David's
Compact Computer Desk

Our first task of the day is to glue and clamp the pieces of the bottom plate.  Once the glue is set up a bit I'll remove the clamps and scrape off the glue squeeze-out before it hardens.

I have reservations about the way this bottom plate is designed; The back edge carries a groove into which the back panel slots, the front edge fastens to the door panel with hinges.  There is no allowance for seasonal wood movement.  I would have designed this piece like the side panels and door (frame & panel construction) so the majority of the panel could expand and contract as needed without moving critical joinery.

Once the bottom plate is prepared I sand it to finished thickness to smooth it all out.

Then I use the big cross-cut sled to trim both of the plates' ends to length and make them square to the long sides.  Then we get to the tricky stuff.

To make sure things line up as they should I stand the bottom plate up and press it against the rip fence, then lay a good steel rule along the outside edge of the plate and extend it up next to the dado head I mounted in the saw.  I use this rig to set the fence so the outside edge of the dado head teeth are exactly even with the outside edge of the bottom plate.  When that's done I remove the plate and ruler...

...and use this set-up to mill grooves into the side panels where the bottom plate and top rails will attach.

Using the plate to set-up for the cut instead of measuring means that the bottom plate will fit perfectly even if it did not come out precisely the intended thickness - like if I had to sand it an extra couple of passes to get it smoothed out properly and it ended up 1/32" thinner than planned.  Ahem.

To mill the bottom plate and top rails to fit into these grooves, I use the grooves I just cut in the side panels to set the height of the dado head, then attach an auxiliary face to my rip fence (so I don't chew up my good fence face) and set the fence so the teeth of the dado head just barely touch the auxiliary face.

Now I can cut a rabbet along the ends of the bottom plate and top rails.  A rabbet is like a groove except that it runs along the edge of the board.  This leaves a lip sticking out, and that lip will slide into the grooves I just cut in the side panels.  Time to do some sanding.

Once the parts are sanded I dry fit them to see if they all fit together as they should.  I use clamps to draw all the parts together tightly and make sure the joints close up snug.

When working off a commercial plan -- especially one out of a magazine -- it is not at all uncommon to find errors that were allowed to creep in.  But in this case, everything fits just as it should.  Yay!!

The big top plate of this desk will mount to the case by screws driven up through the top rails from inside the case, and to allow the plate to move with atmospheric changes, the rear screw holes have to be elongated into slots.  Also, to keep these screws from interfering with mounting the cubby hole assembly later on, I need to counter-bore the screw holes to set them below the surface.  So I do all that now.

I use a Forstner bit just a hair larger in diameter than the washer-headed screws I will use to mount the top plate to bore the shallow counter-bores; a single, round hole in the front, where the top plate will be fixed and immovable and elongated holes in the center and back rails to allow for movement of the top.

Then I chuck up a 3/16" twist drill and use the dimples left by the center spur on the Forstner bit as a guide to drill the rest of the way through the rails for the screw shank.  This completes work on the top rails.

The boys will need to be able to run cables and power cords out of the desk case to an outlet and to accessories like a printer, so I trace around a metal grommet where I want the cords to exit.  I'll bore that hole with a large Forstner bit when I drill the rest of the holes that are coming up.

Those would be for mounting the drop front hinge/supports.  As I'm laying out the location for these hinges, I notice that the hinges to not lay out to a full 180° like the should -- at least the specification sheets I downloaded before ordering them showed that the gadgets DO open out to 180° so the drop front will be level with the desk case bottom.  But, I'll press on and see what happens.

To mount the hinges I have to notch a section of the bottom plate and the door to make a recess for the hinge barrel.  I lay that out and define the ends of the recess with a very fine tooth saw.

Then I remove the waste with a chisel.  After the first, rough "chop" I refine the shape with lighter shaving cuts.

With that done I can lay the hinges in place and determine the exact location of the screw holes, mark those with a center punch and take the bottom plate and door to the drill press to drill all the needed holes.

With screws installed the door still does not lay flat like it should -- I pretty much expected this, the hinge support is heavy duty enough that I didn't expect it to "stretch".  I'm not happy with this so I e-mailed Rockler to inquire about getting another pair.  I e-mailed instead of calling so I could send this photo of the problem.  I have plenty of things I can be doing while I wait for them to resolve this issue.

I got the following reply from customer support the following afternoon:
Hi Doug,
I've checked our stock on these and am finding that they are all made in this manner. I regret that we don't have one flatter than this for me to send out.

Steve
Technical Support
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware

So I'll begin searching for a similar product from another source.  David specified that he does not want support chains or arms, so this type of combination hinge/support seemed perfect for the job -- and it would have been if they'd been manufactured to comply with the specification sheet posted with the product.

Since I'm not sure how this stumbling block will work out I'm not going to glue the case together yet.  So I'll update this situation and close this topic when we mount the door.

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