Laptop Desk - DowelMax

Saturday is my son-in-law’s birthday and this week I made a present for him – twice.

The first one wasn’t “good enough” (we won’t discuss that) and so I chose to make a second one and fix my errors.

Why a laptop desk? He uses a laptop and often sits with it on the couch. I thought it would be nice to have a little desk that he could sit the laptop on while he worked or took a break.

Why walnut? To match the table that I made for my daughter last month.

Process:
I wanted the desk to be about 12” wide and my boards were about 8”, so I had to join two boards together to form the top.

I planed the boards and then ran them through the jointer.

I then let Rick cut them both down to 6” each on the table saw.

I sanded the pieces and then cut them to length, cutting off (2) 12” “legs” from the bottom of each board.
This left my boards to be appropx 2’ in length for the desktop.

Using the DowelMax, I joined the two top pieces together.
I then used the DowelMax on the legs.

Then, I had to reconfigure the DowelMax to clamp along the bottom of the top and to give me a little edge on the side for a handhold. Then, I made the holes, glued the dowels in place and voila. Done.

Well, almost done; Rick is going to take the two gifts to his work and have them sprayed with their choice of finishes. I think they are leaning towards a simple poly finish, although they also prefer the really dark stain.

Next birthday: my Mom’s 80th in Sept (actually… I have 2 birthdays to prepare for.. well 3 really…
my Mom: September 13
my granddaughter: September 13
my son: September 24.

I have to get busy!! Any ideas?? :) (My son’s and granddaughter’s have to travel across the country)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)