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Making a small desk for my wife

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Previous Back to: Projects26 Replies

Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Projects / Making a small desk for my wife

  • This topic has 26 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 6 months ago by Frank Joseph.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 27 total)
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  • Joe Kaiser
    13 October 2014 at 7:31 pm #119441

    We are going to be moving at the end of the month, and my wife wants a desk made for the new house. Well, really it is just going to be the desktop as we are re-using some legs.

    The wood is two 5 foot long, 11 inches wide, 2.25 inch thick slabs of cotton wood I got from a local sawmill. It is very rough cut, and it should provide as a good skill-building opportunity making sure it is straight, square, and flat. I am going to joint these together and the total width should be around 20 inches when done. A bit narrow, but it will work.

    I thought I was going to have to make due with my #4 smoother on this, but I managed to find a new-ish – I think it was made in the late 80’s or early 90’s – #5 at a salvage yard this past weekend. After a good 30 minutes making sure the sole was flat, it works great. That should help a bit I think.

    Seattle, WA

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    Dave
    13 October 2014 at 8:12 pm #119447

    Nice boards. If you don’t have them yet, make some winding sticks to help with the process of getting the boards flat and twist free.

    -Canada

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    Joe Kaiser
    13 October 2014 at 8:35 pm #119449

    I am going to make those today. I have a 1x2x24 piece of oak that i can split and it should work just fine

    Seattle, WA

    Settings
    Joe Kaiser
    13 October 2014 at 9:11 pm #119450

    I forgot to mention that the slabs are rift-sawn. I have never worked with anything cut like that, and am quite interested to see how it will move through the seasons

    Seattle, WA

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    Joe Kaiser
    26 October 2014 at 11:17 pm #120149

    I started to flatten the boards yesterday. Having never done it on something this big, I was a bit intimidating going in.

    We are in the middle of moving, so most of my stuff was packed away, but I figured all I needed is a surface and a plane. I pulled my saw horses out and #4 and started on the roughest face. Since my bench is covered in boxes, I wasn’t able to do an edge but that is OK. I went at this for 4 hours and wasn’t nearly finished. Below is 1 hour of the process sped up 150x

    For the other board I am going to need a more stable setup. Towards the end of the video you can see the board fell off, but luckily nothing was broken 🙂

    After we finish moving I will continue to square the two up. I still can’t get over how much work it was – good work though. The kind you feel satisfaction in.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_VCuHDDCo&feature=youtu.be

    Seattle, WA

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    david o’sullivan
    27 October 2014 at 12:13 am #120151

    hi jotato. iam just wondering if you have your plane set up for a scrub it will make your work much faster and easier .regards David.

    "we can learn what to do, by doing" Aristotle

    Settings
    Joe Kaiser
    27 October 2014 at 12:46 am #120152

    No. I do have another #4 that I plan on converting but everything is packed away right now. I well be doing that for next time

    Seattle, WA

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    Dave
    27 October 2014 at 1:33 am #120153

    How thick are those boards?

    -Canada

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    Joe Kaiser
    27 October 2014 at 2:19 am #120156

    One is 1 3/8 inches and the other is 1 3/4 inches. So I have a good amount of work to do on them

    Seattle, WA

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    cpetersen1970
    27 October 2014 at 2:29 am #120157

    Careful with cottonwood. It is so soft it is easy to put dents in it just by clamping it in your vice.

    Settings
    Joe Kaiser
    27 October 2014 at 2:44 am #120158

    Thanks. I noticed that 🙂

    Seattle, WA

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    Joe Kaiser
    26 November 2014 at 1:27 am #121449

    I have the boards ready to glue up, but before I do that I have some questions.

    Look at the two pictures on this post. There are a couple of loose knots, and a few good size cracks in the board. My wife actually picked this wood because of those, and she thinks they are lovely. Is there anything I need to do to them to make sure they won’t get worse?

    I assume I can just put some super glue on the knots. The cracks are not very deep. Do I need to fill them with a resin, or should they be fine left like they are? I assume they won’t make the piece weaker.

    Seattle, WA

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    Dave
    26 November 2014 at 2:00 am #121452

    How dry are they? Have those cracks appeared since you got the wood home or were they present when you bought them?

    -Canada

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    Joe Kaiser
    26 November 2014 at 2:04 am #121453

    The wood air dried for 18months, and the current moisture level is 10%. The cracks are not new, and have not increased since I bought the wood.

    Seattle, WA

    Settings
    Dave
    26 November 2014 at 2:17 am #121455

    Okay, if you think the boards are stable then I would use a 24 hour epoxy rather than super glue, the epoxy will fill those big voids and create a planable surface. one thing I don’t know is how epoxy is going to interfere with a finish on the surface like that. Maybe someone else will respond with any insights on finishes over epoxy.

    -Canada

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