David's
Compact Computer Desk

This project, like any of our projects, begins with a visit to our lumber stacks.  We maintain a supply of rough sawn lumber in a variety of species.  These species usually include, Red Oak, White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Poplar, Silver Maple, and Hickory.  On occasion we'll get the chance to buy something special and that will be added to our offering once it's dry and until it's gone.

If you are interested in our lumber sources, and grades Click Here to open a new page/tab with that information.  Close that page or tab to return here when you're done.

A while before I'm ready to start construction I go to the lumber stack and pull out boards that are well suited to the project coming up.  A detailed discussion of what this entails would be beyond the scope of this little article; it is something learned through experience… we call it “reading the wood”.  When I have what I need I move these boards into the workshop to acclimate.  If short enough, we will stand the boards vertically.  if not they will be loosely stacked on the floor.

Acclimation is just a snazzy word for adjusting to the new environment.  The environment inside my workshop is different from that outside (thank God).  As the wood’s water content and temperature equalize with that inside my workshop it may want to change shape.  This time I allow it to do so.  While this process is on-going, I can chunk the boards up into over-sized pieces from which the parts will be made, but I must allow them to finish acclimating before milling them to finished size.  If it changes shape after we mill it into finished parts, the parts become expensive firewood.

Once the lumber is inside and acclimated, I begin construction by picking through the lumber and tagging certain boards for certain parts.  In this case, I have one cherry board with some wonderfully wild, curly grain that I think will make super legs.  As I go along I will usually rough-out a lay-out on each board in pencil so I know where the cuts will be made to get the parts I need.

I can then cross-cut the boards to rough length and rip the pieces to rough width to yield parts blanks.  The leg pieces are very narrow, so I will cut them to width later.

The blanks are then run over our jointer a few times to flatten, straighten and smooth one wide face.  That done, I flip the piece up and run the just jointed face along the jointer fence to smooth and straighten an edge, and make that edge perfectly square to the jointed face.  I mark these surfaces with little triangles, pointing to the common corner.  This helps me remember which faces have been jointed for the rest of the milling steps.

Next I run the parts blanks through the surface planer, jointed face down on the bed so the planer's whirling knives will shave off a little wood from the rough face with each pass, making the rough face smooth and parallel to the jointed face.  I generally leave the blank just a bit fat at this point so I can use the drum sander later on to sand out the tiny ripples left by the planer and jointer.

Then I rip the parts to finished width on the table saw.  With the leg parts I rip each blank twice to get the two pieces that I will glue together to get a square stick of wood out of which I will mill the leg.

Glue-up of the blank is the last step.  These blanks are 1/8" oversized in each direction so I have some "meat" on each face to use in smoothing out any ridge at the joint line.  By keeping each piece paired up with and oriented to its mate I will get as nearly invisible glue lines as possible.  The clamps stay on long enough for the glue to grab, then can be removed because there is no stress in these joints trying to "pop" the joints apart.

Most of the parts blanks will use the same machining process to shape them to rough size, so there is little point in repeating them here for each set.  There are, however a couple of exceptions; the plate that will become the top of the desk is one.

This piece is one, large solid piece of wood, not made up of rails, stiles and a panel as all the other flat surfaces are.  In such a piece I like to keep glue joints to a minimum for improved grain matching, thus making the joint imperceptible.  I have one very nice, wide board set aside for this purpose.  This board has some great wavy gain across most of it's face, but along one edge it straightens out for the entire length of the board.  If I cross-cut the board and pivot the two straight grained edges together, the glue joint will be neatly hidden amongst the straight lines in the center of the board, and the wavy grain blends out toward the front and back from there.  This ought to be very nice.

The problem is that the board is wider than my jointer.

We elected to buy an 8" jointer rather than the less expensive and more common 6" version because we occasionally work with boards in the 6 to 8 inch range.  This one is 8½" wide.  So I remove the guard (NOT something I recommend you try at home, remember I am a trained professional on a closed track... or something like that), set the fence at the very back of it's range and set the infeed table for a very shallow depth of cut.  I make one pass, with the concave face down and my pressure back next to the fence.

That helps to knock off any stand-up corners and high spots in the board, but it also leaves a wide ridge on the outer edge where the knives could not reach.  So I flip the board around end for end and joint it again in the same manner to remove the ridge -- which it does, but it also leaves a new ridge along what is now the outer edge.  However, after a few light passes in this way the bottom of the board is flat enough to sit solidly on a flat surface, there IS a gap caused by the ridge, but the rest of the face is flat.

I can now take these two boards and run them through the surface planer to flatten the upper faces.  Once those are flat and smooth I flip the boards over and plane the jointed face to remove the ridge and bring both wide faces parallel.  Now I can joint the one edge on each board that will make the glue joint.

