David's
Compact Computer Desk

We start this step by taking the panel blanks we have previously glued up and trimming them to size.  We start by cutting the long sides.  When I glued up this panel I was careful to keep the ends of the boards lined up well so I'd have a fairly decent edge to start trimming with.  I run that edge along the table saw fence and take off just enough to even up the ends on the other side, then I set the fence in 1/8" and flip the panel to trim the edge that was previously against the fence.  To be sure I've gotten both edges straight and parallel I'll repeat this a couple of times before cutting one edge to finished width.

I do this with each panel.

Then I set up the big miter fence and use it to trim the short ends so they will be square to the long edges and the blank is the proper length.

And finally I sand each blank to the proper thickness on the big drum sander.  Because of the open end on this machine, a 16" drum can sand panels up to 32" wide.  The smaller panels go through in a single pass, the two wider panels take two passes on each setting.

Now that the panel blanks are milled to size, I need to cut the rabbets along the edges that will sit in the grooves in the rails and stiles.  The tongue that is formed is not centered on the edge of the panels because the filler panel needs to be flush with the inside faces of the rails, and set in from the outside faces.  So I set-up the saw for the first pass.

I use a piece of scrap wood to make a test cut and look at the depth of the cut and the distance in from the edge (end on this scrap piece).  I measure these with a very precise ruler.  If adjustments are needed, I adjust and make another test cut.  When it's right I can proceed.

Making VERY sure I'm cutting on the proper face of the panel, I run each of the four edges along the fence, holding the blank down firmly against the table saw top.  When I am done, I have outlined the shoulders of the rabbets.

To complete the rabbets I have several options: I could stand the panels up on edge, mount a tall fence on the saw to support the panel and complete the rabbet, or for a small rabbet like this I could have mounted a dado head to make the full cut in one pass, or I can do what I chose to do and simply scoot the fence in a little, make another pass to widen the groove I just cut, scoot the fence in a little more and finish up the rabbets.  Because there are only four panels to do I decided against the other two methods because of the added set-up and tune time that would be required.  Doing it this way I use the same set-up I used to make the most critical cut, then just nibble away the waste.  Because I mounted an ATB&R saw blade - the R stands for Raker, which is a square tooth - the kerf the blade cuts is flat bottomed and smooth.

When I'm done, it looks like this.  The paper thin fin of wood along the outermost edge is left because I chose to to chew up my rip fence by allowing the saw blade to touch it, and the resulting waste will come off very easily by just running a 100 grit sanding block along the edge of the rabbet at a 45° angle, pushing the fin over a little and disconnecting it from the work piece.  Because I will be sanding these edges anyway, even this is not added work.

Bad picture, sorry.  Next I sand the inner edges of the rails and stiles and the insides of the grooves.  I use a rubber sanding block, hold it flat on the grooved edge and sand just enough to remove saw marks.  To smooth the insides of the grooves with sandpaper cemented to a 1¼" wide and 12" long piece of plywood.  Removing burrs and fuzz here helps the parts to slide together smoothly later on.

I take each frame apart, sand it, and test fit the panels into the rails and stiles.  The parts are marked for orientation, as is the panel.  I keep adding parts and checking the fit until the panel is fully reassembled.  When one frame and panel is done I work on the next one.

Then I check it for square by measuring across the diagonals.  The "ears" on the stiles will be cut off after final assembly.

When the two side panels and the door are dry fitted (no glue) they look like this.  All squared up nicely, the filler panels fit perfectly and the panels lay flat on the table saw.  Can't ask for much more than that!

The final step it to fit the back panel to the grooves cut into the side, rear stiles.  No framing around this panel, it will simply tongue into grooves in the parts that surround it.

When I took this shot I had the door laying upside down, with the recessed outer surface up and didn't notice it until after formatting and posting the photos and while writing this article.  It will in fact have a smooth, level inner surface just like the sides do.

Now that it all fits, I take it all apart again, sand it again and put it back together -- this time with glue in the joints.  But, before I sand, I do a tricky little thing that helps to insure the panel won't crack: I cut off it's ears.  The panel needs to float in the frame so it can expand and contract (just a little) as humidity changes.  The glue joints are at the corners, where the rails and stiles meet.  Gluing the panel to the rails at these points would mean the panel could not contract as the weather dies out and the panel would split somewhere.  To prevent these corners from being contaminated by glue squeeze-out from the rail to stile joint, I trim the corners off leaving a small air space inside the joint for glue squeeze-out to squeeze into if needed.

Then I apply glue to all mating surfaces of rails and stiles, assemble the panel, and apply clamps.  I measure the diagonals again and adjust the clamps, if needed, to pull the panel into square.  When the glue dries, I'll trim away the excess length of the stiles for perfectly mated corners.

This process is repeated for each of the side panels, then we are ready to prepare the top and bottom assembly for addition to our casework.

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