# Taliesin Desk Build - How's and Why's



## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Part #1 - Where to Start*

*First things first:* I am a mostly self-taught woodworker that has been at it for about 20 years. I've made a wide range of projects, mostly focused around furniture and accessories for the house, typically Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Stickley, and Greene and Greene influences.

I've been working in the chemical manufacturing world as a chemical engineer for 27 years. I'm currently a Project Engineer by day, working for one of the largest corn processing companies in the world building chemical facilities.

As my woodworking skills have progressed, I find the most helpful tips come from other woodworkers and not so much from the numerous publications out there that claim to have some kind of great and wonderful new, secret tip. Furthermore, as I read through many of the projects posted around the internet, I find that most of them focus on "WHAT" was done, not necessarily "HOW" something was done, and more importantly "WHY" it was done that particular way.

I remember watching "New Yankee Workshop" marveling that Norm Abrams always had the perfect tool and set up for whatever task he was performing, and it always looked so quick and easy, without really showing more than a token clip of the work. I would get out the woodworking magazines and catalogs (early days of the internet when catalogs still were sent out), or look on the internet to see what the jig, tool, or machine was and how much it cost thinking this must be the item I needed. Usually, it was prohibitively expensive, had limited use, or some other major limitation which meant I wasn't going to buy it. Over time I realized that I needed to figure out how to creatively use the tools and equipment I have….. and occasionally buy something new and cool if my conscience (wife) let me.

With that background, I want to focus on the "HOW" and "WHY" aspects of my current woodworking project.

*First Step - Figure out what you want *

I want a new computer desk. The glass topped abomination that currently sits in the office was never intended as a permanent fixture.










I spent several months looking at, and saving, pictures whenever I saw something I liked, trying to come up with a look that was compatible with the Stickley table that I built for my wife's scrap booking while highlighting other aspects of the A&C approach. Google Images is a great way to look through lots of pictures. I searched variations of Craftsman, A&C, G&G, desk, table, to find images. In the process, I kept coming back to Kevin Rodel's Taleisin Desk. His work has elements of Charles Mackintosh and I just finished renovating our bathroom using Mackintosh elements in it.

From there I found Jim Young's excellent, thorough LJ blog on his build of the Taleisin Desk. I read through it several times and looked at all of the pictures he included and his discussion of what he did. I decided that this would be the desk I built. All of the window shopping took a while, but it was time well spent. Take the time to define a clear idea of what you want and how it will work with the rest of the room, area, and surrounding furniture.

Next Up - More decisions


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Part #1 - Where to Start*
> 
> *First things first:* I am a mostly self-taught woodworker that has been at it for about 20 years. I've made a wide range of projects, mostly focused around furniture and accessories for the house, typically Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Stickley, and Greene and Greene influences.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl-I made Rodel's Taliesen desk into a table. Check out my projects. Well, I think that was it-I'm gone for a week, but could answer any questions about what I did.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Part #1 - Where to Start*
> 
> *First things first:* I am a mostly self-taught woodworker that has been at it for about 20 years. I've made a wide range of projects, mostly focused around furniture and accessories for the house, typically Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Stickley, and Greene and Greene influences.
> 
> ...


First things first, but not necessarily in that order. - Mark Twain

Congratulations on taking on Kevin Rodel's Taliesin Desk. It's a beautiful piece and inspired me to make a somewhat similar version for our dining table. It will be a challenging project that you will be proud of. Also, thanks for starting this blog. I needed something like this to read with my morning cuppa Joe until Jim starts another one. I also appreciate the "why" approach as that's how I teach.

I actually credit Norm for teaching me how to do woodworking, even though I always suspected that his techniques were based on the free tools sponsors had given him, making it tough for someone to start out to decide what I actually needed. I didn't find out until decades later that he had someone do all the setup on the tools for him off camera. No wonder he can make an armoire over a weekend and it takes me 4 months.

I'm looking forward to your progress. For the readers, here's a pic of the table in question.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

EarlS said:


> *Part #1 - Where to Start*
> 
> *First things first:* I am a mostly self-taught woodworker that has been at it for about 20 years. I've made a wide range of projects, mostly focused around furniture and accessories for the house, typically Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Stickley, and Greene and Greene influences.
> 
> ...


I realized I didn't post a picture of the desk in the first post. Thanks Captain Skully for helping me out.

Chuck - it was a table and I spent a fair amount of time looking it over as well.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Part #1 - Where to Start*
> 
> *First things first:* I am a mostly self-taught woodworker that has been at it for about 20 years. I've made a wide range of projects, mostly focused around furniture and accessories for the house, typically Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Stickley, and Greene and Greene influences.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

Looking forward to following along with your project and your perspective.

