Under cabinet for desk

[Cliff]

Last month I finished my desk build. In a way it was only half the job, because I wanted to minimize the work so I wasn't stuck on another 8-10 month project. So I designed the desk in a way that I could build a cabinet to slide underneath it. 

I had a major challenge - my desk was not flat. I was never able to get it flat without dropping under 1 3/8" thick and rather than go buy new stock or bring more in from my drying pile (air dried so it would take probably a few weeks to get to the shop equilibrium) I just rolled with it. Because if the top of it isn't flat, but I can't notice it while it's in my office, then who cares?

Desk pic, if you don't recall/care:

 

This is the sketchup drawing I did. I ended up reducing the depth from 26.5" to be even with desk to about 25" so that you won't be able to see how uneven the gap is going to be between the bottom of the desk an the top of the cabinet. I figured it was either that or build some sort of trim to cover it up, or even worse, build the desk to be out of square. I wasn't willing to deliberately build it out of square because trying to get things square has been such a difficult path for me. 

All of my stock was a MINIMUM of 16" wide, and 5/4. The 8/4 boards, I "resawed" by using a track saw to put a clean edge, then the track saw again to bring the width to about 7 7/8" (so it would fit jointer) then ran on edge on the table saw on each side. My bandsaw needs tuned up and I was too lazy to do it so this is how I decided to resaw. 

 

I tried to do a grain match with a sort of bookmatch where possible on the sides, as they would be the only real visible components in the carcass. Marked for dominos.

 

I'm going to admit something that will make me look stupid. I have serious troubles getting flush panels with the domino. I literally do better without it. If I have 4 glue joints in a panel, 3 out of 4 will be dead flush and 1 with a small lip - without the domino for alignment. With it - usually one or two glue joints looks like this:

That irritates me. Anyway, I sanded flush then marked the center points for my two horizontal dividers. Then loaded up a Whiteside dovetail bit - forgot what size.  And seeing this picture makes me realize why I love Festool so much, as there was almost zero dust. 

 

Here is when I hit my first mistake. I had jointed one side of the panel and then used a track saw to square a side. And look where my saw went through

Luckily I only used Dominos on one panel. Since each side of the cabinet is sort of a mirror image, and I wanted the cathedrals pointed in a particular direction - I could not make this the bottom. Good thing it will be covered with a desk top. 

Front:

 

Dry fit, but without a back or anything so everything is a little skewed. It was here that I was pleased that my guaranteed mistake had already come with the cutting through Dominos. I measured and saw that the case was dead nuts square and my measurements of the internal drawer area perfectly matched the Sketchup drawing. 

I laid out the center line for the vertical divider. Yes, I really love that little Milwaukee M12 portable light. The lumen power is amazing. 

 

 

[wtnhighlander]

Cliff, if you have better luck doing panel glue-ups with no dominoes, why keep using them? The glue joint should already be stronger than the wood. 

The grain arrangement in that case side looks great, BTW.

[Cliff]

The top of my case is just a small piece, using most of the room allowed by my desk legs. Since it won't be visible, thought it was a great time to try hand cut dovetails. Look away to avoid disaster. I'll be honest, I thought I'd do better, which as many videos as I've watched on doing this. 

Layout

First cuts, look pretty good. 

Second you can see I wandered from the line, but considering this is my very first freehand saw cut to a line - I'm not mad at it. 

Coping saw, I could use some practice. And a better coping saw than my $7 lowes saw. I've had my eye on the Knew Concepts one for a long time. 

New Veritas chisels sharpened up. 

Really sharp. I am actually discovered that you have to file the edges down on these. I walked away from this with 11 individual cuts on my hands. None from the tip of the chisels. 

Final product - looks ok, could be better.. 

Laid out the pins, lost my marking knife. I ordered a new one from Lee Valley but like everything it seems from there, it was on backorder. I just got notification yesterday that it shipped. In the meantime I used the thinnest pencil I had. It was not good enough. 

I stayed pretty far from the lines so I could chisel them. I thought I could chisel accurately to the line. Spoiler: I can't. 

Yup there they are. 

