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Fitting the drawers on assembled stand-up desk

March 25, 2010 By

With the base assembled, the next step is to fit the drawers of the stand-up desk. This is accomplished in at least three steps: 1- ensuring a perfectly flat surface of the sides on the dust cover; 2-adjust the width of each drawer such that they fit perfectly, without binding; 3-adjust the reveal around the perimeter of the drawer front.

It is sensible to start by ensuring that the drawers are perfectly flat on the dust cover; if the drawer rocks in any way, it means two corners are low. The trick is to define which sections of the drawer sides must be planed, to get to the sides perfectly flat on the dust cover. To do this I use a hand plane, checking for flatness every few strokes. The following photo shows the amount of shavings after adjusting the bottoms on three drawers:

Getting drawers flat.

Once a drawer is perfectly flat on the dust cover, and the sides fit the opening nicely, it is time to adjust the drawer front to get a perfect reveal around the perimeter. Again, a hand plane is key to accomplish this:

Adjusting reveal on the drawer front.

With all four drawers laying perfectly flat on the dust cover, this shot will remind me of the work required to get to this point. The drawer fronts still need a little flattening, but it is now a close fit:

Overhead shot of drawers.

At least two of the drawers still need a little work to leave a perfect reveal – can you tell which ones need this in the following photo?

Front view of desk.

This is a wonderful part of the project, as it is the little details that will make a great piece. Little by little I am getting there.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Education, furniture Tagged With: ,

Love the grits!

February 24, 2010 By

Love the grit of your sandpaper, as it is critical in the finishing process. If you follow the blog, you know I prefer to use waterborne coatings; and sanding is critical, because these coatings cause the grain to raise. A good sanding will knock down the raised grain, preparing the road for a wonderfully smooth finish.

In this blog entry you get two for the price of one: A tip to help you keep track of your coating’s life, and something to help you get a nice, smooth finish.

In a recent article I showed how I go about prepping the legs to seal the wood for the stand-up desk, and to impart a wonderful reddish tint to the walnut by using a waterborne garnet shellac from Target Coatings, UltraSeal-WB. This product, like most waterborne coatings, raises the grain; as a result, light sanding is required to ensure a nice, smooth finish. I first tried the shellac on a test leg, to make sure it was still in satisfactory condition, as the can was close to one year old. This brings me to the following Tip-of-the-Day:

Tip for the use of coatings: Using permanent marker, always mark on the lid the date on which you first opened the container. Exposure to air is many times responsible for the premature expiration of perfectly good coating materials. The shellac was getting close to the first-year anniversary of the UltraSeal-WB:

As the application of the UltraSeal-WB went well on the tests on the spare leg I made, I proceeded to apply the initial seal coat to all four legs, using a lint-free rag:

It was apparent on inspection that I would need to sand, as the first application of shellac raised the grain significantly – the wood surface felt almost as rough as 150-grit sandpaper:

I proceeded to sand all surfaces on the legs with 3M’s 216U Fre-Cut™ Gold 600-grit sandpaper, which I mentioned in an earlier blog entry titled Sanding — gotta love it. Viewing the results of sanding at a low angle reflects the light nicely, an indication that the wood surface is now smooth:

Using 600-grit 216U sandpaper allows sanding of critical areas, such as the bevel on the legs – I would normally worry about sanding away too much of the thin layer of shellac at the corners, and rounding the corners, but not with this sandpaper:

Now I can continue the finishing process: I will give a second application of the garnet shellac to the walnut legs. The white oak, high in tannin content, will receive one or two coats of alcohol-based shellac, to seal the surface. Note: Avoid high-pH waterborne coatings directly on the raw wood surface of high-tannin woods like red and white oak, as pinholing and bridging are likely to develop; that would make it difficult to get a nice, smooth finish.

Following all these preliminary finishing steps I will do a dry fit, in preparation for the glue-up. The glue-up will include drawboring of the mortise & tenon joinery. Then, and only then, will the desk be ready for the waterborne topcoat, Emtech 2000wvx alkyd varnish; I will do that in the finishing room.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Finishing, furniture Tagged With: , , , , ,

Revisiting the use of a template to make a divider

February 3, 2010 By

Following the initial fit of the drawers, I want to re-visit how I went about making and fitting the divider rib shown in this photo (please bear with me, as I already described this process in an earlier article; however, the drawers were but a twinkle at that time). It is a simple process; and I keep this in mind as I approach making the drawer guides required to keep the drawers in place.

Critical layout using a large framing square is a must, to ensure proper alignment of the tapers on the side aprons with the taper on the divider. Now we can see the divider in the context of the drawer locations:

I suggest using the back of the back apron as the reference surface for the edge of the framing square, for best accuracy.

I made a template using ¼-inch plywood, carefully adjusting the length to the space from the back apron to the front apron. But, most importantly, to ensure proper alignment with the side aprons:

Fine tuning the angles became trivial, using a block plane, measuring, re-measuring, and measuring one more time:

Satisfied with the fit, I used the template to transfer the outline to the piece of quarter-sawn white oak that will become the divider:

Before cutting to the line on the band saw, I measured one more time:

I cut close to the line on the band saw, leaving the line. I then used the Krenov-style hand plane to trim to the line, for final fit:

Why did I use quarter sawn white oak for this divider? For the simple reason that the side aprons are also quarter sawn white oak, and I want the divider to move identically with changes in humidity. This is a design element that should ensure long-term flatness of the top.

But first I must tackle the 61-inch long stretcher between the legs; that will require mortises on the front-to-back stretchers, and tenons on the long stretcher. I will do this later today.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, furniture, Joinery, Layout Tagged With: , , ,

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