If you need any help along the way, just ask.

Good luck,


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Part #2:	Decisions, Decisions, and more Decisions*

Great, now I know what I want to build AND I think it will be compatible with the style of other furnishings in the room.

I have a picture, provided by Captain Skully, since I forgot to post one. Many thanks!!

Before I go any further, I must give credit to Kevin Rodel for his design. I wish I could afford to buy his works, they are amazing. Thank you for providing the rest of us with such inspirational pieces to imitate. If this turns out well I might try reproducing the Glasgow desk. If I win Powerball I will buy one of each….. now where is the magic 8 ball so I can pick my numbers….???

The hard part is over, right? Time to start cutting some wood. Well, no not really. Now the hard part starts - identifying all of the crucial details that make the desk a work of art, worthy of notice.

If you want a plain desk, pick up a couple of 4×4's and a piece of plywood at the big box store. If you want a work of art, you have to identify those elements that make it truly exceptional. What makes this desk special? Why does it stand out?

To me, the wedged thru -tenons and the side spindles are quintessential Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style, the slightly thicker bread board ends with the ebony bars are Greene and Greene, toned down slightly since the signature ebony splines and square plugs are not included, the graceful curves in the long stretchers and the bottom aprons are reminiscent of Stickley, softening the square Prairie lines. The blending of these styles is what draws me to this desk.

Still, I'm not sure what to make of the walnut or ebony cut outs on the legs. Similarly, the tapered bars across the bottom of the drawers are interesting but the jury is still out on them as well. I definitely like the hidden nature of the drawers, no pulls.

Why, you ask, does all of this matter? For me, it helps clarify why I want to build a desk like this, it will keep me focused on these design elements so I don't stray and start adding a lot of bits and pieces of details that don't flow with the design. Nothing is worse than finishing a piece that with all kinds of disparate details that you like, only to realize they don't work together and the piece looks horrible.

So I have a picture and there a few small details that I want to change. I am very fond of using walnut and cherry together. The top will be 4/4 walnut and the breadboards will be 5/4 walnut. The inner spindles and the small vertical and horizontal spindles will be walnut. I'm also making the desk 1" taller and a couple of inches wider and longer. I'm still thinking about the tapered bars on the drawers. The walnut inserts might need something like a grid to liven them up… still thinking….

While I ponder the finish details, it is time to start on dimensions, plans details and a cut list.

Depending on what you decide to build, you can start with a complete set of plans and directions. Woodsmith, Taunton Press, and others have complete plans you can buy which can be a huge time saver if that is exactly, or nearly exactly what you want. I recently finished a G&G bed that started out as a complete plan and part way through I changed most of it except for the general dimensions. There are also many books with shop plans, less complete plans that give the crucial dimensions and information but leave the specifics up to you. I have a library of Woodsmith and Fine Woodworking magazines as well as numerous books on G&G, Stickley, Arts and Crafts, Bungalow, Prairie style, anything that has a project that catches my eye. You should be able to find something that gives the important details. After all, a desk is 4 legs and a top with some little boxes under the top.

In this case, I was fortunate to get a very detailed set of plans from a helpful person simply by asking. His kindness saved me a couple of months of work drawing up plans. That might be the most telling quality that I find in fellow woodworkers - the desire to help other woodworkers, whether that is with plans, tips, tools (as long as you give them back), or just encouragement. That sounds like a pitch for the idea behind Lumberjocks…..

At any rate, I have a set of plans and a cut list, marked up with the changes. I know what I like about the desk. I know what I want to change, and most importantly I know why I want to build one that looks like this, and not something else.

Part 3: Time to raid the wood stock in the shop….after this heat wave cools off.


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## Doe (Aug 26, 2010)

EarlS said:


> *Part #2:	Decisions, Decisions, and more Decisions*
> 
> Great, now I know what I want to build AND I think it will be compatible with the style of other furnishings in the room.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I'm really enjoying your series. I can't wait for the next exciting installment! I hope the weather cooperates.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Part 2B# - Inspiration at the Chicago Art Institute*

I realized shortly after posting Part #2 that some inspirational pictures might go a long way towards illustrating my point (like the pun?). After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Last summer we visited the Chicago Art Institute. Wow what a place. We saw plenty of major works of art. This one might be familiar:










Of course there were plenty of other Masterpieces. Then, towards the end of the day we sauntered into a gallery that had furniture in it. I immediately spotted a Greene and Greene chair and table. I could have spent hours just looking at all of the amazing details in the furniture and the other pieces, like the Grueby pottery you can see in the left side of the picture.










I almost got thrown out of the gallery because I was leaning too far over the yellow board on the floor to look at the details. The guard was not amused. I even promised I would not touch anything. No humor at all.





































