Trimming the Cover of Desk #4

As Desk #3 nears completion and goes through periods of letting the finish dry, I started fitting the pieces of desk #4 together.  Walnut was the choice again of the future owner of this desk, and I must admit that I am really enjoying this wood.  Walnut planes and finishes quite nicely compared to white oak and to the sycamore used in the first desk.

Dry Fitting the Cover

I originally made the desk lid or cover the same width as the opening of the space in which it will fill.  Once I have the pieces all close to finish sanding, I dry fit the other pieces and lay the cover into the opening.  Typically, I need to trim the sides a bit just to get it to sit down in there.  Once I mark the locations of the pins used for hinges, I clamp the cover in a vise and use a plane to trim down both sides so that I have a strong 1/16 – 3/32 gap between each edge of the cover and the desk sides.

This has given me nice clearance, and should provide a little room for expansion if the pick up some humidity during the summer months.

Walnut Desk 1 With Back Slats

This morning I finished screwing on the back slats for the first walnut desk.  I picked up an additional 100 brass wood screws on Tuesday so that I could complete this project.  I find these are more difficult to locate these days, but Fastenal has proved to be a good source of phillips head brass screws.  They only sell them in packages of 50-100, but that quantity worked on this project of four desks.  Each desk requires 30 screws of one size just to put on the backs.

As mentioned in earlier blogs about these desks, the back slats in the original Stickley plan butted against one another.  I changed them to a ship-lap so that the expansion and contraction will not result in gaps showing between the slats.  Most people will have the desk backed up to a wall, and light would probably not be shining through like I saw it in the shop, but I like it much more.  Also warping is minimized with the pieces overlapping each other.

Walnut Desk 1 With Back Slats Front View

Stickley originally recommended “small round-headed screws” to hold the back in place.  Obviously, I deviated in more than one place from his plans, and I certainly did in this case too.  I am not a fan of round-headed screws, and I hate slotted screws.  I like to use power to drive screws, because the wrist just can’t handle putting in 30.  So, flat-head philips screws are used everywhere I need a screw.  But I picked brass just to dress it up a bit.

The pictures included in this blog give you an almost finished appearance for this desk.  Still to come is the pull, and a final sand and application of the finish.

When done, I will show more of the grain and details.

Walnut Desk #1 Glued

Desk #3, the first of the walnut desks got glue today.  I predicted last weekend that “I would get it glued this week”, and I was wrong.  Since Sunday here in Nebraska starts a new week, I missed my schedule.   But, it did get some glue today, and looks pretty decent.

I have the back pieces nearly ready to go on, so there is a good chance that I can have this desk finished by the end of next weekend.  You would think that my helper and I would be getting pretty good at this now since this was desk number three.

However, we almost made a critical mistake by not sitting it down on the floor for a closer look.  At that moment, I noticed that the tenons on the top shelf were not all the way through, and the shelf had a gap between it and the left side.  Fortunately, our 10 minutes open glue provided the precious minute I needed to get another clamp on there and tighten it down.

Hmmmm.  A magazine to which I subscribe uses a play on words for every title of every article, feature, tip, advertisement, and comment.  Well, maybe not quite all of those things, but I find them to be annoying when used constantly.  So forgive my title if you find it annoying.

My youngest daughter, the one who requested the crib, refuses to talk baby talk to her baby. She herself is very bright and talked in full sentences and mathematical equations in her first words.  I think…  Anyway, the experiment is underway to see if this baby can make a transition from baby to boy without any baby talk.  I think that Grandma and I might have to sneak in a few baby words when she is not looking just to be certain that Titus matures properly, and left incapable of forming those first syllables that everyone is waiting to hear — (your name here).

I am experimenting to see if silly titles get more or less comments.

Walnut Desk #1 Back Pieces Stained

Did I mention yet that I got the back slats sanded, fitted and cut for the back of the first walnut desk?  During the beautiful weather last weekend, I took the pieces outside and sanded them out there.  The dust blew everywhere, and no one cared.  For those of you living someplace where the weather did not get down to -20 this winter, a nice day is anything above freezing.  These were really nice days that reached the 60s and 70s.

I took a little bit more time with these pieces than I did on the other two desks.  Figuring that they are only seen on one side, and the other side is normally to the wall, I knocked the other desk back pieces out quickly.  As I mentioned in the previous article, I am reading one of Krenov’s books so you can’t just take shortcuts after reading his thoughts.  These fit well, and look good on both sides.

As of yesterday morning, one side of the backs are now stained.  A stained back, back stained, stain in the back.  Get it?