Awesomw work Whit. We are starting our desks this week so I can appreciate how much work there is in that piece. keep up the posts. CH

Whit,

Outstanding Sir. I appreciate all the work you are doing on the desk and how well you are keeping us updated on your progress. Your "Play by Play" can be used as a turorial on how to do things well.

Your contribution to our 207 Forum is priceless.

Thank you.

Bruce

"Anyone else ever feel just a little bit bad before they tear into a 25 bdft board?"

Only if I screw it up.

Great job and posts of your work. Its progressing very nicely. Any thoughts on finishing?

bud

Amigos,

Hope everyone has been doing well. I've actually been busy at work for a change, so not a whole lot of desk action lately. Thought I'd post the little that I've been able to get done, though.



I got all of the stringing and fans put in, and I've got all of the cockbeading cut (it's only taped on at the moment.) I think the majority of the regional pieces like this would probably have had a scratch bead on the drawers, but I opted for the cock-beading anyhow...

Question: On the lopers, how would you all go about attaching the "drawer front" to the solid loper? Would a small tennon be sufficient/ practical?

Otherwise, short of cleaning up and drawer bottoms, it's getting pretty close. Looks like I'm not going to be able to put the lid off for much longer...Wish me luck...

Anyway, thanks for checking in.

Whit

Again, looks fantastic Whit. Your fans and stringing are incredibly crisp. You will have to show me your techniques if we ever get together.

By the way, have you decided whether or not you would come to KC for the Sapfm meeting on March 27th?

As far as the loper fronts, a short mortise and tenon is what I think usually was done. I have seen them just nailed but that seems a little crude.

I have continued to enjoy this play by play. Thanks for carrying it through.

Cal

My comment is God Damn that is good. Sweet. Best cavity I ever gotten. I love it. It looks great. You are talented man. Wow! Woot Woot.... Jesus Man O man. Lord Have Mercy. Speechless. The Furniture Gods approved.

Great Job. Oh ya that is how I cut my miters on stringing too. It works Great.

Fred

Hey everybody,

Finally got 2 full days after not setting foot in the shop for almost a month...

Anyway, good news and bad news:

First, got the lid inlaid and installed:

Overall, just about finished aside from making drawer bottoms and finishing up a few things in the prospect compartment.


Now for the bad news...

I'm a dumbass:


Everything was going well on the install until I cut the dado at the very top. I had glued up the lid a couple inches oversize, and didn't take it into account when I laid out the tennons. I am WIDE OPEN to suggestions. Worst case, I can try to get the breadboards off somehow, cut the tennon back, and start over.

Otherwise, quick question: what kind of bit have you all used to rout the thumbnail on the lid?

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well, and thanks for checking in...

Whit

Whit

Awesome job on the inlay. That really makes it stand out.

Bud

Whit,

First of all, the desk is S W E E T ! You should feel VERY proud of this accomplishment. Your work is really great.

2nd of all, if it were me, I would consider finding an offcut of your breadboard ends and cutting in a patch in where the tenon was exposed. If you go this route, you must make pains to make sure that the joints of the patch are really tight. Otherwise it will show, and even though you might be the only one to ever see it, you have to decide whether or not you can live with it. If you patch it and don't like it, you can still start again and chop off the breadboards. That would really stink though redoing all that work.

3rd, I'm pretty sure we used a roundover bit in the handheld router to cut the profile on the top. But it depends on the piece, and also make sure you have enough meat for the bearing. If not you could run it on a table with a fence. Can't remember what radius but just see what looks right and I'm sure you will do fine.

4th, missed you at the sapfm meeting, but it was a really great one. There are some seriously talented people out here that came to our meeting.

Great seeing your update. CH

Great job man! Everything looks so crisp and well executed and that makes all the difference. Thanks for posting to pics on how you made the french feet, I knew of the technique but the pics really clarify things for me.

that desk is looking nice! i love the inlays!

as to the lid i second what Chobbs said. and if you can't live with doing a repair and want a do over then just cut the breadboard off including the tenon and make a loose tenon. it will work but of course its not ideal. mainly because its tough to allow for expansion with a loose tenon. probably multiple loose tenons would be your best choice. so you can glue them in on the lid and do the slotting on the breadboard. even if you had to be all little 1 or 2 inch tenons and then just pin 3 of them. for the looks. no one will be able to tell and as long as you allow for the movement you should be fine.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone.

The more I think about it, a patch is out. I figure I've probably got 400-500 hours in the piece at this point, and I really don't want the first thing everyone sees to be a giant glaring f-up...

I'm terrified of ripping the breadboards off, though. After fitting the lid, I'm sure that it's a little out of square all the way around. This means ripping all the way up to the shoulder on the table saw is out. I guess that this leaves trying to hand plane all end grain without any chip-out. But, I suppose this is the lesser of two evils.

Snake- I like the floating tenon idea. Anyone else have any input as to the long term durability of this option?

Again, thanks for all the help.

Whit

not sure about the durability. but hey i don't see why it wouldn't work as long as you allow room for the expansion.

As far as doing the shoulders how much of the bread board did you glue??

if you didn't glue up near the shoulder you can cut it off to within an 1/8" and then since the material near the shoulder is not glued it will leave you with a little big 1/8" tenon sticking off of the end of the material. then you can use a flush trim bit in a router to ride off of the shoulder of the piece so that nothing changes. As long as your shoulders are in the same plane i won't change the dimensions of the lid at all. You just have to be careful that the bit doesn't chip the edge. If you have a spiral flush trim it will give you a great edge as well. I don't know how well this would work but again I can't see why not.

If you used a PVA glue, you can use a heat gun to loosen the glue bond. Titebond glue releases at 180 degrees, just keep moving the heat gun. I only paid $25.00 for a cheap heat gun and repaired my pligrams chest this way (so I know that it works). Clean up the tenons really well and cut it down to the proper size and put another end on each side.

chuck what kind of Titebond is it that you can loosen. I've been able to loosen the titebond 1 before. but the 2 is trouble and i've never been able to get 3 to come loose.

I have both titebond original and two in my shop, no particular reason, except a vendor had the original on sale. So I could not tell you which glue I had used. However, my research showed that heat will work with either glue. Cannot tell you if it works for titebond three.

I will tell you this it does take a constant pressure and awhile for the glue will release. In fact, I was just about ready to give up thinking it wasn't going to work when all of a sudden I noticed the joint opening up.

Whit,

Here's my thought. Check and see which, the top or bottom, is the most square to the side. My thought would be the bottom, Place the squarest edge, say the bottom of the lid, on the table saw sled closest to you and rip right on the line of the bread boards. Using a nice fine finish blade, you shouldn't have to do anything more to it. Do up the floating tenons and new bread boards. If at this point the if the lid is slightly out square, using a shooting board, playing cards as shims and your best plane ( I like the LN Iron Miter Plane) shave until it meets your standards or square. You can do the lid and or breadboards this way. Then refit the lid. That's how I would do it. If its off a very little, most likely your the only one that will ever know.

I make my floating tenons out of the same material, running the grain the same as the long piece. Make the tenons about 1/8" shorter.

Good luck
Bud

You could use a dado blade and cut the breadboard edge off the tenon and maybe just a hair more to clean things up. This would leave the tenon intact. You would be pretty much cutting the tenon again and in the process removing the breadboard edge.

Steve

Whit, the desk is looking great, I really like it. Your inlay's are first rate, I'm impressed.

Good luck with the top.

Rick