There were also some Stickley pieces










This settle includes some Harvey Ellis inlay - spectacular



















More Gustav Stickley with Ellis inlay










There are plenty of plans out there based on this authentic Gustav Stickley Grandfather clock. Gorgeous!!!










Stickley still makes a version of this today. Our local fine furniture store has one on display.



















I really wanted to get a closer look at the joinery details and the top but the same guard was basically walking right behind me with a huge scowl on her face and her radio in hand. Sorry about the poor quality, I was rather excited and the battery was starting to die so I was snapping quickly.

A Tiffany lamp










I tried to find some of the Gustav Baumann woodcuts that were supposed to be in one of the galleries nearby but never did find it.

This Monet doesn't really have anything to do with the desk but I like his work.









So there are some pictures of things that inspire me. I have a huge catalog of on-line pictures of various pieces I have seen and saved. Each one has something special about it that I find interesting.


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## vikingcape (Jan 3, 2013)

EarlS said:


> *Part 2B# - Inspiration at the Chicago Art Institute*
> 
> I realized shortly after posting Part #2 that some inspirational pictures might go a long way towards illustrating my point (like the pun?). After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
> 
> ...


Now that is some inspiration. Thanks


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

EarlS said:


> *Part 2B# - Inspiration at the Chicago Art Institute*
> 
> I realized shortly after posting Part #2 that some inspirational pictures might go a long way towards illustrating my point (like the pun?). After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
> 
> ...


Probably a good thing I don't live in San Francisco or I would never get anything done except going to the Gamble House. There are several FLW buildings here in IA, including a bank so I might have to go looking for it and see what inspiration I can find there.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Part 2B# - Inspiration at the Chicago Art Institute*
> 
> I realized shortly after posting Part #2 that some inspirational pictures might go a long way towards illustrating my point (like the pun?). After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
> 
> ...


The Gamble House is in Pasadena and is spectacular. I highly recommend a tour if you get a chance. I got my first Bob Lang book in the gift shop there. Blacker House is also in Pasadena, but we didn't visit. Thorsen House is in Berkeley and is currently a frat house. I was able to get a quick tour of that, but it was nowhere near as breathtaking as Gamble. Also, the Met in Manhattan has some really nice A&C furniture on display.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Time to make some sawdust*

I don't have any 8/4 or 12/4 to make the legs and side aprons. Online 12/4 X36 square blanks are very expensive ($40 on Rockler) plus most of them are glued up. So I decided to make them from existing 6/4 and 4/4 stock. When the changes were made, I needed roughly 20 BF of 4/4 and 20 BF of 6/4 cherry for the legs, side aprons, various stretchers, as well as the drawer fronts and the back rail. I also needed some 5/4 square walnut spindles and some 4/4 square walnut spindles. The 4/4 walnut for the top will be purchased later, when I am ready for it, as will the maple for the drawer boxes and the plywood for the drawer bottoms. I'll also pick up some more cherry if the budget allows.

I made a cutlist from the Sketch-Up drawings:










While I was at it, I also printed off all of the various detail views. Here are the ones for the side top and bottom aprons and spindles. As you can see they also double as scratch paper for doing the math to make sure things add up and for making notes on changes.










As part of the process I have been trying to learn Sketch-Up. I bought the videos and have started to learn how to make a project. Very educational, though hard for me to un-learn all of the CAD that I have picked up over 25 years as an engineer. The approach is just different enough that this old dog will need to learn some new tricks. Fortunately, printing off the views is relatively easy. Until I learn more, my changes will be penciled in over the original dimensions.

I buy all of my lumber rough and plane and joint it myself - better quality control and 4/4 is really 4/4 and not 15/16"and not wavy with highs and lows. I use a Dewalt DW735 planer, the 2 speed, 13", good one, not the flimsy one that the big box stores sell. It has preset stops at 5/4, 4/4, ¾, ½", and ¼". I've found that the stop is ¼ of a turn high (1/64") so when I hit the stop I know I'm close. I also check each pass with my Wixley digital calipers. It reads out in a large font so it is easier on the eyes than the traditional dial version plus it also shows the measurement in decimal, perfect for using with the Wixley table saw digital read out.










I ran all of the 6/4 stock I had through the planer (~40 BF), then all of the 4/4 (~40 BF). I also pulled out all of the shorts I had and anything from the miscellaneous cutoffs that might be usable. With a little time and lots of measuring and re-measuring I had enough rough cut boards for the cherry pieces of the base frame.

From there I ran the rough cut lengths through the jointer. It is a lot easier to push shorter lengths across the jointer AFTER they are cut to rough length than it is to run a 96" board through the jointer then cut to rough length. With a straight edge I squared up both ends and ripped the boards to final width.