I lay out the two boards and mark the locations where the clamps need to be to provide even clamping pressure.  I alternate clamps; one below, one on top to distribute any "pulling" force so the wide board will not cup under clamping pressure.  Also, because I'm using black iron pipe clamps, I place a tab of masking tape on the pipes where the glue line will cross the clamp.  The glue tends to react with the oils used in making the black iron and will make black spots on the wood that go deep and are difficult to sand out.  A small tab of tape to prevent the glue from getting to the iron will prevent this.

I apply the glue just a little too enthusiastically in this case and get a fair bit of squeeze-out.  But that will scrape off easily and I will be sanding away a fair bit of wood to be sure I end up with a flat, smooth top.

The other exception I mentioned earlier are the filler panels that will become the centers of the sides, back, cabinet floor and the door of the desk.  Whenever possible I like to make these up by resawing a thick board and book-matching the resulting pieces to get a particularly striking panel.  Here is an explanation of re-sawing:

Resawing is the process by which we take thick lumber and make it into thin lumber.  While we could simply surface plane thick lumber to the proper thickness, this wastes a lot of material if we can get at least two of the pieces the desired thickness out of a board.  Most of the panels we make for use in frame and panel construction are 3/8" finished thickness.  A typical 4/4 board is 1" to 1 1/8" thick, therefore we can resaw it into two boards that can be planed smooth on both sides and still be the required 3/8" thick.  Plus, if used in a wide panel, these two pieces of wood will be very well matched in color and grain, making it easy to make an invisible joint.

The first step is to trim the edges of the board.  We need to be able to see markings made on the top edge, the bottom edge needs to slide easily across the bandsaw table.  In some cases we need the full width of the board, so we trim as little as possible from each edge, in other cases we need to cut a wide board down to size.  In these cases, we'll set the cut-off piece aside for use in another part.

Next we set a marking gauge so that the single point is at just a hair less then half the thickness of the board.  Marking from both side of the board results in a skinny alley down the middle of the board.  I find this easier to see and to guide the blade while sawing.  And since rough lumber is not always the same thickness the full length, this alley will widen out where the board gets fat, allowing me to see where I need to steer to keep the cut centered.

While one of us is marking the boards, another can be installing the resaw blade and setting up the saw.  Most bandsaw blades have fine teeth that, although they are sharp, are so small they pose little threat.  But a resaw blade has large, widely spaced teeth that are wickedly sharp.  Since blades are coiled for compact storage, coiling and uncoiling a resaw blade can be like wrestling with a shark -- wear leather gloves!  Once the blade is installed and tensioned, set the guide bearing positions.

A special fence attachment is needed for resawing because the blade will tend to drift off to the left or right as the grain in the board changes.  Running the board flat against the regular fence works well for cutting thin lumber into strips but does not work for resawing thick lumber.  The tubular attachment allows the operator to steer the cut to compensate for blade drift, yet keeps the board perpendicular -- if one uses care to keep the top and the bottom of the board against the fence.  Carelessness will allow the bottom of the board to creep out away from the fence and produce wedge shaped boards that will probably be useless because one edge will be too thin.  If that happens, we start over with another board.  Remaining observant prevents wasting time and materials.  Then it's time to lubricate the blade with a non-staining oil.  We want to prevent residue from building up on the blade -- which will cause burning and premature dulling of the blade -- but we can't use anything that will leave stains on the wood.  I like the original Pam vegetable cooking spray for this.

In most cases, we split a board just once, but on occasion we will saw a real thick board into multiple thinner boards.  In either case, care must be used to leave enough wood that both faces can be surface planed to remove saw marks, or the rough surface of the board, and still have the thickness required for the part.  If we are making parts that will become a panel, then a little more must be left to insure that we can smooth the panel once all the pieces are joined together.

Removing the saw marks and smoothing the faces is the job of a surface planer.  Long, very sharp knives, spinning at a high speed inside the machine remove a small amount of wood on each pass.  Lower the cutters, flip the board over and run it through again.  Repeat until both faces are smooth and you have the board down to the required thickness.  A good planer and a skillful operator will yield lumber so smooth it requires little sanding, with both faces perfectly parallel to one another.

Once the pieces are resawn, jointed on one face and one edge, and surface planed to 1/16 to 1/18 inch over the finished thickness (depending on number of pieces in a panel and quality of finish after planing) the pieces are glued and clamped together to make an oversized blank for each panel.  Grain direction and pattern is critical.

When these blanks are done they are added to the cart - strapped around its base - completing the set of parts blanks.  We now have all the pieces needed to build this desk roughed out and ready for refining into parts.

Project Home