David's
Compact Computer Desk

In this step we will do things to change the blocky, clunky, shape of the base we just built to be more elegant and stylish without getting into a lot of artistic froo-fooism.  Ready?  Let's get started.

The first thing to do is to take the dry-fitted base in and set the completed top cabinet onto the base and measure the projections on all sides to be sure the measurements were correct and to be sure the base is square.  Looks good.

To lay out the arches, I need to whip up a fairing stick.  This is just a strip of thin, evenly grained stock that gets strung like an archery bow, except that it's adjustable.  with this device I can set-up and lay-out all the arches on the base rails and spreaders.

First I place lay-out marks on the pieces as to where the ends and the center of the arches are.  The center mark includes the depth of the arch in from the edge.

Then I set the fairing stick to pass through all three lay-out marks, hold it down on the wood and use a fine pencil to trace around the bowed fairing stick to make a consistently shaped arch.

I cut out the arch on the band saw, cutting just a bit to the outside of the line.

Then I remove the rest of the waste, taking it down to the line, with a drum sander fitted into the drill press.  This removes all saw tooth marks and burning and smooths the arch to the lay-out line.

The first step in shaping the legs is to photocopy the pattern from the magazine, glue the copy to a piece of card stock and, when the glue dries thoroughly so I don't gum up my good scizzors, cut the pattern piece out.

I use the pattern to lay-out the shape of the feet on the bottoms of the legs, cut them out on the band saw then shape and smooth them on the drum sander.

Now I chuck up a 1/8" round-over bit into the router table and remove the sharp corners from all visible edges of the base parts.

Construction sanding follows.  This removes pencil marks and smooths away any and all milling marks left by previous steps.  I will wait to do finish sanding until after the entire base is assembled.

Now I use a small brush to apply glue liberally to the inside of the mortises in the legs and a thin coat of glue to the tenons of the side parts.

I assemble the side pieces and hold them snug with clamps until the glue tacks up well.

Once it tacks up I apply glue to the front and back rails -- but NOT to the spreader -- and clamp the base together.  I am using the spreader only as a spacer right now, I have one more thing to do before the spreaders are mounted permanently.

There are a couple of ways I could attach the spreaders to the desk legs.  In many cases I would simply counter-bore screw holes through the outsides of the legs and run screws into the spreaders.  But, that would mean plugging screw holes in the light, curly cherry I chose for the legs, and that would be difficult to do well; the plugs would be pretty obvious.  And, screws run into end grain are easier to pull out than crews run into cross grain.  So I choose to use pocket screws for this assembly.

Pocket Hole Screws use a special washer-head wood screw with a long unthreaded portion of the shank.  The pocket hole itself is bored using a special jig and bit.  The bit is stepped to drill holes of two diameters at the same time.  The larger diameter bores a flat bottomed well that allows the screw to be sunk below the surface of the wood, the smaller is a shank hole which allows the screw to pass through the first piece and thread only into the second.  The result is that the two pieces will be drawn tightly together.

I draw in minimal lay-out lines, apply glue, place the spreader in position, pinch it in place with a clamp across the stretchers and insert the screws, drawing them up snugly.

The clamp can then be removed for the pocket hole screws will hold the joint together securely while the glue dries.

I then check the base to be sure it still sits level and the frame is square.  Then I can use wood putty to fill any nicks or tear-out.  I find something else to do while that dries hard.

Then I can finish sand the base.  I do nearly all of my finish sanding by hand; it gives me a chance to look the piece over very well, up close and personal.  I also feel the wood with my free hand as I work, I often catch areas that are slightly fuzzy or pitted that I could not see.  I'm not sure if that's because my fingers are unusually sensitive or if my eyes are unusually bad, but either way it's what I do and it works well for me.

Once it's all sanded to 150 grit I brush off the majority of the sanding dust, tack rag it to remove the rest and take it into the finishing room for it's first coat of lacquer.  I start by shooting the bottom of all parts.  The small blue pyramids lift the work up off the finishing table so they don't stick together and so finish doesn't creep between them and glob up, which would ruin the second or third coats

I spray on two full coats, allowing the lacquer to dry between coats, then scuff sand the finish with a fine sanding sponge to smooth it and apply a third coat.

Lacquer is a great finish for fine furniture.  When applied properly it results in a very clear, silky smooth finish that is reasonably durable and easily repaired when needed.  Any piece of furniture -- other than disposable furniture you buy to use for a couple of years then toss out -- WILL need some touching up eventually.  How long that is depends on how you treat it.  When it is time to have the finish freshened up, finishes like lacquer and shellac make the process simple and quick -- which also means cheap if you're paying a refinisher to do it.  Modern finishes like polyurethane and catalyzed lacquer are much more difficult to repair, especially if repairing a dent, burn mark or scratch where most or all of the finish in one spot is removed.  Getting the new finish to blend invisibly with the old finish in this case is very hard to do.  A dinged or scratched table top for example, may have to have the entire tabletop sanded off and refinished to prevent a white halo around the touched up area where the new and old finishes could not meld together like lacquer or shellac do.

Just a little something to keep in mind when selecting a finish.

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