As as side note, the wood shavings from the dust collector work great as mulch around the trees we have along the back of the house.

A quick comment or two on ripping boards to width. I start from the jointed edge and work across the board toward the unfinished edge. The Wixley on the table saw fence really helps with the accuracy. Slide the fence so that the blade is just touching the fence, zero the Wixley and then set the width from there.



















I also use a Micro Jig Splitter in the table saw zero clearance insert to make sure the board doesn't bind up on the blade. I also use the anti-kickback rollers to hold the board down and a magnetic feather board to hold the board tight on the fence. Even still, there are still some burn marks on the sides.

Here is the initial pile of rough cut pieces for the legs, side aprons, spindles, and long stretchers. Doesn't look like much does it?










Next up - making legs


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Time to make some sawdust*
> 
> I don't have any 8/4 or 12/4 to make the legs and side aprons. Online 12/4 X36 square blanks are very expensive ($40 on Rockler) plus most of them are glued up. So I decided to make them from existing 6/4 and 4/4 stock. When the changes were made, I needed roughly 20 BF of 4/4 and 20 BF of 6/4 cherry for the legs, side aprons, various stretchers, as well as the drawer fronts and the back rail. I also needed some 5/4 square walnut spindles and some 4/4 square walnut spindles. The 4/4 walnut for the top will be purchased later, when I am ready for it, as will the maple for the drawer boxes and the plywood for the drawer bottoms. I'll also pick up some more cherry if the budget allows.
> 
> ...


Yay! Sawdust!


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Time to make some sawdust*
> 
> I don't have any 8/4 or 12/4 to make the legs and side aprons. Online 12/4 X36 square blanks are very expensive ($40 on Rockler) plus most of them are glued up. So I decided to make them from existing 6/4 and 4/4 stock. When the changes were made, I needed roughly 20 BF of 4/4 and 20 BF of 6/4 cherry for the legs, side aprons, various stretchers, as well as the drawer fronts and the back rail. I also needed some 5/4 square walnut spindles and some 4/4 square walnut spindles. The 4/4 walnut for the top will be purchased later, when I am ready for it, as will the maple for the drawer boxes and the plywood for the drawer bottoms. I'll also pick up some more cherry if the budget allows.
> 
> ...


No matter how hard I try, I always seem to burn cherry. I always cut it over size and bring it to final thickness with the planner.

Looking nice.


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## Oldtool (May 27, 2012)

EarlS said:


> *Time to make some sawdust*
> 
> I don't have any 8/4 or 12/4 to make the legs and side aprons. Online 12/4 X36 square blanks are very expensive ($40 on Rockler) plus most of them are glued up. So I decided to make them from existing 6/4 and 4/4 stock. When the changes were made, I needed roughly 20 BF of 4/4 and 20 BF of 6/4 cherry for the legs, side aprons, various stretchers, as well as the drawer fronts and the back rail. I also needed some 5/4 square walnut spindles and some 4/4 square walnut spindles. The 4/4 walnut for the top will be purchased later, when I am ready for it, as will the maple for the drawer boxes and the plywood for the drawer bottoms. I'll also pick up some more cherry if the budget allows.
> 
> ...


Earl,
As a suggestion for making the legs as a glue up, a method I use is to hide the glue joint on a corner. This method uses a little more wood than a flat glue up, but I think it provides a better looking leg. You can view this better than I can explain it in some of my projects, most recently here in my bed post construction.
If you are interested, I hope it helps,
Tom


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Making Legs*

It's been a few more days than usual since I spent any meaningful time working on the desk. Weather has been hot and humid so time in the shop is more like a sauna than a woodshop. A single fan wasn't keeping me cool and the humidity was wreaking havoc with the wood moisture. Consequently, I broke down and bought an 8,000 BTU/hr window A/C unit. WOW, what a difference in both humidity and temperature.



















While I was at it, I also decided that an air cleaner would probably be a big improvement to the dust issue I have in the shop.










I also recently updated my dust collector with 1 micron bags on the top and bottom. There is still dust, but not nearly as much and the fine stuff is not floating around for days covering everything. Now I just need something to catch the chips and dust that comes off the table saw blade and the router when I do hand held work like routering mortises. A clean, tidy, dust free shop is a happy shop!!!

Back to legs: I decided to forgo the large expense of buying legs off the internet that probably were glued up anyway and make my own.

There are a number of ways to make legs. Find a method that you like and that works for the project. Don't be afraid to borrow someone else's approach.

One popular way is cutting triangular pieces and gluing them up so the joints are in the corners.  Great if you can get the triangles cut perfectly and the glue up super tight. Otherwise there are gaps on the corner that you have to deal with. I tried that on an earlier project and wasn't satisfied with the results.

