Desk Construction

One of the pieces I am working on this week is another White Oak desk. The components of the base have been milled, shaped and all joinery completed. All that is left is the procedural glue ups and finish sanding.

Here are the side assembly parts sitting on my shop drawing. I always use shop drawings for production pieces. I measure angles and cut lengths quickly off the drawing. If you don't want to measure, you can just keep cutting and placing your parts over the drawing until they fit. Incredibly simple and quick. Make shop drawings, don't think you are too cool for school. I am done telling you what to do now.

Floating tenons in stretcher stock.

Parts on drawing being checked for fit.

Detail.

Upon glue up, I like to assemble the pieces actually on the drawing to make sure the final shape and splay is accurate and consistent. With long parts like these it would be very easy to glue everything up with tight joints and have two side assemblies horribly out of whack. The end result would be wind in the base when the front and back stretchers get glued in resulting in a base that does not sit flat. That would suck.