Popular Post Kurt Triebe Posted August 23, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Not another Roubo or Morris Chair! Heh. (no hate... I'm jealous of all of those builds... I'll get to my Morris Chair in the next year or two...) Daughter started Kindergarten today, and we need to get a desk into her room for whatever "homework" she may be getting. Perfect timing, as Anne's guest build on the Guild just finished up a week or so ago- and it's perfect for what she needs. And, I absolutely love that I can tell her that her special desk was designed by a girl... she'll watch the whole series of videos with me, and I know she's going to love seeing the shots of Anne's farm mixed in to the build. Anyway- I'm going to do this build in two parts; first, the main desk, then, the storage case. I'm hoping to knock the main desk out quickly- even at a hobbyist "nights & weekends" pace, I think I should be able to get this done in a week and a half? I'll tackle the case later- short term, I just want to get a functional desk into her room. I got the rough milling on all the parts done today; the 4 legs came from a huge 10/4 timber I've had waiting for a project that calls for something really thick. The apron & stretcher came from an offcut from my last project, the walnut shiplap feature wall in my family room. This was pretty serendipitous; the offcut was about 11" wide, 1" thick, and 49" long. I was able to get two 4.25" wide x 42" long aprons (including one, which will be on the front, whose grain has a beautiful arch that'll mirror the arched cut fantastically) and two 2"x18" stretchers. Total waste will be a few inches from each end of the apron, and a 2"x12" chunk from the stretcher. From an offcut, that's stupid good luck... and that's basically all the wood I need for the whole base of the desk. All from this one little offcut. Super sweet. I think I've got the perfect piece of wood for the top, too- I still need to pull it out of my pile, but I believe I can make the entire top from one piece of wood- again, with nearly zero waste whatsoever. All of this was stuff I bought last year from a local sawyer who runs an old-fashioned "giant spinning blade of death" circular sawmill, and that I air dried in my basement. This wood has turned out to be INCREDIBLY nice so far- and I'm just getting to the good parts of the pile... I remember vaguely thinking that I'd stack the "best" boards at the bottom of my pile last year so that they'd hopefully dry the flattest. The case should be an adventure; I've never cut a single dovetail of any kind in my life, and I'm determined not to take the easy way out and bust out the Incra iBox or anything like that- I'm going to force myself to learn how to hand-cut dovetails and do the upper case the "right" way. Should be fun. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Looking forward to watching this come together! I also recently had good luck in having a piece of "scrap" fill a need with almost no waste. It was a very satisfying feeling, and now I can see how some people's "scrap" piles get so huge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 8 minutes ago, JohnG said: can see how some people's "scrap" piles get so huge. Yeah, that and we are hoarders!! I'm looking forward to this also. Didn't even know Anne did a guest build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted August 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 42 minutes ago, JohnG said: Looking forward to watching this come together! I also recently had good luck in having a piece of "scrap" fill a need with almost no waste. It was a very satisfying feeling, and now I can see how some people's "scrap" piles get so huge. Heh... yeah, I need to make sure I don't let this one stroke of supreme good luck go to my head. Or, I need to come up with a really good way of organizing/storing offcuts. So far, I have one garbage can that has collected semi-random skinnier cuts, and another bin which has collected fairly large pieces- 6" to 12" wide, at never less than 12" long- I'll easily find uses for those sorts of things. My trick will be making sure that I dump things that are like 1-2" wide and under 12" long... the sort of thing that a pen turner would look at and go "OH I COULD TOTALLY GET 2 PENS OUT OF THAT AT SOME POINT 7 YEARS FROM NOW"- that's what will kill me. As long as I can restrict my hoarding to pieces that, say, could at least become a drawer front- I should be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted August 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 38 minutes ago, Brendon_t said: Yeah, that and we are hoarders!! I'm looking forward to this also. Didn't even know Anne did a guest build Yeah, it was a quick build- he flew out to her shop earlier this spring (March, maybe?) and spent a week there filming her. He did the same with Darrell Peart either the week before or the week after- Darrell is also in Seattle, so it let him knock two builds out with one flight/trip. All of the videos in the series were released over the course of 2 weeks- "Netflix style"- rather than the usual one per week schedule that happens with most of the builds... it was really fun to binge 5-6 videos at once. He's trying to start bringing in more guest instructors- some, like Johnny Brooke that can totally run their own builds (those that have high-level video/audio chops and can put together Wood Whisperer quality content on their own) and some like Darrell Peart, Jory Brigham, and Ashley Harwood- that are phenomenal builders/teachers, but don't (yet?) have the production skills to put together the super high quality, very polished videos. I'm most excited about the second kind of guest instructor- as it potentially brings new faces into the modern era of online woodworking content. Johnny's build was great- I learned a lot from it, especially as it mixed in some metalworking stuff that is super interesting to me, but that I know ZERO about. I've been watching Johnny put together great builds for a few years now, though, and I'll continue to do so with or without the Guild... but bringing in people like Darrell and Jory and Ashley- folks with decades of experience as working professionals with incredible portfolios, but who have little to no experience when it comes to HQ video content? That's gold, Jerry, GOLD! The downside to the second type of instructor is that it's tougher on Marc- it requires him to fly and be away from home/family for a week or two at a time- which is tough when you've got little kids. Darrell's build is supposed to start being released in the next few weeks- I can't WAIT to see those videos. Darrell's a true master in that style, and I'm sure the video series is going to be packed full of the little tips & tricks that he's figured out after working in that style for a few decades- things that hopefully make his take on the G&G style- with the cloud lifts, the