There are any number of locking joints that can be used to lock 4 rectangular pieces together with a hollow core, or a solid core. I used that technique when I built the newel posts for the stairs. This is a picture from Google images that shows the details:










However, for most table legs I use the sandwich approach: a couple of boards that have a combined thickness slightly more than the final dimension, in this case I used 2 ea 1-1/2" x 2-3/4" boards that were 31" long and glued them together with Gorilla glue. It seems to do a better job than Titebond when gluing large surfaces together.

After the glue set up, I jointed one side, then planed the other side to a finished thickness of 2-1/2". The top and bottom are left alone so the sandwich is 3" tall and 2-1/2" wide. I had some left over ¼"x3×31 cherry faces from the Mackintosh Vanity I recently made (see the pattern of using extra materials or approaches from previous projects?) that I glued to the sides of the sandwich using Gorilla glue. Once again, after the glue set up I jointed the top, then set the planer up and planed the bottom until the sides were flush. From there I planed the legs, rotating from side to side, using an "X" to mark the sides so I knew which one was next. The planer takes the "X off so the side with an "X" is always the side that is up when it goes through the planer. A side and the top or bottom can be planed on each depth setting. I repeated the process until the legs were 2 -7/8" square. The joints were nearly invisible on the sides.




























I ran the random orbit sander over them with 180 grit to give them a smooth surface for marking the mortises. I also decided which legs would be the front and back legs and how they would be oriented. Each leg was labelled on the top (i.e. "front left", with arrow to the front side). The joints are located on the sides of the legs so the front side of the front legs are the best looking faces.

Using the detail sheets for the legs and my good Sterritt squares I laid out all of the mortises on the legs. All of them on each leg so I have something to look at to make sure I am routering in the right places on each leg. I write notes and details directly on the various pieces so I don't miss something. For example - I messed up the length on this mortise and eventually sanded off the pencil lines and redrew it.










Nothing will make you grind your teeth and use bad language than finishing the mortises and realizing that you just made 2 right legs. At that point, you make 2 futons instead of one and sell the extra one. (Yep - learn from your mistakes).

Mortise and tenons hold things together. Next time, with a little editing and the magic of the internet they will all (or most of them) be done…...


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Making Legs*
> 
> It's been a few more days than usual since I spent any meaningful time working on the desk. Weather has been hot and humid so time in the shop is more like a sauna than a woodshop. A single fan wasn't keeping me cool and the humidity was wreaking havoc with the wood moisture. Consequently, I broke down and bought an 8,000 BTU/hr window A/C unit. WOW, what a difference in both humidity and temperature.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

Looking good. It's nice to see different approaches to the same problem.

You are on the right track in double and triple checking mortise locations. There is a lot of work in the legs and end grill work, and any mistake will put you back at square one.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Big Mortises*

All of the leg pieces have been cut to length and marked for the multitude of mortises and tenons. Before I get into the details of what I did, I wanted to talk about options for cutting mortises and tenons.

I spent a lot of time researching some of the new options on the market. I really wish I lived near a wood working store that had demonstration tools to look at and maybe even try out.

The Festool Domino looks like a biscuit jointer on steroids, with a special router bit mounted horizontally that oscillates inside the cutting area to produce a rounded rectangular mortise. It looks really interesting but the price (>$1500 for one that has enough bells and whistles to cut more than one size) was prohibitive. Maybe someone that has one can comment on how well they like it. The other down side is that the mortises would still need to be squared up for this project since it is a Prairie style which means things need to have sharp, square corners and edges, mortises and tenons included.

I also looked at the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig. The standard version was $1000 or so. There was a less costly, lower quality version for $500 though it was widely criticized as being flimsy and cheap. Again, the extras necessary for cutting a variety of sizes was costly and the jig required specialized bits as well. The mortises and tenons also have rounded edges unless you spend more $$ to get the square tenon adapter.

Lastly, I looked at a dedicated mortising machine, ~$500. The Powermatic 701 had good reviews but was $500 plus chisel bits were extra.

I have a Delta mortising attachment for my drill press. Not the best quality tool I've used but with some TLC and attention to set up it produces a decent mortises up to ½" and 1.75" deep. Trying to make a decent 1.5"x4" mortise all the way through a 3" piece of wood would take forever and look terrible using this approach (past experience).

Having exhausted all of these options, I was left with using a template to router the mortises using a 1/2" spiral upcut bit and mdf templates. This approach also has its hazards. Keep in mind that template routing uses a guide sleeve with a diameter that is ~1/8" larger than the bit. So layout is a bit more complicated to include the extra 1/16" on the edges (1/16" is the difference in the radius which is the important thing to remember). I always measure the OD of the guide sleeve with my digital calipers so I know the exact diameter.

