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Jump to Projects: Secretary Desk, Hall Mirror Stand, Homework
Desk, Large Cedar Chest, Book
Shelves
This is a list of some of the wood projects that I've designed and created
over the years. It is as much to jog my feeble memory as it is to show off
some of my work. For each piece, I have included a list of mistakes that I
made (and how I covered them up,) in hopes that I won't repeat them.
In most of my "serious" projects, I make attempts to use as little
hardware as I can. More time and more complex joints are required to do
this, but that's part of the fun.
Secretary Desk
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Completed: May, 2004 (should have been done Summer 2003, but
rehab from a
shoulder injury prevented work on it).
Material: 4/4 Cherry. 1/2" poplar for drawer sides.
1/4" plywood for drawer bottoms and desk back.
Hardware: Two hinges for desktop drop-leaf, ten drawer pulls,
and two drop-leaf support pulls. Ten brads to secure the ogee feet fronts. No
hardware was used in the desk and drawer structure at all.
Finish: Tung oil.
Dimensions: 35"W x 41"H x 20"D
Design Elements: Glued-up side panels, top, desktop, and
drop-leaf with breadboard ends. Several "cubby-hole" shelves inside. Four main drawers
(tiered in size) and two small drawers inside. Two sliding drop-leaf supports.
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| Build: The side panels, desktop, and top were glued-up first. The ogee-feet pattern was
cut into the two desk sides. The drop-leaf was glued-up with pinned breadboard
ends. Four drawer support frames were built using mortise-and-tenon joints. The
frames and desktop were fastened to the sides with ten full-length sliding
(hidden) dovetails, glued only at the front 1" to allow for seasonal wood
movement. The "carcass" at this point was incredibly strong, it
could probably hold 500 pounds - and no hardware was used at all. Two ogee-feet backers were fixed to the sides and bottom
frame in the front. The inner shelves were assembled and fastened in place with
hidden dadoes. Then the top was secured to the sides with half-blind dovetails.
The drop-leaf was secured to the desktop with heavy-duty desk hinges. The
drawers were made with machined dovetails - front and back. The bottom three
main drawers were made to be recessed on all four sides. The top drawer and
inner drawers were made to be flush to the front. The sliding drop-leaf supports
were made with slots to accept a 1/4" dowel. Small end-caps were used on each slider
to cover the end-grain. A small piece of cherry
with a 1/4" hole drilled in it to accept the dowel was secured to each desk
side. The simple mechanism holds the slides in place, but allows them to be
moved in and out. Finally, the ogee feet fronts (whose profiles matched those
already in place) were fastened to the sides with glue and brads. The coves on
the ogee feet were made with several deepening passes at an oblique angle across
the table saw. The profile was made from a free-hand pattern and cut with a jig
saw. |
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Impressions
and Comments:
 | Standard, yet simple (Shaker inspired) secretary desk style |
| Ogee feet give a simple design a more stately look |
| Cherry looks terrific |
| Very useful and compact |
Problems, Mistakes, and Cover-ups:
| The ill-matching grain on the left side was a minor concern. |
| Visible sapwood on the inside-left (see picture) and in the left side top
was a mistake that may have been unavoidable. With limited Cherry boards of
significant length without defects and good color match, it is unlikely that
I would have been able to hide all sapwood. |
| I thought that the machined dovetail between the top and sides was a
necessary-evil (for the sake of structural integrity). What I did not
realize was that the ten sliding dovetails would be incredibly
strong, and that was all the structural integrity I would need. The top
should have been fastened with a hidden joint. |
| The biggest problem, which remains a problem is the drop-leaf. I messed up
the breadboards the first time, re-did them, and I am still not happy with
it. The drop-leaf bows slightly and does not fit the desk opening well.
Someday I may redo the drop-leaf... maybe. |
| A few of the shelves on the inside have "gappy" joints. It was
very difficult to get everything to match up on all sides - especially at
glue-up time, which had to be done all at once. It was a very complex
process to get all of the shelves, the top, and the back in place all at
once for glue-up. |
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Hall Mirror Stand
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Completed:
November, 2002
Material: 8/4 Black Walnut legs and upper frame. 4/4 Black
Walnut table, bottom shelf, sides, and mirror supports. 1/2" poplar for drawer.
