This was my first major foray into woodworking. I needed a desk, and had recently discovered a large supply of fine cherry boards when cleaning my grandfather’s old wood shed.
Design
The overall design was relatively simple. The base would be two matching pieces, aligned in an “X” pattern, and would have holes for screws that threaded into the top. The legs would be two pieces separated by the cross beams & footer parts.
This design allows the desk to be easily disassembled into 3 relatively flat pieces, while looking relatively unique.
I finished the desk with 2 coats of Rubio Monocoat. The finish was easy to apply and can be easily touched up. The top surface of the desk looks very nice (when it isn’t covered with stuff) and hasn’t suffered excess scuffing or water damage so far.
Mistakes
A number of mistakes were made in this project. The most serious mistake was the stability of the tabletop. With only the small surface area of the legs & cross-pieces touching the top, it was quite unstable. To resolve this, I cut & installed “wings,” along with shims on their surface.
This was the result of failing to do enough testing & design work prior to actually building the desk. In the future, I’ll always test first & build later.
Additional mistakes are obviously visible. Primarily, these are visual fit & finish issues resulting from inexperience and poor planning.
The legs were the most complex part of the build, and I rounded them over prior to glue-up, leaving gaps between the inner and outer leg plates. While this is fine structurally, it leaves a lot to be desired aesthetically. Additionally, this could have been solved with a bit of wood glue & sawdust, but I neglected to clean the joints properly during the glue-up process, and finished the piece before testing this.
Summary
Overall, the result is a functional desk that looks good from the top & sides. It is easily moveable, with only 4 screws holding the top on the base. It is stable, with enough space to comfortably work on a variety of projects easily.
Improvements to woodworking process:
- Detailed design with step-by-step instructions
- Make a complete design in CAD
- Produce drawings & assemble step-by-step virtually
- Make test pieces out of scrap & experiment first
- Many aesthetic mistakes could have been avoided by testing first
Future Plans
The desk will likely remain unmodified, it works well in its current configuration and looks acceptable. I have another panel that could be used for a larger table or similar, but I have no plans at present.