I clearly label the top, bottom, front, back, left and right on the pieces to help keep things straight. When setting up multiple mortises, using the same front edge keeps things lined up. The same holds for left and right, top and bottom. No matter how careful you are, if you don't pay keep track of a piece's orientation you will wind up with an upside down, backwards piece that will have to be discarded and re-made. (again - past experience)

I started with the legs, setting up the through mortise for the bottom apron and the 1-1/2" deep mortise for the top apron.

Here is picture of a typical mortise template set up. The boxes and wood are there to keep chips from flying all over the shop. I also vacuumed out the hole after each pass to get the chips out.










I used the plunge router base and utilized the 1/8" preset stops to work my way through the legs for the through mortises. I use the stops to keep from getting too aggressive on the depth of the cut which causes all kinds of issues, including chattering, rough cuts, breaking the guide sleeve, or gouging it, and maybe even breaking or damaging the bit. It is faster, easier, and a lot less dangerous to use the steps. (you guessed it - past experience)

Here is a picture. Each set of steps is 1". After each 1/8" step, twist the preset to the next lower step and repeat. When you reach the bottom step adjust the depth rod so it is just touching the top step and keep going. When you get close to the final depth of the mortise, check with calipers and use the fine adjustment knob to dial in the final cuts.










Even with all of the templates and good set up you can get a ledge when you have to cut a mortise from both sides. After the mortise is cut I used my router table and a 3" straight bit to clean up the ledge.










The last thing to do on the through mortise is to add 1/16" on the top and bottom cuts on the outside face to allow for the wedge flare. I used the table saw to take 1/16" off the top and bottom of the mdf portion of the template then used the plunge router to make the step. It is important to do this AFTER cleaning up any ledges so you don't accidentally "clean up" the ledge for the wedge flare.










The other large mortises were completed using the template router approach. It took several days to set up the templates and router out the mortises. No need to rush things and make a mistake that has to be "fixed" or start over. Another reason to make sure the design and layout is what you want and all of the dimensions are figured out.

In preparation for squaring up the mortise corners I made sure all my chisels were sharp using a Work Sharp 3000. It is a nice machine for sharpening tools. The angles are preset and 2 sets of chisels plus a couple of ½" mortising chisel bits and a corner chisel took about 30 minutes. I will need to invest in a water stone to sharpen the inside of the corner chisel. Anyone else want to comment on how their preferences for sharpening corner chisels? Cleaning up the corners with a sharp chisel is like cutting butter with a warm knife. In short order all of the big mortises were square.










The small mortises will be covered in the next entry since this one is rather long.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Big Mortises*
> 
> All of the leg pieces have been cut to length and marked for the multitude of mortises and tenons. Before I get into the details of what I did, I wanted to talk about options for cutting mortises and tenons.
> 
> ...


I'm loving your blog! There are pattern following bits that have a bearing the same diameter as the bit so you can make the template the exact size you want the finished mortise. My Delta mortising machine was under $300 and works well. MDF templates are gradually dented by the bearing on the router bit, which eventually will translate to the modifying (in a bad way) the finished template.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

EarlS said:


> *Big Mortises*
> 
> All of the leg pieces have been cut to length and marked for the multitude of mortises and tenons. Before I get into the details of what I did, I wanted to talk about options for cutting mortises and tenons.
> 
> ...


I'm leaning towards the Leigh FMT Pro mortise and tenon jig at some point rather than a mortising machine if I ever get to the point where I buy something new. I actually prefer the look of the rounded edge in a through tenon, kind of looks like a Greene and Greene accent if you use a roundover bit on the edges.

I also considered the flush pattern bits but the larger ones were 3/4" diameter and that made the rounded corners even wider. You also mentioned the other down side with the denting.

I went with the approach I know best, which seems to be a common theme. There are so many different approaches that you can use. It comes down to deciding which one you prefer and/or are familiar with.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Mortises Three Ways*

As I mentioned in the last entry I broke the mortising into 3 groups. The big mortises were made using templates and a router.

Most of the smaller mortises were ¾" which were made using a ¾" Forstner bit and squaring up the holes with a corner chisel. Some what tedious, but a sharp chisel makes quick work of it.



















Any square holes that were ½" or smaller were made with a mortising attachment on my drill press.




























There are some serious shortcomings in the Delta Mortising attachment used with the Delta Drill press. Most of them relate to the sloppy 12" Delta Drill press.

The most significant is the amount of vertical deflection in the drill press shaft that occurs when you start to apply force to the chisel to make the sides of the mortise. From what I have been able to figure out, the drill press shaft has enough play in it that the force causes it to deflect both toward the front and left or right.

