Another Desk

[jeff...]

Last year many of you helped me design a white oak desk with quatersawn sycamore drawers for my daughter. It turned out great and my daughter loves it. Thank you all very much :icon_thum

I'm going to build another one but out of QS Black Locust and I kinda like the style of the one you all helped design.

I actually drew up general measurements this time, instead of winging it like the last one. The reason I didn't draw up any detailed plans is I would like some input for improvement. Although I feel version 1 will outlive me and be passed on from my daughter to my grand children, I would like to improve version 2.

I was really inspired by visiting Don's rocker shop and it seems what I build has this boxy feel to it. Granted the desk style I'm going with is a box, but do you have any suggestions how to soften the boxy look up a bit?

Here's a few pics to jog your memory - please provide improvement input

Thanks

 

[DaveO]

Jeff, you could make arched top frame and panels. You could make bow front drawers. You could throw some curves into the top like I did on this desk (it is much more modern in styling than what you might be looking for) -

Or possibily some stringing and inlays to add some curvature to the piece?????


Dave

 

[BumoutBob]

Very nice desk.:eusa_clap
Will the new desk be used with a computer? If so you might want to think about a design to house the components and keyboard. Cables are messy and a tray to route them helps keep them in order.

 

[sapwood]

I think it looks great Jeff :eusa_clap

To get rid of the "boxy feel", buy a lathe ;-)

Roger

 

[jeff...]

I was thinking about adding a little here and there to the frame. Have not decided on what to do with the drawer fronts yet. Flat panel drawers are well flat panel drawers.

Here's some very loose sketches of the front and then two different thoughts on the back drawer hole panel. I have a local customer who buys lumber from me and has one of those fancy C&C carving machines. I think I could get him to hog out the outline of dogwood branch and oval border for me then I'll finish it off by hand.

Bob it sure will be used as a computer desk - I was thinking about making up some sliding flip down drawer front where the pencil drawer should be. But I might just leave the keyboard and mouse on the top like it is now on the old desk I have.

There will also be a shelf 12" deep shelf unit that sits on the top but first things first, build the desk...

Please tell me your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[Joe Lyddon]

Jeff,

I think your desk is very VERY nice!

It's hard to improve on perfection...

Your construction appears to be sound and strong.

Perhaps some inlays on & around the top... with possibly a leather top section embedded? Would only add more elegance... If you want to keep it simple & down to earth, don't change a thing! :lol:

 

[jeff...]

Joe far from perfect :slap:, I really like the leather idea (always like leather :lol. Never thought about that. When started playing with French curves, the possibilities seem endless. I want to settle in on a unique panel design, I always felt like something was missing.

Here's a few more panel designs V-Groove and carving. The carving looks a little to "soft" to me and doesn't look like it belongs on a desk, not a guys desk anyways. The batman V-Groove looks a little to aggressive (evil boss). But the oval V-Groove looks pretty good to me at this point. Also the problem with the carving is, I would need either expand it to fit the rest of the panels or I would need to figure out how to box in a few standard sized ones into the wider panels like the back and sides. The V-Groove however lends it's self pretty close to a standard width of around 5 inches give or take around a 1/4" and should work out pretty well. After I T&G the boards to allow for movement.

Thanks for the tips, I promised myself I'm going to get started this week so trying to think ahead, make some plans this time so I can atleast chalk up the lumber for rough sizing.

Please feel free to comment, last year when I built my daughters desk many members helped with a lot of the design. That's what makes this site great.

Thanks

 

[JackLeg]

Looks like a great start, Jeff. Keep us posted on the WIP.

 

[Joe Lyddon]

Jeff,

If, for another girl, I'd go with the flowery twigs, etc. design... Looks really cool!

Maybe taking the same design & using it on the drawer fronts in some manner would work... (?) ... to complete the symetry... ;-)

Whatever you do, I'm sure it will be very NICE...

Am looking forward to seeing it.

Happy New Years!!

 

[Dutchman]

Jeff,
Good job on the desk for your daughter.
You might consider eliminating the center back leg. If the desk is going to be used out in the middle of the room, it would look better without it. If you use a 3/4" back panel your top will not bow. If you want a framed look on the back, set your 3/4 back panel in and add some thin overlays to frame it out.

 

[Bas]

Here's a simple idea: Replace the two knobs on the wide drawer front with a large, single "wavy" pull. Like a slightly compressed sine wave. Something tasteful in a contrasting wood. It's not much, but it might help softening the look.

Beautiful desk BTW. I like it as it is......

 

[jeff...]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I worked a little on the dimensional (demented) drawings and learned some new Visio stuff... Anyways I resized the carcase so that 5" V-Groove T&G boards would fill in the gaps between the legs and top and bottom rails. This throws the top off a bit to 57 1/2 x 30 1/2 with a 3/4 overhang all the way around. But still darn close to 5' like I wanted it. 30 1/2 is a good width too since I plan on putting a 12" wide hutch on top of it one of these days, it'll give me lots of room for my desk junk.

I ran with Bas' idea on the handles and came up French curve handle that I think looks a lot better than the round wooden knobs I got at BORG for my daughters desk. I plan on doing some kind of inlaying the top with black walnut and QS sycamore, so I think the drawer pulls will also be made out of black walnut. I really like the leather idea Joe suggested, just need to figure out how to get it into the top without messing things up. It might have to wait till version 3. And Dave I'm trying out your idea with arching the top and bottom rails.

