Daughter's Desk

[John Zahurak]

Below are some pictures of a desk for my daughters made of cherry.
I don't have a lathe, so I purchased the legs from Classic Designs by Matthew Burak. Rough dimensioning was done using power tools then the hand work kicked in.

All surfaces were hand planed. The joinery for the stepped drawer guides along the front were all cut by hand:
through mortise and tennons with wedges, dovetails and mortises for the front rails and stretchers, and mitered through dovetails for the 90' drawer supports (a first time for this joint for me).

The hardware came from Lee Valley. The finish is Waterlox.

[John Zahurak]

Here are a few more pictures...one during construction and one or the drawers..

[Mike Wenzloff]

Very elegant, John.

Very nice indeed. I especially like the through tenon on the vertical divider. Good way to tie it in securely.

Take care, Mike

[Steve Wargo]

Very nice. Nice design, and nice selection of joinery. Well. Done. The front flows nicely with the one piece look. Nicely done.

[Mike Henderson]

Very nice joinery - well done!

Mike

[Alan DuBoff]

Nice looking piece of furniture indeed. Great hand work!

[Dan Forman]

Lovely! Your design, or from a plan?

Dan

[Pam Niedermayer]

Good work, John, bet your daughters love it. Now, tell me about the finish on those dovetails. I've never seen that effect before (I like it though, a lot).

Pam

[Martin Shupe]

Excellent joinery, John.

How do you attach your drawer stops? Are they screwed down? If so, did you drill a hole in the top of the frame to be able to run a screwdriver through it?

I ask, because I am having difficulty with this.

On my first table, I put drawer stops against the back of the frame, but then I have seen Chris Becksvoort does it like you do.

My next table, I tried to put stops in the front, like you did, but I had to angle the screws to drill and screw from the inside of the case and it was not ideal....

Perhaps what I need is a 90 degree drill (very small) and 90 degree screwdriver. Or maybe just go back to putting the drawer stops at the back of the case.

I would be interested in your methods.

I would post pics, but don't have a digital camera handy right now.

Again, fine work, thanks for posting.

[Mark Singer]

John,
Excellent work! Beautiful frame joinery!

[Zahid Naqvi]

superb! to say the least.

[tod evans]

nice work john! tod

[Bob Oehler]

Very nice work
Love the jointery
That desk will be a family heirloom be sure to sign it

Take care
Bob Oehler

[Louis Bois]

Lovely work John!!! Nice and light yet strong as a mule! Just the way I like em.:rolleyes:

[John Zahurak]

Thanks for the compliments. I'll try to answer a few of the questions below:

Dan - The plan is one I came up with. Although after I purchased the legs I realized that I almost had to use a staggered drawer design....this was required to provide sufficient leg room for a chair while keeping the height of the sides matched up with the lenght of the flat portion of the legs. The width of the desk is sized to fit a current room, although it is pretty close to other deks of similar style.

Pam - The finish on the dovetails is just the same as on the drawer fronts (Waterlox). When I started woodworking I read somewhere not to finish the drawer sides or they could stick. So, what I do now is just tape off the side of the drawer even with the dovetails, finish to the tape and then wax the rest of the drawer side. Any finish on the end grain of the tails really makes them stand out.

Martin - I do screw the drawer stops down. My procedure is to use a dab of hide glue to hold them in place prior to screwing down....this eliminates clamping and trying to screw down in a tight drawer opening. After the glue sets up, I use a 90' drill and 90' screwdriver. In a very small drawer opening, you could come in from the top.

Thanks again for the comments!

[Julio Navarro]

Very, very nice, I like the frame dovetail pulling double duty holding the top frame and leg post together. I also like the top frame dovetail with through mortice.

[Ron Fritz]

John; excellent jointery work. I love the design & color.

[Chris Barton]

Lovely work and very nice period piece!

[Tyler Howell]

Tasteful and elegent:cool:

[Michael Pfau]

Very nice table John. I love dovetails and cherry!

[Zahid Naqvi]

Nice work John, the joinery is exquisite.

[John Miliunas]

Well done, John! The detail work is outstanding and your daughter now has what I would classify as a heirloom! :) :cool:

[Dick Parr]

That's a wonderful looking desk John, great job.

[willie sobat]

Beautiful, well proportioned piece. I'm especially impressed with your joinery.

[Clinton Findlay]

Love the work John.
The old style framework design is a pleasure to see.

[Jerry Olexa]

Like your joinery. Great job...

[Jerry Olexa]

Like your joinery. Great job...