Similarly, there is also some play in the head of the drill press that can cause the bit to twist out of square relative to the fence. I can feel the play in the drill press shaft by twisting the attachment body after it is securely tightened to the drill press shaft.

The table will also flex out of level from the force of the chisel on the wood. Generally, I don't use the fence that comes with the mortising attachment since it is so primitive that set up is cumbersome and typically winds up being a trial and error effort.

Lastly, a ½" chisel bit is about as big as the drill press can handle. Trying to string several of them together to make a larger mortise results in a sloppy outside edge that requires a lot of clean up and generally I wind up with a larger overall opening in order to square and clean everything up. For these reasons, I typically cut ½" or smaller mortises with the Delta mortising attachment.

With all my chisel bits freshly sharpened, and all of the mortises laid out on the boards I started setting up for the various cuts. Typically, there are several pieces that need the same cuts so I can group them together. The same holds if there are several mortises that share a common line along a board.

I start by setting the spacing from the fence to the chisel, using space bars, or ripping a 12" piece of wood to the appropriate width and checking it with my calipers. The chisel should be tight up against the spacer, but not pushing into it. With my fence, I adjust either side and keep making slight adjustments until both sides of the chisel are tight against the spacer. During the process, I also raise and lower the chisel to make sure it is not being deflected by squaring the fence against the spacer and chisel.










Once the chisel and fence are square, I set the depth of the cut by setting the drill press depth stop to stop the chisel at the correct depth in the wood. From there, I cut a spacer to set the side stop, again, being careful not to deflect the chisel. The last step is to set a piece in place that has the cut marked out and carefully lower the chisel and confirm that it matches up with the pencil marks. I mark every cut and check each time since I have been known to get the wrong piece or mark the wrong spot.










From there it is a matter of cutting the mortises in batches and making sure to get all of the same cuts finished before moving to the next set up. Generally you find one you missed right after you've moved to the next set up.

While I had the mortising attachment set up I also cut the square holes for the square G&G style pins I decided to add (One of my favorite details). They use the same set up but the attachment does much better with the ¼" and 3/8" chisels, especially when they are freshly sharpened.



















Coming soon: To the Tenons and Beyond!!!


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Intermission*

I've been doing everything but woodworking lately.

Our oldest daughter started college, high school started, along with the girls swim season. It keeps raining and the grass keep growing necessitating mowing every 3 days or so.

A thunderstorm last weekend resulted in a lightning strike on the house behind us (which started a fire) and caused an arc flash when the plug from our computer surge protector blew out of the wall outlet and cracked the outlet, tripped the surge protector, and the circuit breaker. The cable modem was overloaded because I didn't think of running the cable through a surge protector, and the overload also carried into the wireless router. That meant a new modem and wifi router. After a couple of days of trial and error I finally got everything installed and communicating.

Somewhere in all of this, I did manage to order and pick up 50 BF of nice cherry (6 ft long, 4/4 rough, 4-8"), 50 BF of really nice walnut (6 ft long, 4/4 rough, 10" wide boards), some soft maple, and a 4×8 piece of ¼" walnut plywood (yes walnut - to use on drawer bottoms).










I also talked to Alex at Glass Heritage. They are the folks that made the amazing Harvey Ellis stylized glass doors for the hutch that is in the dining area.










They are going replicate the center section of Mowtawi Tile's Frank Lloyd Wright Skylight tile for the tops of the legs in colored glass. This decorative tile is adapted from a detail of the skylight in Wright's Oak Park studio entrance.










It will be a couple of months until they are ready, but I think they will be well worth the wait.

Meantime, I'm taking a day off over Labor Day weekend so I can get on with Talisien desk build. That should give me more time to work on things (less the time to mow, ride my bike, go to a bbq, plant tulips, and whatever else my wife and daughters come up with ) so maybe a couple of hours.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Intermission*
> 
> I've been doing everything but woodworking lately.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

I like the idea of stain glass inserts. Glad to hear you're back at it.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Time to Talk Tenons*

Time to talk tenons.

I've made tenons using 3 different methods, a router with a straight bit, a stacked dado on the table saw, and a tenoning jig.

Tenoning Jig:
I discarded the tenoning jig some time back because it was a pain to set up and keep things square. I never could get the miter bar tight but not too tight and keep things running parallel to the blade which made for tenons that were tight on one end and loose on the other. Long tenons were also a problem since the saw blade will only come up about 2-1/2". Anything longer needed a different approach. It also had limited capacity to handle wide stock.

My biggest reason for not using it is safety. Trying to hold a 3-4' board vertical and push it through the table saw with the blade sticking up 2" or more was a recipe for disaster.

