Craft/Computer Desk Day 3

Today I didn't get as much time in my shop as I had originally planned, but that's ok because we decided to take our son Braden to see "The LEGO Movie" with some of our friends.  Really good movie if you do have an aspiring builder in your house. After we got home from a loooonnnnggggg lunch at Olive Garden Braden wanted to build LEGOs of course so I stayed upstairs and out of the shop for a few more hours to help him with his designs.  Always time well spent.

After he was sufficiently bored of playing with Dad, I had a couple of hours to sneak away to the shop and continue working on Leslie's Craft Desk.  

I cut the stretchers and cross braces for the short side of the L, drilled holes for more pocket screws, and screwed the frame together.  Below is the fully assembled base.

Since the frame was fully assembled, I pulled over the top pieces to see what the final desk would look like.  When I bought them I had them cut to just a little over size at the home center so it would be easier to get the assembly done.  I was planning to use my flush trim router bit and flush up the top to the frame, but now I'm wondering if the router bit will chip the laminate top.  Something to ponder tonight.

After getting the top on I realized that I need to cut several more pocket screw holes to hold down the top.    I don't want the top to move around while I'm flush trimming it to size, or to warp once it is in place.  Once the top is secured in place, I'm going to trim out the top with poplar edging to hide the particle board edge of the laminate.  After that it will be time for disassembly, a couple of coats of paint and dragging it upstairs for final assembly.

That being said, I really hope that it fits upstairs.  I could put seam on the short side and have a 7 foot piece instead of 8 foot if it does look to be close.  I think I'll take up my friend James' suggestion and experiment with a 2x4 tomorrow to see if I can get a feel on whether it will fit or not.  I only want to drag this thing upstairs once if I can help it.  If all goes well I should be able to get most of the assembly done in my next shop session after another trip to the home center for the poplar.  I forgot that last time I was there.   

DOH!

Mental note:  Don't set a top heavy drill on top of shelf while you are gently persuading a piece of wood into place...

At least the drill still works.  Countersink not so much.  Oh well.

Craft/Computer desk day 2

I took a few hours this morning and completed the 2 other base cabinets for the 3' side of the desk. These went together really quick and super easy with the pocket screws.  I cut a couple of 8'long strips of plywood which will be frame for the desktop and did a quick clamp up to get a feel for the overall size of the desk.   It's going to be nice, but I sure hope it will fit up the stairs....

Next time it will add a couple of plywood stretchers with pocket screws across the width of the desk and finish the remaining frame for the other side of the desk. The only thing left that I'm not sure about is how to finish the exposed laminate top edges...I'll have to sleep on that one.  

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!!

Welcome to the Lower Woods Workshop

Hello and welcome to the Lower Woods Workshop.  My name is Joey and after reading and studying many woodworking blogs I have finally decided to start one of my own. My primary goal is to motivate myself to keep busy in workshop and hopefully in the process entertain and inspire other woodworkers through my woodworking adventures.  I know absolutely nothing about blogging, so who knows what this may look like, but I'll keep doing it as long as it's fun.

 I've been woodworking for about 25 years or so now, but I still feel like an amateur in so many different accepts of woodworking.  Like many woodworkers, the first time I saw Norm Abram in "The New Yankee Workshop" I thought, wow, that's cool. After watching a few episodes I just knew that I could do that type of work. Of course, being in high school at the time, I had no tools, no experience, no shop, and no idea where to start.  My parents bought me a copy of Norm's first season project book and I read it cover to cover many times over and found several starter projects I wanted to build. My Dad and I got fantastic deal on an old Dewalt radial arm saw that had been at our local hardware store for years...I mean YEARS!  The layers of dust had layers of dust. Anyway, we loaded it up and my woodworking career began.  It is still one of the most used tools in my shop, even though most have gone the way of the dinosaur.  My first project was Norm's workbench which I still use today (although it's time to upgrade to better suit the type of woodworking I want to do in the future).  Then a bookcase and a clothes hamper I could take off to college with me.  I've made several projects since then, moved my shop 4 times, and have plans in my head and in Sketch Up to make a true shop in my basement hopefully sooner rather than later.  I'll be adding some of these projects here as I can dig up pictures, and more importantly sharing my new projects.  Thanks for stopping by.