to help with re-sawing SYP, but I have been using it for quite a few other things lately. It actually works better than I ever expected.

[Jeff Wittrock]

A beautiful piece.

One of my dreams is of having SYP available on the west coast.



Doug fir may be a bit easier. My current project has me pounding out some 3" deep 1X2-1/2" mortises.

jtk

Jim,
It seems the grass is always greener... Not long ago, I was wishing I had some close grained fir to use for the desk. I find clear, straight grained fir here quite a bit more expensive and harder to find than SYP.
I remember when I was in high school, we had an old barn on the our farm that was in too bad condition to save, but it had lots of fir and cotton wood beams. I never thought of cotton wood as being a "hard" wood, but I remember when I worked with some of those old beams they were like rock.

[Dave Zellers]

William. I was a bit sneaky with those tenons on the breadboard. They are actually loose tenons. They are tight fitting and glued in the breadboard, and loose fitting in mortises in the ends of the top slab with just the 3 center ones glued in the slab. I was worried about movement as well.
My inclination was to excuse that concern because of the perfect vertical grain, but what you did was pure genius. Seriously.

[Jim Matthews]

William. I was a bit sneaky with those tenons on the breadboard. They are actually loose tenons. They are tight fitting and glued in the breadboard, and loose fitting in mortises in the ends of the top slab with just the 3 center ones glued in the slab. I was worried about movement as well.

That's clever.

[Mike Allen1010]

Very,very nice! Great design and well executed- love the details!

[Steven Mikes]

That's really pretty. I've grown to like SYP, it's definitely plentiful here! How did you cut those square peg holes?