Long Awaited Pictures

Well finally as promised some pictures of the desk. It is starting to resemble something...but what? I finished the basic pedestals this week so I thought I would set it up to get an idea of the size. Yes sir it come in on the huge side. Oh well.

The pedestals are made of the mahogany frames and the birch panels. They look a lot lighter than the frame but they will take stain much more than the mahogany. The bottom and tops are plywood trimmed in mahogany at the top. The backs of the pedestals are open to allow heat to escape. When the old computer is slaving away over taxes it gets a little hot under the collar.

These are the drawers and shelves. I have to attach the slides and install them. There are 3 small shelves for the computer scanner and CD's a large drawer with attached shelf for the printer (paper storage underneath. And two large drawers for pens pencils and junk. I think they will become a fabulous junk repository . We already have a junk drawer but now we have room for expansion. Junk is like air it expands to fill the space available. Make more space and more junk will appear.

There is not much left of the mahogany parts just the glued up doors shown here, the keyboard shelf and some trim pieces.
Not much to show for a van load of wood just over a month ago.

And in a few weeks there will be less than that

And here is one tired helper. She even brought her helper hat with her. But it is not for wearing it is for chewing on.

Still busy making sawdust...

Randy

Thanks and No thanks

Still working on the desk, almost to the point where I have something worth taking a picture of. I have the panels for the pedestal sides done up and I made the drawers up today. I will post some pictures when I have the pedestals made up.

I took the desk top in to a wood working shop, Black Forest Woods. They took my rough top and trimmed it to size on their big industrial table saw. What took them 15 minutes would have been an all day chore for me with poorer results. They did a wonderful job. Thanks Black Forest. Check them out. They specialize in custom built doors, exotic hardwoods and wood working tools. http://www.blackforestwood.com

As it turned out the real all day chore was shopping around to find the drawer glides. There are two big name hardware chains in town, Rona and Home Depot. Both big impersonal box stores who amazingly sell exactly the same stuff for... wait for it... the same price, and as it turns out were sold out of the same things. I ended up going to three stores fighting traffic all the way only to come home still short of all the parts I needed. And because of the labor market here only one of the several staff members was knowledgeable. What we heard most was "Sorry I don't know I just started." You would think that they would have experienced staff in on the weekend when they are the busiest. But I guess they figure they have a captive audience. No thanks to Rona and Home depot you dropped the ball yesterday.

I got the rest of the parts cut out of the famous 5X5 sheets of plywood. I owe thanks on that to my friend Glenn who loaned me his out feed stands. I put one beside the table saw and the other on the out feed end. It was like having another pair of hands. Thanks Glenn.

And finally I got my father in law's radial arm saw up and working. There are a few things on this project that are just best done with a radial arm saw. He gave it to me three years ago and I had not got around to setting it up. But as I will be needing it it was time. And conveniently my nephew Robert was in town from Winnipeg visiting his cousin Scott. Since the saw originally belonged to their grandfather I asked them over to help set it up. It didn't hurt that they are both big guys, six foot or better, rugby and soccer players, so a little old saw was no challenge to them. We had it up in about a half an hour and adjusted just in time for some celebratory beers. (They are of legal age .) Well Robert had a couple and I had a couple and Scott had to drive so he lost out but I sent a couple home with him for later. Thanks Scott and Robert I appreciate the help and the visit.

And since I had a couple this afternoon I thought it might be a good idea to stay away from the power tools tonight thank you!

Ready to watch The New Yankee Workshop through the eyelids...
Randy

The Desk Project Part - Next in Sequence

Remember a post or two back when I said that 5 x5 is an unwieldy size for wood. Well I say it again. It was a royal pain to cut up a 1/4 inch sheet at that size. Once I had it in strips it was ok but man what a chore. I've got the 1/2 inch sheet to fight with next weekend. Maybe I will get Windsor or Black Forest Wood to do the major cuts down to something I can manage. I' ll see what it costs.

We milled up all the solid mahogany for the pedestals. I missed cutting a tenon on one of the styles so I will have to set up again to do it. Missing one is better than cutting an extra one believe me. It wasn't even that tough once it was set up I just milled all the pieces. The next time I have to do that is for the drawers and shelves. Once the parts are milled assembly is easy.

