Ok Mr. Hobbs.. What's happening in the shop...... We are starving for an update on this beautiful project. It's in your court Sir.

Bruce

Thanks for asking Bruce....I actually have made some progress, not a huge amount visually. Sanding, surface prep, drawer runners, locks fitted, etc.

I'll try to get some pics posted this weekend. Cal

Thanks Cal.. I know, sanding is just not too exciting to document on a Play by Play.... Have fun cleaning up all the dust.

Sand on sand off

After spending a little quality time with Ralph Macchio (thanks for that bud), I have made it a little farther.

Locks have been installed in the drawers and fallboard. The fallboard has been scraped and sanded.

I worked on the case, and have it essentially complete. The sides and top were scraped and sanded. The case corners, underneath the quarter column have a little pilaster detail, which took a little time.

One other case detail was completed. Typically there is an inelegant gap at the corner of the fallboard and the case, necessary due to the room needed to swing the fallboard. White resolved this with a little flourish at the corner that closes the gap, and works nicely with the lamb's tongue above the turned and fluted quarter column. It looks like this:

Now the only thing left is the finishing touches on the interior. There is still one bank of hidden drawers and a hidden well behind the prospect case. It is all secondary wood as none will be on view.

Here is the frame installed behind the box:

The drawers for this are down and dirty, but still take a little time. Here is one of them assembled:

As of now I have two of them assembled, here you see them stuck in their eventual home:

Lastly, as if there are not enough compartments to put doodads and knicknacks, White installed a well below the bank of drawers. The joints on mine were not really good enough, but the lid does slide back and forth.

That will do it for the latest update. Maybe more will happen soon, but please be patient with me! I have a couple of other projects that seem to be getting in the way, but so be it. Later, CH

Cal.. Looking great....Have another beer with Ralphie

All,

My sincerest apologies on the delay getting back to this thread. Since I last posted I have not done much to the desk, except the dreaded......"move it out of the shop to make enough room for other things."

I DID build a large 6'x6' kitchen island, and installed it in a nearby kitchen for a neighor. It turned out pretty decent. I enjoyed turning the large columns that supported the stone top. Sorry, no pics (yet).

I have also started a corner cupboard that my wife "volunteered" me to build for my in-laws, a Christmas gift, so I have been working pretty hard on that one.

My current "plan" is to get back to the desk between Christmas and New Year's. So look for some updates around the 1st of the year.

Thanks, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. Cal

Here's a rough picture of the corner cupboard.

Not bad since I just started on the 5th!

Cal,

FANTASTIC...

Haven't checked in for way too long, and was very excited to see your progress. I may have missed it, but how did you do the quarter columns/pilasters/whatever on the case? Also, I've never seen the spring locks on the lopers. I'm definitely going to steal that idea if I ever have the chance to get my desk finished up. Looking forward to seeing the lid go on, too. Maybe you can show me how I should have done mine!

Hope all is well. Let's try to catch up some time after the Holidays...

Whit

Whit!

Good to hear from you! Would love to catch up soon.

Yes, you and I have good examples of pieces that take WAY too long to finish, life gets in the way, doesn't it.

Is your desk done? Cal

The Christmas Cupboard......

Current status, almost ready for painting. I need to fit three adjustable shelves, and tweak the fit of the doors. Having a bit of trouble with them not laying flat. Hopefully to be delivered in a week or two.

Merry Christmas to all. Cal

BE-U-T-FUL......

One question, why only one door pull? I ask from a symmetry point of view.

Cal,

The corner cupboard is looking good. I built a similar piece (albeit built in) for a client a couple years ago, and had similar problems getting the doors straight. Despite REALLY taking my time milling the material, the stiles still wanted to bow/warp b/c of the doors height. Charles Neil had a couple good tricks for straightening them up. If I remember correctly, it involved using a temporary stop that when closed, caused the door to sort of hyperextended past the point to which it needed to be corrected. After a couple days in this exaggerated position, it sprung back pretty close to where it needed to be. I'll see if I can locate the video/podcast if it would help. (Not that you need much of it, I'm sure....)

Good luck, and have a great New Year's!

Whit

Whit,

Well, I haven't seen the Neil video, but I did try to spring the warp the other way a few days ago, to no avail.

In the end I just kicked one of the hinges out on the bottom, which helped correct the problem, and I hand planes the top left and bottom right of the door which all helped. Then I added a bead which helped hide it a little more, not to mention correct the symmetry of the stiles. I think it's sellable.

NYNY,

The right leaf is the "active" leaf, and overlaps the left leaf. So a knob on the left wouldn't be workable. I do think one on the left would help with the symmetry though.

The milk paint was easier than I thought it would be. The first red coat covered tremendously well, and sanded really nicely to a dusty powder, revealing some of the wood underneath. The black was tougher to get to cover, but still went well and sanded nicely.

A quick coat of minwax antique oil to seal it in, and here you go, ready to deliver.

Well,

Taking this week off and not traveling anywhere has allowed me to get back to the desk. What I realized was that I was really close to being finished.

So, I built the document drawers, installed the spring lock for the prospect door, tweaked a few other things and started the finishing process. There are several things that will need to be done after finishing, such as the mortises for the lock bolts and installation of the back, not to mention hardware installation, which on this is quite a job.

The original (you can see photos at the beginning of the thread) has that nice aged orange color of old walnut pieces, so my goal is to at least get started in the orange/brown family. Most of this will be accomplished by the shellac, but I am starting with a "french walnut" aniline dye as the first step.

So now it's a matter of time. There's 2 wks of work related traveling I have to do in January, so it will still plod along.

Happy New Year all. Cal

Good to see you at this stage.

I like a little red in my walnut to warm it up. Luckily this air-dried walnut from Irion already has great deep color so it doesn't need much.

Can't wait to see it finished.

Your little bro,
Matt

At this point I have a couple of coats of shellac on. 2 weeks in New Jersey for corporate meetings/training are putting a damper on my shop time.

Here's the desk lid:

As I commonly do in the winter, the piece has been moved inside for finishing. Doesn't everyone's dining room table look like this?

Later, CH

And the family gets to enjoy the sweet, sweet smell of shellac!

that's spectacular.

A few weeks gone, 3 benches built for the Mardi Gras auction, began teaching a class at the KC Woodworker's Guild, but I have squeezed a little time for the desk.

As of last night, I have rubbed out the final coat of shellac and applied a coat of dark brown wax, and polished it out.

Still need install the back, the hardware, and go over each component for cleaning, tweaking, until I can call it done. But....here it is for your viewing enjoyment (albeit the photos are pretty poor)! I will really enjoy finishing this bad boy.

Thanks for checking it out. Cal

Pretty slick, bro. Looking great!

WOWZA now that is wonderbra, oops vundeba LOL

Superb!

Cheers
Michael

Cal, what a beartiful desk! The figure is spectacular. Seems like you are part of a very talented woodworking family! I haven't been around these types of desks and was wondering if over time the lopers would mar the finish on the lid. Have you seen any type of covering on the top edge of the lopers that might keep that from happening. Thanks for any info on that.

Pops

Thanks all for the comments! Within the next few weeks, I should have final "glamour shots" ready.

Pops, I can't say that I have ever seen that on an original period desk. There shouldn't be any scraping action if the lopers are consistently pulled out before opening the lid. So...I'm not planning any material there, like felt or something else. Wouldn't be a bad idea though...