I'll be using black locust for the carcase construction, and QS sycamore for the drawer sides. I'll probably go to the BORG and pick up a sheet of 1/4 birch plywood for the drawer bottoms but I was thinking I might line the bottoms with felt, I'm undecided at the moment. DaveO offered to help me with the drawers because that's where I really struggle the most.

Anyways more drawings to glance at. I'm closing in on the dimensions and will start laying out the individual pieces, templates and cutting lists shortly. I think stretching out the top and bottom rail for the sides and knee hole back seems to work ok, doesn't it? It's just lengthening the French curve so I think it'll look ok?

I wished I would have be inspired by Don Patterson before I build my son's captians bed (BOX) I look at it now and think boy this curve or that curve sure would be a lot better.

Thanks

 

[DaveO]

Jeff, I really like the lines on this rendition. I think that is going to look great :icon_thum Just let me know when you're ready to tackle those drawers. The Elves will knock them out in no time :-D


Dave

 

[cskipper]

A CNC router????? Lots of scroll patterns available- single panels. repetitive panels or scenery across panels.

 

[jeff...]

A CNC router????? Lots of scroll patterns available- single panels. repetitive panels or scenery across panels.

Yeah he has a CNC router, makes some really cool looking stuff. But honestly I'm not into it much. It's machine carving, he can program the router while watching TV. Seems like it takes the "craftsman" out of it, if you know what I mean.

Well I cleaned out the shop today took out many trash cans of planer chips and made room around all the lumber I have stacked in there to work on the desk. I bought a new tablesaw blade, a new blade for the chop saw, installed new set of planer and jointer knifes. Tuned up the TS, chop saw, jointer and fixed a broken crank on the drill press. Took care of a little surface rust here and there. It' been a long time since I built anything in the shop, so I took a big part of the day getting things organized and cutting properly so I can get my sea legs on again.

No real progress other than I jointed and planed about 150 BF of QS Black Locust. Much to my surprise it's some really nice stuff. It all came from one 8' log that I cut back in the early summer and Scott kiln dried for me.

So far I can say this about Black Locust.
* It's about like working with a brick and smells like pumpkin pie when green, when dry has no unique smell.
* kinda has an open grain like ash and oak but weights about twice as much
* is orange in color with red streaks and black splotches here and there. Color changes from a cream to dark red as you walk around a clear finished board.
* Heartwood glows orange in the dark under a black light but around the knots it glows lime green.
* exhibits a narrow tight ray flake almost about the same as QS Cherry and not near as wide as red oak, let alone white oak.
* is a bear to joint and plan, burns easy if you don't keep the board moving at a slow steady rate.
* Can only skim plan (no more than 1/16") at a time, an 1/8 deep cut stop my planer dead in it''s tracks!
* Is by far the hardest wood I've worked with yet, it's some very tough stuff. Was tough to mill green, had to sharpen my band about every 50 BF and is even tougher when dry, I installed new blades and knifes and it's still slow going.

Here's a few pics...
endgrain - not sure how to count the growth rings on this one. They appear to be in groups of 3 - ain't never seen any growth rings like that before - really weird... DaveO???


Unsanded and unfinished ray flake and grain closeup.


A little shot of clear poly so you can get an idea of the color, grain and ray flake pattern. Depending on which angle you at when looking at the the board it changes color from a cream to a dark red.



Strange looking lime green stuff around knots - knots glow lime green and heartwood orange, under a black light, wild...


Leg stock jointed and ready gluing


Black locust is really "different".

Thanks

 

[Gofor]

* Heartwood glows orange in the dark under a black light but around the knots it glows lime green.

That wood didn't come from around one of them nukleer power plants did it!! And I thought all those black lights went out after the '60's. Peace, Brother!:rolf::rolf:

Go

 

[jeff...]

Been trying to shape the legs for the desk. I'm thinking I might need to invest in a good jack hammer. Why don't they make axe handles out of this stuff? Oh that's right because they would never break (silly me). Ash and hickory is like pine compared to black locust. BUT you know I'm pretty stubborn and at this point I refuse to let a little stick of wood get the better of me. I'll keep hacking away at this stuff till I'm satisfied. I'm a little to embarrassed to post any WIP pictures - I've got a mess on my hands let me smooth it out some first.

Thanks

 

[Gofor]

Been trying to shape the legs on the desk. I'm thinking I might need to invest in a good jack hammer. Why don't they make axe handles out of this stuff? Oh that's right because they would never break (silly me). Ash and hickory is like pine compared to black locust. BUT you know I'm pretty stubborn and at this point I refuse to let a little stick of wood get the better of me. I'll keep hacking away at this stuff till I'm satisfied. I'm a little to embarrassed to post any WIP pictures - I've got a mess on my hands let me smooth it out some first.

Thanks

Turn your log trailer upside on top of them and try Earl's method of draggin' 'em behind down the road. Should get em somewhat close.:rolf:

Go

 

[jeff...]

Turn your log trailer upside on top of them and try Earl's method of draggin' 'em behind down the road. Should get em somewhat close.:rolf:

Go

why didn't I think of that?

 

[cpowell]

Strange looking lime green stuff around knots - knots glow lime green and heartwood orange, under a black light, wild...



Thanks

"Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes
She's just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings

I'll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd;
Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves"


Flashback or what???

The QS look definitely reminds me of cherry.

I like the look of the plans Jeff, that's gonna be nice.


Chuck