 

 

 

 

[Cliff]

I found the center of my dovetail bit on the router table. After I had found it and marked it, I noticed the plate has a zero mark. It did not match my center line. But as far as I could tell, mine is right. So I stuck with that. Then I cut my vertical divider grooves. Followed by making the matching dovetails on the divider. 

This is what my side pieces look like with all the cuts made. I couldn't believe this all worked out so smoothly.

Test fit of vertical divider. I don't have microadjust on my router table, not sure you can do any sort of microadjust with the setup I have (as in woodpeckers/Incra setup.) Because of that I left the dovetails oversized. Then I sanded my fingers raw to get them to fit. 

I dry fit the entire thing, then glued one horizontal piece, and the dovetailed top board. Came back the next day and glued in the other horizontal piece. First horizontal piece I put glue in the groove. Second one I put the glue on the tails. Guess which one seized up and required hammering as hard as I could (with a pine piece to protect the walnut) until my arm fell off? It's the next day and my arm is still in massive pain. 

I also fixed a gaps and added wood filler. Also while looking at this I realized my back panel has to be trimmed. It needs to be 5" from the top to fit under the legs. So that will be up next. 

 

 

 

 

 

[drzaius]

1 hour ago, Cliff said:

Test fit of vertical divider. I don't have microadjust on my router table, not sure you can do any sort of microadjust with the setup I have (as in woodpeckers/Incra setup.) Because of that I left the dovetails oversized. Then I sanded my fingers raw to get them to fit. 

You are treating a micro-adjust as a crutch that you don't have. And you don't even need it. If you can't get the accuracy you need without one, then you're still going to have problems with one They are definitely a nice to have, but if you don't have one, you can still get the same high precision results. It just takes a few seconds longer to get things setup. Search YouTube for the technique you need to work on & you will find a method that works for you.

Same thing applies to your dovetail joint fit issues.

[Cliff]

1 hour ago, drzaius said:

You are treating a micro-adjust as a crutch that you don't have. And you don't even need it. If you can't get the accuracy you need without one, then you're still going to have problems with one They are definitely a nice to have, but if you don't have one, you can still get the same high precision results. It just takes a few seconds longer to get things setup. Search YouTube for the technique you need to work on & you will find a method that works for you.

Same thing applies to your dovetail joint fit issues.

Well, first, there is nothing wrong with a crutch. I'm not a pro, I don't care how I achieve results. I don't care if I crutch my way through every wood project for the rest of my life.  

My normal method here would have been to place a mag switch magnet at the fence with a 1/32" shim then take the shim away and tap the fence to the magnet. I lost my magnet though. By lost I mean, I found it 3 hours later sitting on the planer right in front of me. This method is certainly much better than the method i tried without it. Tapping the sawstop router fence is difficult and prone to wild inaccuracy. 

[Coop]

It actually came out respectable considering a couple of your sentences contained; “it’s not flat but who cares” and “I’m too lazy to tune up a machine”. 

[drzaius]

2 hours ago, Cliff said:

Well, first, there is nothing wrong with a crutch. I'm not a pro, I don't care how I achieve results. I don't care if I crutch my way through every wood project for the rest of my life.  

I didn't explain myself very well. I didn't mean to disparage the crutch. Crutches are good & I've used them myself.

My point was that having difficulty with accuracy is not typically going to be solved by getting a micro adjust. That just makes the process easier & quicker. By all means, get whatever will make your woodworking more enjoyable. I was just suggesting that it would be a good idea to address your issue of not being accurate because that can only be helpful whether you have the micro-adjust or not

[Cliff]

On 7/12/2020 at 6:01 PM, Coop said:

It actually came out respectable considering a couple of your sentences contained; “it’s not flat but who cares” and “I’m too lazy to tune up a machine”. 

Well over a 100 inch span, does a desk need to be truly flat? I wish it was. I tried to get there. But I've been using it for 2 months and absolutely cannot notice. Therefore, who cares. It wasn't who cares first, then don't try. I think that's an important distinction.

[Coop]

You bet! As long as your preferred drink doesn’t spill onto your keyboard, you’re good to go. 

[Ronn W]

On 7/12/2020 at 12:50 PM, Cliff said:

Laid out the pins, lost my marking knife. I ordered a new one from Lee Valley but like everything it seems from there, it was on backorder. I just got notification yesterday that it shipped. In the meantime I used the thinnest pencil I had. It was not good enough. 