Hardware: Drawer pull, mirror, "clips" to hold mirror
in place.
Finish: Tung oil.
Dimensions: 19"W x 78"H x 12"D
Design Elements: Turned legs joining upper frame. Curved
bottom shelf with through mortises in legs. Beveled mirror attached top
and bottom, 3/4" gaps at the sides. Dovetailed drawer. Table
top with routed ogee edge.
Build: Legs were turned first. A 2" long, 3/4"
diameter dowel was turned into the tops of the rear legs to receive the upper
frame pieces, which had mating 3/4" holes drilled (using home-made
jig). Mortise and tenon joints were used everywhere. Through
mortises in legs to receive the bottom shelf. Drawer front was dovetailed
to drawer sides. Rear of drawer used a dado/rabbet joint. |
Homework Desk
 Completed:
November, 2002 (in 6 days)
Material: 8/4 Soft Maple legs. 4/4 Soft Maple top, frame, drawer
front. 1/2" poplar drawer sides.
Hardware: Drawer pulls, drawer slides, screws for corner braces
and top.
Finish: Near-clear poly. stain.
Dimensions: 30"W x 24"H x 18"D
Design Elements: Tapered legs. Large flat table top with
breadboard edges. Spacious drawer.
Build: Legs were cut using a home-made taper jig. Sides
and frame were mortised and tenoned together. Table top was glued up with
breadboard edges and screwed down to the frame. Drawer slides were
employed for ease of use.
Impressions and Comments:
| Simple design |
| Quick construction required (for a birthday,) thus lots of hardware used |
Problems, Mistakes, and Cover-ups:
| Some of the maple pieces had strange grain and/or coloration. This
interferes with the look of the final result somewhat, but the worst piece
was used in the back. |
| Grain looks a bit different from leg to leg. I should have paid more
attention to which sides of each piece were to receive the tapers to
alleviate this. |
Large Cedar Chest
Completed: April, 2002
Material: 4/4 Red Aromatic Cedar.
Hardware: Piano hinge, screws for bottom.
Finish: Clear Poly.
Dimensions: 48"W x 22"H x 18"D
Design Elements: A modified "Norm" design. Eight
12" x 12" floating panels. 24 mortise and tenon joints.
Build: Each panel consisted of re-sawn 4/4 pieces which yielded
1/2" thick panels (3 pieces glued-up). Frames were constructed using
mortise and tenon joints allowing the panels to "float". The
legs are just modifications to the frame with a simple arc design. Front
and back frames were joined to sides with a tongue and groove joint. Top
was glued-up from 5 boards and attached to the back with a hinge. Corner
braces added for strength.
Impressions and Comments:
| Knotty red cedar looks and smells terrific. |
| The 4/4 cedar that I got from Grizzly was 7/8" to 1"
thick. This made the 1/2" panels possible. They would have
been much thinner, otherwise. |
Problems, Mistakes, and Cover-ups:
| Cedar is very soft and brittle. Corner braces were added that might
not have been necessary for a harder wood. |
| Routing 24 mortises proved to be a huge chore. A drill press with
mortise chisel was first on my birthday list after this project. |
Book Shelves
Completed: May, 2001
Material: 4/4 Red Oak top, sides, and fascia. 3/4" oak
plywood shelves and bottom. 1/4" oak plywood back.
Hardware: Brads for back.
Finish: Clear poly.
Dimensions: 24"W x 38"H x 10"D
Design Elements: Simple book shelf design with dovetailed top
and chamfered sides.
Build: Top and sides were glued up from 3 boards each. Top was
dovetailed to both sides using a home-made dovetail jig. Bottom was dadoed
into sides. The front of each side received a chamfer for about 3/4 of the
height. Shelves rest freely on wooden dowels. Fascia was dowelled
and glued. Back was rabbetted all around and nailed.
Impressions and Comments:
| Simple, clean lines |
| Turned out very nice |
Problems, Mistakes, and Cover-ups:
| One of the oak boards was sort of a
gray color. The resulting glue-up produced results that were not as
good as hoped. |
| My original plan did not call for a fascia board on the top. But, I
cut both dovetails left-to-right, which resulted in a visible gap on one
side of the front and one side of the back. The gaps should have both
been at the back, and thus invisible. So, the fascia board was
added. The result is, I feel, nicer than the plan. |
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