It's been a good week since I've been able to update on the desk build. I've gotten almost no where since we last spoke, or at least it seems that way. I have been doing a lot of fine tuning and sanding. Putting pieces together to see if they fit then doing small adjustments along the way. Whether that is sanding a piece or edge or building up with some wood epoxy. Over the next few posts you will see some of the down sides in being a novice wood worker with little to no experience working with sup par tools and only the internet to assist. The follow may make you laugh, it might even make you cry but what ever happens know that no one was seriously injured during the events pictured.
So i cut tenon edges for all the drawer supports which on plywood wasn't too bad. The thing I have noticed after working with plywood is that it warps really easily and really quickly down in a basement. The constant changing of temp down there is not good for the plywood.
Drawer Supports mortises:
Fitting the bottom drawer support into base support that will hold the maple pieces. Funny story. The edge of this bit I was using was just a quarter of an inch too short so to make up the difference I loosened the collet nut on my router to extend the bit out... well this was not smart. As I was guiding my piece through the router i began to see smoke and with that the edges of the wood started turning yellow. I quickly shut off the router and noticed that the bit had come loose halfway through the cut and was digging into the wood way further than I needed. In turn (no pun intended) it caused the cut to go all the way to the base of the bit and start some tremendous friction which started burning my wood. I couldn't get a shot of the smoke cloud but i did have to open a window.
Hole too deep with burnt chips everywhere:
Said burnt bit:
Finger sanding the corner groove I've cut for the supports...this makes your fingers raw.
Had to make a slight adjustment on the height of one of the maple support pieces. It was a hair, fraction, of inch too short. So my grooves I cut for my shelf supports were off just a bit when lined up next to another piece. So i used a little bit of wood epoxy and wallah!
Above shot of adding just a tad to the height:
Same piece but as you can see I really didn't add that much:
Finally piecing it together to see where I need to make adjustments and some sanding to line it all up:
See the end of the clamp on the top right? I nailed my head at least 3 good times and maybe a soft 4th time just for good measure. The 3rd time was the worst and that one was the type where you just wanted to throw the desk off the top of the work bench and be done with it. If I hadn't of had my beanie on I would have left a mark in my head.
I'm real excited to get to the point of where this thing is ready to be stained. I think the patterns in the grain look awesome on the ma.....