I find that an exacto knife with a #11 blade is great for scribing dovetails.

[wtnhighlander]

6 hours ago, Ronn W said:

I find that an exacto knife with a #11 blade is great for scribing dovetails.

I purchased a 1/4" marking knife blank from Ron Hock some time ago, and epoxied a bit of cherry to it as a handle. Leaving the point extended about 2" makes it easy to reach into nooks and crannies.

[Cliff]

18 hours ago, Ronn W said:

I find that an exacto knife with a #11 blade is great for scribing dovetails.

I wish I had thought of that. My wife has those sitting around

 

19 hours ago, Coop said:

You bet! As long as your preferred drink doesn’t spill onto your keyboard, you’re good to go. 

Wouldn't be the first time! As an avid gamer, I often spill things with little to no help of desk flatness. 

[Cliff]

This is what the dovetails look like rough sanded with water on them. Yeah, you can definitely tell if you know what to look for. But I'm pleased with my first try.

 

I got my center vertical divider in and finish sanded the inside of the case. Then put on finish. I'm hesitant to do the outside at all because I'm bound to nick places while doing drawers. Since it's hard wax oil, the finish will blend pretty easily when I do catch the rest of the case up.

Speaking of drawers

Looking at this board right now. My total opening is 15 1/4" tall. This board at its smallest width (pic #1) is 11". At it's largest, it's 16". That seems like a very tight tolerance for me to get 10 drawer fronts out of with perfect continuity. If I choose the end in the second pic, where the board is 15 1/2" - Bandsaw blade is what? 1/16th"? So I'd take up a minimum 1/4" with bandsaw cuts. Then I have to clean up edges to get straight and final height would ideally be just a hair over 3" if I can swing it. That seems pretty difficult. So I'm going to think on it for a while. The other option is just cut wherever I like the grain the best and try to make them look relatively continuous.

 

 

[Chip Sawdust]

Love the grain on that board! I'd put it someplace prominent.

[Cliff]

Tonight I fit the first drawer front. Hopefully will be able to glue it up tomorrow. 

 

[Coyote Jim]

This is shaping up very well and looking really good. 

And that grain. Just wow!

[Cliff]

Look it's drawer parts!

Due to some unfortunate circumstances involving a featherboard covering up my routing and the gap in the fence not representing the bit like I thought it was, I plowed right through all 10 of the drawer fronts on the side.

So I spent today repairing them

Once I sand and finish, I think they'l be fine.

 

And man do I regret not getting either maple or walnut plywood for drawer bottoms. Tomorrow I'll be doing nothing but milling and resawing.

[RichardA]

All 10 drawer fronts??? Should have been just one.

[Cliff]

3 hours ago, RichardA said:

All 10 drawer fronts??? Should have been just one.

It was like I was blind to seeing it until after I was done. So weird. I was at the router table an hour and a half with siding dovetails and grooves and my mind wandered

[RichardA]

Your mind wandered?  Be thankful a finger or two didn't join your mind.

[Cliff]

14 hours ago, RichardA said:

Your mind wandered?  Be thankful a finger or two didn't join your mind.

It didn't wander that far. I also had so much stuff in the way I'd have had to really struggle to get a finger in the bit. That was why I made this mistake, I couldn't see very well. 

[Coop]

On 7/28/2020 at 6:16 PM, RichardA said:

All 10 drawer fronts??? Should have been just one.

Cliff, I think he meant that you were doing just one drawer for the desk. I guess there is another project? 

[RichardA]

1 minute ago, Coop said:

Cliff, I think he meant that you were doing just one drawer for the desk. I guess there is another project? 

[Cliff]

Been making drawers, fitting, remaking, having a great time.

This morning I put in slides. 

I like this method cause it's super easy. As long as you have the right measurements. Spoiler alert.

I used a tape measure to get my measurements, and I think that was a huge mistake. There is a variability there that didn't work out too well. But this is recoverable. I move a drawer slide up, one down, maybe adjust a few others and I should be in good shape. I was pretty well hoping I could put them in and it would be perfect, but it was not to be.