I dry fitted one of the side panels this afternoon. It looks good. The Birch panels in the mahogany frames don't even look too bad I think with stain they will be alright. Speaking of stains I managed to pinch my thumb in the fence on the table saw. A relatively minor injury considering the damage one could do with a table saw. But I ended up getting blood on the panels. I think if it had bled enough it would have darkened the birch to a deep mahogany. Nah not going to go there. Could be all those CSI shows my wife watches are having an effect on me. I don't mind her watching that but I wonder what she does with all the notes she takes? I'm worth more dead than alive should I be worried?

The Black Forest Woods Company, where I had planned to get the top cut to size was moving equipment this weekend so I did not get that done. A job for next week I guess. I might even get them to size up the other glued up sections and if it doesn't take too long power sand the front doors we will see how it goes.

Well that's it for now. I wonder where she keeps all those notes.

Sleeping with one eye open...

Randy

The Desk Adventure Continues

Just a quick update on the desk project. I have rough cut all the solid Mahogany pieces and we glued up the top today. This desk is going to be huge. 34 by 62 inches does not seem like much until you see the panels nearly 3 foot by 5 foot plus that is big. Oh well to late to whine now.

The top took a lot of fussing and planing and measuring but it is almost ready to go. I think the piece will be too big to trim to size on on my table saw but there is a place in town where I think I can get it machined to size for not too dear a price. They have a large industrial table saw so it should work out better with their help. After that I should be able to handle everything else on my own.

The top has been glued up in two pieces. When they dry tonight I will biscuit join the two halves together to make the whole. I had to go out yesterday and get a couple more bar clamps long enough for the whole top. I thought that I could do the whole thing in one go but no chance. Norm said to do it in two pieces and its the only way. Remember I thought Oak would have been too heavy. Well that mahogany tips the scales pretty well too if the top pieces are any indication. This will be a solid piece of furniture if you measure by weight.

We dragged the last of the full dimension lumber in. Four sheets of 5' by 5' plywood. That is just about the most awkward size of wood I have ever encountered. It is just a little too big to get a grip on and it doesn't fit well going down stairs and turning it is of no help whatever. I'll bet it was an engineer determined that that was an optimal size they just love to mess with things.

Just sitting here watch'n the glue dry...

Randy

My Mentor

I could learn a lot from my dog.

Maybe its just the breed but Belle is a genuinely happy creature. She does not seem to get upset or down. Everything is as it should be. She goes with the flow. That is probably because she doesn't know any better and has no sense of the future and little memory of the past except where food is concerned. On Maslow's scale she is living in and for the physical needs and those are all met. So she is absolutely happy.

But it is more than that. She really wants to make everyone around her happy too. If you pretend to be depressed or sad she will bring you her toys. A soggy stinky chew toy with the stuffing coming out may not be your idea of fun but it sure is hers. How can you be down with great stuff like that to play with and a friend who is more than willing to play with you in the mix.

When there is nothing going on she naps no need for entertainment. The trainer in her class calls it a default down. When there is nothing going on the dog learns to lie down calmly. Well she does that but some times she goes well past a calm lie down and sprawls as far as a small beagle can and naps. The theory being, I'm guessing, that someone will wake her or make noise when the action starts again. And again she is perfectly happy.

She hasn't a mean streak in her make up. She is not possessive about food or toys. She will forget herself and get rough but that is just playing. If she thinks she has hurt you she will back off and be more gentle.

The only thing that brings her down is if she does something wrong and gets scolded or punished for it. Scolding is as good as punishment because she seems to be hurt when she thinks she has not been good. And she will do whatever she can think of to get back in your good books. Physical punishment just makes her scared of you. And if she does get in trouble all is forgotten and forgiven in ten minutes or less. She does not forget what she did wrong she does learn, slowly some times, but she forgets or forgives you for being angry with her.

She's not perfect there are things she does that she shouldn't and we are working on those but, yep, I could learn a lot from my dog.

Randy