plugs, the elaborate shaped drawer fronts- achievable for intermediate woodworkers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Awesome build!! I'm sure it will be very special for both of you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 This looks like it's going to be a fun build. I agree i like that Marc is starting to bring in more people. If i remember right he doesn't fly to the places he drives. Hauling all the equipment he needs i think it is a bit taxing to try and do airline travel, not to mention the risk of something getting lost. The camera gear is peanuts compared to content ect that could get lost. For scraps i just make cutting boards ect from them and give them away as wedding gifts thank you gifts or just "here i had some scrap wood i wanted to get rid of" gifts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Definitely looking forward to this. 2 hours ago, Chestnut said: "here i had some scrap wood i wanted to get rid of" gifts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kurt Triebe Posted August 26, 2018 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 26, 2018 Small update... got the boards for the top milled. May get to some of the joinery today, we’ll see. I may pour a bit of epoxy to fill knots, nail hole on the underside of one of the boards, etc. I like the boards, though- this should work well. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted August 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 Epoxy fills for some defects... joinery will start tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted August 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 Final milling, and glued up the top. I’m a Dowelmax guy, love these easy panel glue ups. Stress free and perfect results. This was my first time using that little Woodpeckers mini-scraper, and it worked awesome. I scraped the squeeze out about an hour after the glue up, and the surface afterward is perfect- no glue to fix, no flattening necessary at all, etc. I’m ready to trim the edges to final dimension and get right to finish sanding, essentially. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 I love those menards clamps so good so CHEAP! Don't see them on this forum very often. Oh yeah that walnut looks ok too jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 I like me some walnut a bunch and yours is darn nice as well. Keep us posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted August 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 9 hours ago, Chestnut said: I love those menards clamps so good so CHEAP! Don't see them on this forum very often. Oh yeah that walnut looks ok too jealous. Yep, they’re great. Nice and strong, and a really deep jaw- they can reach a bunch of places that no other clamps of mine can. I need to get a handful more. This walnut all came from a big purchase I made last year off CL... local stair builder mills their own wood on a huge old circular sawmill, they sell their excess supply... it was almost 200bf, and for an absurdly low price. By the time I’m through with the pile, it will have built a big walnut feature wall in my family room, a kitchen table, this desk, two fireplace mantels, Marc’s executive desk (the top, anyway), and Cremona’s sideboard (top plus some rails, I think). All of the big table/desk tops (outside of this writing desk) will be bookmatched pieces- I haven’t even gotten into that section of the pile, those are the best boards. I just wish these guys sawed up more stuff, it has been INCREDIBLE to work with... and I didn’t go broke buying it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kurt Triebe Posted September 3, 2018 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 All parts for the desk base milled/cut to final dimensions, all the joinery done. The bridle joints were tricky, because I don’t have a great band saw and I suck and chisels. Took me a while to get all of those to fully seat properly. Next up- the decorative elements... cutting the arch into the aprons, softening the edges, chamfering the exposed bridle joints, etc. I got a new spokeshave to help with the arch, that’ll be fun. Never used a spokeshave before. Maybe glue the base up tonight if I’m on the ball! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted September 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Cut the curves into the aprons... man this was fun! Never used a spokeshave before, this thing is a treat. Drawing bow to create that arch, bandsaw ‘em both at the same time, fix the mistakes on the spindle sander, then clean up the edges with the spokeshave. Then an upside-down dry fit. Everything is reaaaaaaally fitting nicely at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Nah, you didn’t get that curl off of that plane ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted September 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 12 minutes ago, K Cooper said: Nah, you didn’t get that curl off of that plane ? Crazy, huh? Got a continuous full width shaving for nearly the entire 42” span of that arch. One of the arches was cooperative like that... the other one, with the big knots... decidedly less so. I had to do a bunch of much shorter strokes on that one, but it came out well enough. That’s the rear arch, will hardly ever be seen/felt. The cooperative one gets to live in the front of the desk, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 One lucky guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Is big knot the rear apron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted September 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Just now, Chestnut said: Is big knot the rear apron? Yeah. The piece with the grain that follows the curve of the arch is in front, the knotty guy is the rear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Great job on the wood choice for the front arch! Very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Triebe Posted September 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 4 hours ago, pkinneb said: Great job on the wood choice for the front arch! Very nice. Thanks! If that had been a regular straight grained piece, I probably would have used that funky knotty piece instead for the front- but that grain pattern is just perfect for these curved aprons, it was an obvious choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kurt Triebe Posted September 5, 2018 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Did some sanding and decided to give the desk recipient a chance to see what it’ll look like, and help out a bit, with a mineral spirits wipe down. Don’t worry, she was only there inhaling fumes for 10 seconds lol. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 “Now see dad, this is how you do it without those silly gloves!” Really cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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