Rounded Desktop Edging

[Adam Webster]

First up I need to say that I am a complete newbie when I comes to woodworking, in fact this will be my first project.

I have been given some left over pine plywood from a mate and I am going to make a computer desk out of it. The wood probably isn't ideal for making a computer desk but since I got it for nothing I am not complaining. I have drawn up a design in sketchup to help me plan everything out.

The wood is 19mm thick and I would like to make the desktop thicker by joining 2 pieces together which will bring it to 38mm (sorry guys I'm Australian, we use metric). Because it is plywood though I don't want to see the different layers of the wood, so I thought that a solid wood edging around the desktop would finish it off. The problem is I have designed the middle part to have an arc. The attachment below should help explain.

The part highlighted in yellow is the only part of the desk that I have no idea how to make, the rest I can dumb my way through thanks to some tutorials on the net. The edging for arc will be roughly 40mm x 40mm thick, it will be 1000mm wide and extend out 200mm. How could I do this???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Adam... First ....Welcome to the Creek!

There are 2 ways I can imagine this being done.

1. Take a piece that is 40 mm by greater than 200 mm and cut it out with a bandsaw or jig saw or a jig and router.

2. Build a jig. Take thin strips say....3-4mm thick by 40 or so mm and laminate the strips to make a piece the correct size. Bending them on the jig during the lamination process.

[Jamie Buxton]

There are quite a few ways, depending on your skills and tools. One way to make the edging only five millimeters thick or so, so you can bend it around the arc and glue it on. To minimize the glue line, it would be good to cut the plywood in a nice smooth arc. Do you have that part figured out? A different approach is to cut the plywood with a straight cut, and glue on a piece of solid lumber. You cut the finished curve on the solid lumber. The glue line can be thin because the plywood and the solid lumber have straight edges where they meet, and the arc can be a little less-than-perfect because nobody will ever know.

[Adam Webster]

The only tools that I have are all hand held. I can get hold of a jig saw and a router but I was thinking of using the jig saw to cut the arc in the plywood. Still not 100% sure how I was going to do that either to get a perfect arc, was think about attaching the jig saw to a piece of straight wood and anchoring at the other end and cut the arc like a big compass. But not sure if this will work as for one I'm not sure how I am going to attach the wood to the jig saw. Any suggestions for this would be great.

I thought about using thinner ply for the edging and bending but I thought that the thicker edge would look more impressive. Also may use a router to make a beveled edge all the way around the desktop.

I'm more leaning toward cutting the edge out like Ken has suggested but once again it's about getting the cut perfect.

I am still only in design stage at the moment so any thoughts would help. I might start this weekend but I will be starting on the cupboards and draws.

Also, what are some good sanding techniques to get a really smooth finish. The wood isn't perfect, especially on one side, so I would like to prepare the wood before I start building. I have an electric sander.

[Josiah Bartlett]

It is going to be much easier to cut an arc with a router than with a jigsaw- you can make a compass out of a scrap piece of plywood with the radius you want, and use a straight cutting bit on the router to make the arc.

[Adam Webster]

I just found this http://home.comcast.net/~klone-audio/page9MarquisPlus1.html (http://home.comcast.net/%7Eklone-audio/page9MarquisPlus1.html)

About half way down he cuts a large arc with a router. Something like that?

[Dave MacArthur]

Adam,
Welcome to the creek! Several other folks have mentioned ways to do this--I personally would get a piece of hardwood, trace the arc on it from the desk, then cut it out with a saw.

HOWEVER--- no one has mentioned it yet, but a question on your design. Are you sure you want to make the arc stick out towards the belly of someone sitting at the desk? Generally if a desk is curved, they make the curve AWAY from the user's stomach, so you can sit in there and be surrounded by desk a bit. Absolutely no offense intended, you've done a great job drawing that out, but the way you have it designed looks like it would be just terrible to sit and work at--you'd have only one point of the desk near you, poking you in the gut every time you try to use the rest of the desk. Just my opinion, but I'd reverse that curve; have you mocked it up with cardboard on some sawhorses and tried to actually sit at it and see how it feels?

Good luck!

[Adam Webster]

Dave, you bring up a good point and appreciate it. In my situation and my use of the desk I don't think that it would be too much of an issue, as when I use the computer I don't really need a lot of desk space at my direct disposal, mainly the keyboard and mouse and thats about it. I don't mind moving the chair to get to another part of the desk.

I've designed it to arc outwards more for aesthetics more than anything else. But upon thinking about your comments I may decrease the length the arc actually protrudes out. Might make up a cardboard cut out like you say and try it.

Thanks