Desk Project Log

[nightwish]

I have spent literally years designing my perfect desk for my home office and gaming PC setup. Now it's time to build it!

I am not a pro woodworker, and I don't have a fancy workshop, but I've watched lots of YouTube videos! I've bought the materials and found a corner in which to work. So let's start!

The design

• It's a one-of-a-kind custom design, by me.
• Simple, classic design, based on the Shaker style.
• It will be big and heavy, with loads of desk space and storage.
  • Space for a big ultra widescreen monitor and chunky hi-fi speakers, plus space for side monitors, printers or whatever.
• It comes apart into several pieces for transportation.
  • 2 pedestals, a back section, a center section and the top.
• The top and drawer fronts will be oak, the frames will be pine and the panels will be baltic birch plywood.
  • I'd have loved to have built the whole thing out of solid oak, with maybe walnut panels, but that would be prohibitively expensive! It's not cheap as it is.

The workstation

• Not a lot of space, as it's really just one end of the dining room, but hopefully it will be sufficient.
• Main tools are a table saw, mitre saw, pillar drill and small router/trimmer, plus an assortment of hand tools.

Starting work

• A few parts cut to length. The side stretchers of the web frames and some stiles for the back and center sections.
• Made a stop-block for the mitre saw to ensure they all ended up the same length, which worked pretty well.

The future

• No idea how long it'll take to finish, or how often I'll have updates. I have a job a wife and two kids, so I can't really commit to any schedule.

 

[nightwish]

Congrats at being brave enough to do that level of wood working in the house. My wife would kill me!

She's pretty tolerant, but she does say she'd like the dining room available for Christmas dinner! Probably be in my interests to respect that boundary!

Are you really going to be cutting all that wood in a carpeted room

It's an old carpet. Besides, that's what the hoover is for!

 

[nightwish]

Whats the dimensions of the desk? Look forward to seeing the build progress.

The top is 2.5cm thick, 70cm deep and 245cm long. The pedestals are 70cm high, 65cm deep and 55cm wide. The space between them is 130cm.

I may share the Sketchup design once I'm done. Still fiddling with it for the time being!

 

[nightwish]

A few more pieces cut to length. That's all the 50cm long pieces. The stop-block really is very handy!



Not very interesting yet I realise, so here's a bit of a teaser of how some of these parts will go together:



There will be 4 web-frames with dust panels like this for each pedestal. They will join the two sides together and separate the drawers from each other.

The next job is to practice the joinery techniques I will need to assemble them.

 

[nightwish]

Small but important progress over the weekend. I wanted to try out making the grooves and stub tenons for assembling the web frames.

So here's my Makita trimmer with a 9mm straight bit and edge-guide set-up to cut a groove in the center of a 25mm board:


Seems to work well:


Next, the plan is to cut all the tenons I need on the tablesaw. This also seems to work pretty well, although I'm going to need to take off the riving knife (which is usually needed to prevent kick-back on through cuts). I'm not cutting all the way through here, so it's not needed, and moreover, I can't push the board all the way with the riving knife in the way. So that's going to have to come off.


Also the tablesaw is really loud, so bought some ear-defenders:

 

[nightwish]

Looks good. Make sure you buy a bunch of extra large clamps/ Gorilla wood glue.

Edit: Spied them in a previous pic

Yup. Got a variety of clamps and Titebond II wood glue is what all the YouTubers seem to use, so got some of that too.

 

[nightwish]

I love a good desk project

I built mine out of Ash back in 2020, nothing on the scale of what you're undertaking but I learned a few things along the way...

1. You can never have enough clamps... especially for the larger glue ups
2. A biscuit jointer is a must for large straight edge joints (like a desk top for instance)
3. Invest in a decent Planer/Thicknesser to get all your components to the correct size and squareness.

I'm now looking forward to getting my old house back as the wife has given me permission to turn the garage into a carpentry shop!!

