Recently designed and built a desk for an auction. I took it to a local competion and damn near got best of show with it. Anyway, here's what some 30-40 hours of work can render with a good shop and some effort. Of the few images I have (battery in the camera was almost dead, could take many) this one shows the structure best. The desk is quite simply massive. The top is over 6 feet long by 3.5 feet wide....throw in that its 1-7/8 in thick and you have a single piece that accounts for almost half the weight of the entire thing. The desk rests on eight solid cedar posts that were cut and planed to size. All of the post started out at huged chunks of unfinished lumber almost twice the size they are now. The panals of the desk are 3/4 in thick oak. They all fit into 3/4 in deep "grooves" cut into the cedar posts and are held there with glue. The fitting and cutting took most of the time that went into this project. They had to be almost perfect and accurate to 1/16th of an inch for rigidity and sizing. If a single cut was off, none of the others would have fit properly. The scarey part was it was done by hand the old fashion way....a mallet and chisel. Saying my hand was sore after poundung through wood for 3 hours strait doesnt quite describe how much that sucked. Anyone who has worked with a softwood like cedar would know that cutting things like that can be a pain. In the end, the only metal hardware used was the screws that attached the top to the body of the desk and the handles. Every surface was sanded and finished. The top recieved some trim treatment and a faint gloss treatment. Its incredably smooth and was my favorite aspect of the desk. This is a pic of the desk with its blue ribbon. This image shows the rear of the desk. All of the panals were finished with trim added. You can see that the middle panal does not go all the way up to the underside of the top. This is to allow for cables to pass through and avoid drilling/cutting holes in the top. You can see some damage to the leg on the right sustained during damaged to the competition. Here's two money shots of the top: I left the top somewhat with its natural textures and you can see the semigloss I mentioned before. I spent 4 days designing and drawing plans, cut lists, and various trim styles. After than, I made a 3d model (stolen in my MuVo) to make sure it would work. It was fairly simple on paper but somewhat harder when it came to assembly. All the above shots where taken just before it hit the auction block. Material costs totaled around $375US and it sold for $610. Using a rough scale, the desk weighs in at 375lbs...I have no idea how the little computer science teacher that bought it is going to move it. I gave all the money the desk made to the friend that funded the entire project to repay the cost (plus the interest on his now melted master card) and help with recouping the cost from some other projects (not mine) that fell through. Overall, I learned alot from doing this project. Despite the time I spent planning, it really wasn't enough. Mistakes where made which I was lucky enough to by able to fix without cost. I have plans for my next desk in the rough stages and will probably begin construction in a few months after I repair some tools and get some cash for materials. Questions/comments?
