Craft/Computer Desk Day 4

After lunch today I jumped right into trying to determine if the top was going to fit upstairs in one piece.  I had a couple of 8' long 2x4's laying in the basement from some project long ago.  I took those and a couple scrap wood pieces and made a 3'x8' frame to see if the top would make the turn. 

Turns out the 2x4s were just a little twisted so I had fun trying to put the frame together

After all that I managed to get it screwed together in its sad warped shape with some long screws and clamps.  I got Leslie to help me move it upstairs and we were able to get to to fit without too much trouble so I think we should be ok for the top to fit upstairs. 

Did I mention that this desk makes for a great assembly table?  I think that might be my next shop project...I didn't realize how handy a large flat surface could be.  

Anyway, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

I took my Kreg pocket screw jig over to the frame and cut several more pocket screw holes to fasten the top to the frame. 

I clamped the long top to the frame so it wouldn't move while I put in a few screws to hold down the top while I flush time the sides. After screwing it down I pulled the clamps and got my flush trim bit setup in my router.  To test the cut is started on the long back side that will be up against a wall and not visible.  After making this short test cut I realized that a) I was going to need a dust mask and 2) I needed to figure out a way to attach my dust collection hose to pull as much dust as possible out of the air.

I made a quick trip to the store to get the mask. Right beside the mask they had pocket hole screws on clearance so I got the last box of 500 1-1/4" coarse Kreg screws. I was running low so it worked out perfectly.  I also got the wood for the trim while I was there.  Originally I had planned to use poplar, but it was about 4x the price of pine, so I went with pine. Since it's going to be painted it doesn't really matter much. 

I pulled my dust collector over to the other side of my shop and used some cable ties to try to hold my dust collection hose to the router.  It seemed like it might work so I got suited up for battle.  

The cable ties held the hose just fine, however, it didn't work that great since most of the dust was below the table as you can see below. I think I need to upgrade the dust collection in my shop too.  

I got the top trimmed but realized that I had two spots I wasn't going to be able to reach where the side frame attached.  

I could either take all apart and rout those 2 spots or try to clean it up by hand. So after looking around the shop I got out my block plane, a micro plane rasp and a chisel and was able to make quick work of the particleboard.  I really could have used a rabbet block plane or shoulder plane to make the cut in one pass, but having neither I made it work.  Something to add to my Amazon wishlist.

I used my jigsaw and Bora straightedge clamp to cut the top of the short side to rough length.

Again I needed to clamp the top down while I secured it with screws but this time I also needed clamp it along the length so I used the ol'clamp trick and put two clamps together to make on long clamp.  In this friction the top is right at 10 ft total so it's not practical to have clamps that long.  This worked great. 

After screwing it down I finished off the flush trimming and now it looks like a desk.  

Next shop day I will cut the trim, clean up the shop and get this beast ready for paint. I also have another project that is just about ready to be stained so I will probably do the finishing on both pieces at the same time. I'll have more on that project later, but seeing as I started it before my son was born over 8 years ago it's not going anywhere. That will be another post for another day.

Craft/Computer Desk

My wife, Leslie, has been wanting to turn our upstairs bonus room into a craft room where she can do her scrap booking and other crafts that she has been wanting to do, but ever since we've lived here has been boxed up with no where to put them. I recently completed a set of  bookshelves and a tv stand to give her plenty of room to organize her stuff.   I designed these in Sketch Up and built them from plywood and poplar face frames using primarily pocket screws and dados cut with the router.

To compliment the shelves she wanted a new crafting and computer desk to finish off her part of the bonus room.  We both have computer desks we used in college and they are well beyond need for an upgrade.  She found a design that she wanted here.  I didn't like the fact that it was based off a store bought shelf, so I decided to build the shelves with the leftover plywood I had from the shelves.   I started working on the shelves this morning.

The desk will be 2'x4' on the short leg of the L and 3'x8' on the long side which will be along the wall opposite the storage shelves.  To start I broke out the radial arm saw and cut the base shelf pieces to length.

After getting all the pieces cut to length, I took them all over to the table saw to cut them to the final width. 

I decided that for the base frame I would skip the dados and just use pocket screws to speed up the assembly process.  There should be much weight on the shelves so I think it will be plenty strong to hold whatever Leslie wants to put on it.  I setup my Kreg pocket hole jig and marked layout lines about 3.5" in from each edge of the shelf and vertical support.  

Then, it was time for some assembly....

We decided that these shelves probably needed a back to keep things from falling off. So I add that from some scrap 1/4" plywood cut with a jigsaw then flush trimmed with my router. 

This is the finished end shelf on the 2' side. 

Tomorrow I plan on finishing the assembly of the remaining base pieces, then watch the big game.  Go Broncos!!