Interesting furniture find - Roll top desk and a story too

mkepke

Mark
Senior User
So there I was in the Fuquay Restore looking for some cabinets I could repurpose into a base for my CNC. Finding nothing (selection was barebones), I swung through the furniture section just in case.

Spotted a medium sized roll top desk among the mostly pressboard flat-pack furniture. Eldest son has been campaigning for a desk for his room, so I looked it over. Hmm, this thing is interesting:
* solid red oak throughout, except the drawer bottoms are 1/4" oak ply
* frame and panel construction throughout
* even the unseen 'secondary wood' surfaces are solid oak
* the drawers ride on dust frames.
..but there are some flaws..
* there are some 'oops' cuts in a couple of the raised panels. You can see where the cutter went slightly deeper than it should have.
* the glue-up of some of the drawer joints - half-blind dovetails in solid oak - is sloppy. You can see the tell-tale voids on the inside of a few drawers.
* there are ugly drywall screws attaching the drawer sides to drawer-backs - all in solid red oak, mind you.

Anyways, good enough for a student desk, so I pay the store and take the piece home.

Now the fun begins:

*After* getting it into the house, I realize it is one bloody inch wider than the door opening to the room it needs to go in. Taking the door off the hinges isn't going to do it. This is a remove-the-door-frame kind of problem.

While contemplating my options and mentally checking my inventory of Sawzall blades, my wife reminds me if it goes into his room, it needs to come out at some point. Do I want to remove a doorframe twice? No I do not. Time for Plan B.

Looking at the construction, the top is attached to the carcass with screws in plugged holes. That presents the option of removing the top and making the desk 2" narrower. I tell myself its an opportunity to fix a design flaw anyways: the top is a 31"wide glue up of red oak boards, screwed directly through the top into the carcass. If I pull the top, I can replace the screws with figure 8 clips or wooden buttons to allow movement.

My wife is very understanding of the need to perform furniture surgery in the middle of the living room.

So I bust out my cordless drill and impact driver and proceed to drill out the plugs and remove the 2.5" screws.

There were.. a lot of screws. Not all of them were obvious.
IMG_1251.JPG

If you need this many 2.5" screws to attach a tabletop, we need to talk.
IMG_1248.JPG


Here's the kicker: there were so many screws around the perimeter that the top was nice and flat. Bad design right? But when the roll top hutch is in place, every screw hole is hidden. And just for good measure, every screw hole was plugged. The maker even took the time to ensure the grain on the plugs was properly aligned.

I have not found a makers mark anywhere so far. The conclusion I've come to is that is probably a darn nice home made desk. I think a furniture factory wouldn't use solid oak throughout and they wouldn't have let the 'bad' raised panels go into the final piece, nor the sloppy work on the drawers.

Drywall screws and sloppy holes seem to accentuate the quartersawn grain in the drawer sides, wouldn't you agree?
IMG_1254.JPG
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Nice find. Just curious. After taking the top off could you move the desk into the room in two pieces then reassemble? That seems simpler than cutting the top down to <30".
 

Jim M.

Woody
Corporate Member
Very cool story, thanks for sharing. With that many screws holding the the top on it's definitely a shop made piece. I'm sure that desk was once someone's pride and joy, kudos to you for rescuing.
 

mkepke

Mark
Senior User
Nice find. Just curious. After taking the top off could you move the desk into the room in two pieces then reassemble? That seems simpler than cutting the top down to <30".
Hey Jim (creasman) - to be clear, no sawing of the anything was contemplated. I just removed the top in order to make the piece a little narrower. It worked. The carcass went through the doorway with maybe 1/4" clearance - just like I planned. :rolleyes:

Jim M. - I don't look at it as a rescue - a good piece deserves a good home - but I can definitely empathize with the choices of the maker. Some of those choices are not ones I would have made but I can feel the intent and the labor that went into making the desk. Also a good reminder: sign your work.

-Mark
 

Bas

Recovering tool addict
Bas
Corporate Member
Great story Mark. I've seen a piece like this once or twice, where parts were done really well and other parts were sloppy. Who knows what the story behind this desk is? Perhaps it started out nice, things were delayed, and the maker was in a hurry to make it functional so he or she just screwed the drawers together. At any rate, nice save!
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Mark, very nice find and a very interesting write-up. That said, you have me thinking what someone in the future may have to say about pieces I have made? In the back of my mind I have always assumed that my projects would remain in the family (kids, grandkids, etc,), but who knows. What I do know is that I have never built a "perfect" anything...over the years I have become more proficient at hiding my mistakes, but the mistakes or poor craftsmanship is still there. The other issue is that I won't remain totally anonymous - I typically brand each piece with my name. Oh well...I hope the positives will outweigh the negatives, as is the case with your find.
 

Bas

Recovering tool addict
Bas
Corporate Member
I typically brand each piece with my name. Oh well...I hope the positives will outweigh the negatives, as is the case with your find.
I plan to brand my failures with the names of famous woodworkers - Krenov, Nakashima, Abram, drw. That should confuse a lot of future generations :)
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
I plan to brand my failures with the names of famous woodworkers - Krenov, Nakashima, Abram, drw. That should confuse a lot of future generations :)
Bas, I never, ever thought my name would be mentioned in concert with the very well-known craftsmen you cited, thank you! While I hope your failures are few, I'll claim them.:cool:
 

Bear Republic

Steve
Corporate Member
Great find and fun story time! I've been to the Raleigh, Fuquey, and Clayton Restores in the last month or so. Its probably because of everyone doing home projects but the availability of cabinets is pretty sparse. I would think that people would be doing remodeling so that there would be an influx of new cabinets. I hope that its not because of there isnt much of a donation writeoff anymore. The Raleigh Restore used to have lots to choose from and good prices, not any more. Pricing has gone up a little also.
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
Great find and fun story time! I've been to the Raleigh, Fuquey, and Clayton Restores in the last month or so. Its probably because of everyone doing home projects but the availability of cabinets is pretty sparse. I would think that people would be doing remodeling so that there would be an influx of new cabinets. I hope that its not because of there isnt much of a donation writeoff anymore. The Raleigh Restore used to have lots to choose from and good prices, not any more. Pricing has gone up a little also.

I think the lack of availability of cabinetry may be attributed to all the home-improvement shows where they show everyone taking a sledgehammer to their cabinets.
 

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