I've hated my desk since about month 2 of using. It looked cool in the store but just wasn't what I needed. And I've expaned my computer setup quite a bit since I bought it, so I decided to make a desk that would last the test of time. Here's my old desk as I type this log: It's not turrable but it isn't anything special. Anyways I have a friend who's very wood with wood working, I'm not bad but he's way better. Anyways I asked him if I could use his shop for my project, he said he'd love to help me and thus this build begins. I did some rough sketchup models: The plan at first was a solid maple desk. However plans changed and it turned into a solid maple desk with 1" stripes of a darker wood However once I got to the lumber supply place plans changed once again. I saw a AMAZING piece of hard maple, 11' long, 11.5" wide and 1" thick. However I didn't buy it that day, I picked up some purple heartwood, the darker wood in that design. That was Tuesday, I couldn't stop thinking of that 11' beauty sitting in that shop. I couldn't stop Wednesday because they were close and Thursday I had other things to do after work. So tonight, I stopped there and picked it up, it was even more amazing once I really started looking at the grain, figures and coloration. I KNEW I had to have the glorious piece of lumber. I was even a bit sad that I have to cut it in half, since boards like this are just not common anymore. Here are the boner shots: How my desk is going to look, I cannot in my right mind cut those boards anymore than they already have SOME of the figures in the wood No dye used, it's called purple heartwood for a reason More figures Remember, that wood has barely been touched by machinery and is no where near finished. Once it's sanded and finished....... I don't even know what I'll do More epicures to come
MOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOARMOAR. I just came back from my first experience with Reddit. This is exactly what I need to get myself under control.
Not a huge or exciting update but I got the wood planed down to semi-final thickness using a planer and a large area surface sander. The large surface sander is like a planer but it uses sand paper instead of knife blades. It REALLY helped reduce chip outs, and since it's a very curly maple with tight grain and the grain going every where, it wouldn't have been possible without one. But we do have all the edges jointed and ready to rout in a glue joint. Like I said not really all that exciting: Another update next weekend
I was worried about what I might see here based on the title, so I waited a bit. No one locked the thread, so I figured it was safe. Nice materials. Did you get enough to do a matching computer? You should. That would be righteous.
That's why I have the "hardwood desk build" at the backend of the title I could always buy more wood, but I have a few other wood projects I'm working on in the meanwhile. Maybe next summer
Well, two weekends ago, I was sick. Nothing to bad but I just didn't feel like working on it. And last weekend, I focused on some other projects. So this weekend was time to start up again. Very nice router table, took around 25 minutes to get set up and ready to run my desk: Pretty aggressive router bit, but it makes an amazing glue joint: All clamped up. We did have to redo one glue joint but it wasn't totally our fault. The maple boards are cupped so when aligning with the purple heart we were getting an edge/bump. We moved the bit up .035" to get the boards closer to level with eachother. If we hadn't it would have added hours of sanding and inconsistency due to the nature of sanding (the less sanding the better). I also learned something new about wood glue. Get the joint drenched in glue, then when clamping, get as much out as you can without deforming the wood. Glue is the weakest part of the joint. Glue works by raising the wood grain, after than the wood grain interlocks with each other, so the glue really doesn't do anything. Also, don't be afraid to wipe down glue joints with a WET rag. Drench the glue joint in water and wipe off to get as much glue off the table top/surface = less sanding. Small boring updated, but an update none the less ;D
Very nice. What's the cutaway on the right side for? Interested in where this is going... Sent from my HTC Desire HD using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2
love the woody look, and regarding GMC i think your eyes are playing tricks with you, enlarging the picture and playing with contrast abit and there dosent seem to be a cutout (think it's just the lighting and grainy picturequality that makes it look abit like a cutout, or maybe it is, but no I dont think so)
You know, handplanes are a lot quicker than sanding, and leave a better surface when done correctly (You may have accidentally stumbled upon my other hobby here ) Also, not sure I agree with your gluing statements... but I only use Titebond II or Titebond III so you may have different results with whatever you're using. This is something that's been beaten to death in the woodworking communities. There's been quite a bit of testing that shows the glue bond is stronger than the wood it is bonding, and the joint usually breaks out wood from one piece rather than the glue itself failing between boards. The glue sticks to itself best, and the way it holds so well is by filling the pores in the wood, then holding on to itself along the joint edges. I've never had any issues gluing long grain to long grain, even with out any specific glue joints. I just use my jointer plane (Stanley #7) and get both edges straight and flat, put an even layer of glue on both sides (using a foam brush, or rubber roller to spread it evenly) and then clamp with enough force to close any gaps in the joint, and that's it. Anyway... the desk is looking good. I really like the contrast between the Purpleheart and Maple. Hopefully you can make some good progress, though the weather might heat up a bit for a little while... I think, like Balder stated, that it's just a combination of the lighting, the background, and looks like some spacers under the bar clamp that make it look like a cut out
I agree with the others...love the contrast in wood. When a beautiful piece of wood is found, it's hard to not want to build something out of it! And man, really having to watch my phrasing without going in the gutter...
Agreed with that... I found a beautiful piece of poplar last week that I had to buy... I don't know what I'll use it for yet, but the grain and color in it was gorgeous, so I added it to the other boards I was already buying...
hand-planing is something I want to learn but just not on this on this desk, I'd hate to mess it up. Plus this wood has some curry and some tiger stripes, and I'm not sure how well a hand plane would work (I'd hate to get chip outs). I didn't say a glue joint wasn't stronger than just a piece of wood (I've tested scrap pieces may times, all break on the wood, almost never the joint), I was just saying that the glue isn't what provides the mechanical force that bonds the pieces together. The way it was explained to me was glue raise the wood grain, allowing the wood grain of each piece to come together (think of your fingers interlocking), then the glue dries and locks the grain from each piece of wood. Then again he may be wrong As for glue joints, just a jointed edge would have been fine but the router didn't take too long to setup and did help align things during glue up. Thanks for the comments everyone, I'll try to get better pictures next time. Every time I go to work on it, I forget to bring a real camera and have to use my itouch.
This has got to be one of the lamest projects logs. It's me taking bad itouch pictures of wood Anyways, I started sanding today. 1 1/2 hours later everything is smooth from the large area surface sander (uses 60 grit). When sending stuff through the LASS, it leaves streaks of sanding marks which are kinda hard to get out. I got up to 80 grit but there is still a lot to do, especially around the glue joints since they weren't absolutely flush (~0.015" difference between panels) But things are starting to look really nice. As you can see THIS is why I picked the maple: There are some unique parts, which I don't mind since it's a natural wood product
