Within the final publish, Teamwork Desk, Half 2, we assembled our legs into the desk’s pedestal and ready it to just accept the highest. Now we will make the highest, and add the crossing helps earlier than closing meeting.
I made a decision to book-match the highest, so I resawed a pleasant quartersawn board and glued it up. Since it will be wider than my planer, I put in a couple of Dominos for alignment.
The highest is an ellipse, 18 in. by 15 in. Mark these dimensions on heart traces on the edges of your clean. To draw the ellipse, use pushpins and string on the lengthy centerline. Ranging from the middle, measure out in 1-in. increments to about 5 in. every manner. Beginning at 2 in., drive two pins and make a loop of string that locations your pencil on the skin edge mark. With the string looped across the pencil, transfer it to a facet edge.
Alter the gap between the pins and the size of the loop till the pencil hits each marks. Put a washer on the floor to carry the string up off the floor, and hint the ellipse. I reduce mine out on the bandsaw and cleaned up the sides on the disc sander. Select which facet is the highest of the desk and mark it.
Use a spokeshave to undercut the highest to make it seem lighter, at all times working from the middle towards the ends to keep away from tearout. Work till the skin edge is about halved and the bevel travels in 1 in. to 1½ in.
With the highest clean in hand, use the caul scraps to put out a nice crossing for the half-lapped prime helps. These got here in at 11 in. by 15 in. They’re 1 in. large and 1¼ in. thick on the half-lapped heart. Go away them slightly large so you possibly can sneak up on a superb match to the column dadoes. I match them whereas nonetheless 4-square and reduce the curves out after to keep away from beginning the curve cuts contained in the column edges.
Drill the highest of the column to drawbore for attaching the lengthy cross assist. The quick facet shouldn’t be drilled; it’s captured by the lengthy facet. Double-check the place you might be drilling, particularly in case your legs are totally different lengths—that is all the wrong way up. I used bamboo skewers for the drawbore pins. Drill and countersink for screws to lock your prime, and it’s finished.
I ammonia-fumed the desk. I used to be fortunate—it match completely in a daily Brute trash can. After letting it off-gas for every week, I sealed it with shellac and topcoated with Common Finishes’ waterborne exterior poly in satin.
The fascinating factor concerning the desk’s visible is that it’s consistently altering, seeming to lean in several instructions relying in your view. It feels prefer it twists as you progress round it. Within the photograph above, have a look at the bottom the place the leg on the left tapers up and disappears behind the leg declaring at you and also you’ll get the thought. All the column’s flats are completely vertical.
After 35 years in architectural images, Myko now works as a advisor, using the identical ability set towards environmental compliance. He holds three U.S. patents and is the inventor and producer of Tailspin Collinear Marking Instruments. A woodworker of fifty years, he obtained began with an X-Acto carving set and a block of balsa on his tenth birthday and simply stored going.
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