1. Agreed. The top will take all the clamps I've got! Think I've got 4, or maybe 6, of the large ones, which hopefully will do.
2. I'm using oak dowels elsewhere in the project (to attach the web frames to the sides), so will probably use dowels for aligning the boards of the top as well.
3. In most cases, I'd agree, but I couldn't justify the cost or the space for these large items for just this one project, and so I've bought the timber already machined to the right thickness and width from https://www.timbersource.co.uk/ Costs more of course, but I then don't need to find the budget or the floor space for a jointer/thicknesser. Big saving on the work too, as I only have to cut stock to length in most cases, so can avoid the (I assume) time-consuming and monotonous machining process. If I get a taste for the hobby and start making tons of stuff, then maybe I'll get these in the future.

 

[nightwish]

Starting to cut mortises in the front and back stretchers of the web panels.

Initially I tried to just use the router, but it jumped around a bit when I switched it on, so first attempt was a bit shonky - should have practiced first! All of these pieces are internal though, so any minor mishaps won't be visible.

Settled on using the drill press to drill holes at the start, end and middle of the mortise, and then use the router to finish the job.

Honestly not sure if these are really necessary - with the groove in the front and back pieces, stub tenons on the side pieces, plus the panel can be glued, as it's plywood, so no wood movement to worry about - and there's 4 per pedestal - it would probably be strong enough without these extra mortises and tenons, but they don't hurt and I will need these techniques elsewhere anyway.

 

[nightwish]

Just in case anyone is having trouble visualising what I'm up to, here's an exploded view of one of the web frames:



And there wil be 4 per pedestal:

 

[nightwish]

Personally i would not have stepped the tenon and would have started the groove a little bit in from the end instead.
However i don't think it matters in your use case and is looking like a well thought out design

Why would you prefer that way? Leaves a bit more meat at the end, so maybe a bit stronger I guess?

The whole build uses the same techniques - various forms of frame-and-panel essentially - so I could experiment a little with future joinery.

You probably wouldn't believe how long I've spent designing this thing, so I'm pleased that you think it's well thought-out! For me, the computer design is the easy(er) bit - making it real is a whole different skill-set! lol

 

[nightwish]

Cutting tenons on the table saw:



Notch and round over the edges to fit into the round ends of the mortise the router cut:



And test-fit. Looks good!

 

[nightwish]

Rinse and repeat a bunch more times, and the joinery is now complete for all 8 web frames:

 

[nightwish]

Following this project with great interest, I don't want to build a desk myself but would love to get into carpentry!
Do you have a list of tools you're using for this project?

Titan pillar drill. Not essential, but it is handy for driilling straight. I have a cordless Makita drill/screwdriver which I use occasionally as well. There's a 9mm drill bit in there right now for helping with the 9mm mortises. You can also see a marking square and tape measure to the left for measuring and marking and (trying to) keep things square.



Makita mitre saw. Probably essential I'd say, for cutting every piece to the right length quickly and accurately. I can't cut straight by hand to save my life, and even if I could it would be a lot of work. If I was to buy a new one, I'd probably look for one with a sliding arm, so you can cut wider pieces than the blade alone would allow.



Evolution table saw. The newest and biggest tool I own. Haven't used it extensively, but I don't think I'd have been able to cut the tenons without it. Probably essential for any quantity of "real" woodworking.



Makita router/trimmer. Essential. I don't own a full-size router, but this has done everything I really need up to now. Very handy gadget. Use it for cutting grooves, mortises, and a variety of edge profiles, though I tend to stick with a simple 1/4" round-over on most things I make.

And then a variety of hand tools for smaller or more intricate tasks - metal ruler, marking square, tape-measure, hack-saw, chisels, files, etc. Some essential, some not - depends on what you need to do.

On the software side, I spend ages fiddling in Sketchup before cutting anything! I keep meaning to learn something like Fusion360, but haven't got around to it yet.

 

[nightwish]

Gluing...

 

[nightwish]

Nice project! A custom (albeit much more basic) desk is something I'd love to do if given the time, space and tools.

Good updates, though that Christmas deadline is fast approaching Will you be carving the turkey on the table saw I wonder...

Ah, maybe a bit of miscommunication! I never intended to have it finished for Christmas, and indeed, it's not going to be. I do have to pack all the wood and tools away (somewhere!) so the room can be reclaimed for the Christmas dinner though!