Router:
I usually use a 3/4" or 1" diameter fluted straight bit when cutting tenons on the router table. The wood is removed in ¼" lifts so the bit doesn't get bogged down and burn. Set the fence so the distance from the fence to the outside edge of the router bit is the length of the tenon and run a test piece through to make sure the tenon length is correct.

Start at the end and work in toward the shoulder to ensure there is open space between the bit and the fence to prevent the bit from binding.

Using the router table also allows me to use the miter bar to keep the board square to the bit as it is pushed through. Index the next cut slightly less than the diameter of the bit so there is a slight overlap. That keeps ridges to a minimum.

Keeping longer boards square and flat as they are pushed across the bit is a challenge. An alternative is to set up a stop on either side of the bit to match the tenon length and slide the board in towards the fence. This allows more of the board to be supported by the table. The key is to keep the piece squared up to the stop as it is fed through the bit.

Alternatively, lay the board on the bench, clamp it down and clamp a guide on the board, then use a hand router.

Stacked Dado:
I generally use a stacked dado set on my table saw to cut tenons. For short tenons, the dado set can be configured in 1/32" increments up to 29/32". For longer tenons I set up a ¾" stack.

Set the fence distance using the Wixley fence readout. Don't forget to subtract the width of the dado stack from the desired tenon length when setting the fence.

Using a digital height gauge set the blade height. The way to determine the height is to measure the actual board thickness, subtract the tenon thickness and divide by 2.

For a 1" board with a ½ tenon: 1" - ½" = ½" divided by 2 = ¼".

Since I cut the mortises first, I use the calipers to verify the dimensions of the mortise and use them to figure out how to set the dado cut height. I also take 1/32" off so the initial tenon is fat and fine tune the height so the tenons are tight in the mortises.

Test pieces are essential. Here is an example of why. Initially, the piece was going to be 1-1/2" thick but was changed to 1-1/4. The dado was set up for 3/8" (6/4" - ¾" = ¾" div by 2 = 3/8"). For a 5/4 board, 5/4 - 2(3/8) = ½".










To keep from accidentally cutting to much off a side, lay out the cuts on the boards. I also make all of the top/bottom cuts first, then adjust the height for the left and right sides.

If there are slight ledges on the tenon shoulder, a sharp chisel can clean the difference off easily.

Here is the bottom apron. The open space on the top and bottom are allowances for the tenon to spread when the wedge is driven into the end.










Dry fit everything to make sure all of the pieces will fit properly.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Time to Talk Tenons*
> 
> Time to talk tenons.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

Looking good. I think once you have the two leg assemblies you are about half way home. There are a lot of joints in those pieces.


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Time to Talk Tenons*
> 
> Time to talk tenons.
> 
> ...


Looking good! I can't remember how I made mine. I just remember making the top-a back-wrenching experience!


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Arches for Aprons*

Finally feels like the project is starting to move along.

Alex from Glass Heritage just told me the glass for the inserts have been cut. He sent some pictures so I can approve the colors.










Meanwhile, I'd better pick up the pace if I want the desk to be complete by the time the glass is ready.

Making smooth arches seems to baffle a lot of folks. The problem is that most arches require a combination of a circle with a large radius and just the right amount of flattening the circle into an oval.

You could use an oval cutting jig. I have one and it is not very easy to use to make an arch. It is much better suited for its main purpose, cutting ovals for things like table tops.

Which leaves me back at square one: How Do I Make an Arch?

Plenty of folks make a template and use double sided tape to hold the board on the template. I've had mixed results. I've had the tape slip causing the piece to be ruined. I've also had problems getting the tape residue off of the board causing finishing problems. I stick (like the pun?) with a sled where the template is on the bottom and the piece is held down on the template with clamps.

Let's start with drawing the arch on the template.

I keep both a 1/8" and ¼" strip of excess wood from when I rip saw the boards into usable dimensional lumber. After the first pass on the table saw to get the rough edge off, set the fence so you can make a thin strip. Generally, ¼" is better for a long strip 4' or longer, and 1/8" is good for a shorter strip. The strip should be flexible but not flimsy.

Next, cut the template board to size. I use 1/2" mdf. Since I use the template as the base of the jig, I allow extra width and length for the 1-1/2" square supports that will be used for the hold down clamps. Also, don't forget to include the length of the tenons on the right end where the 1-1/2" support will be.

Mark the ends and the center point of the arch. Mark where the supports will be placed, as well as the tenons. Also mark the height for the center point. In this case it was 1-1/2" for the bottom aprons. The stringers will be 2".

As a cross check, put all of the pieces on top of the template along the marks where the edges will be to make sure everything is laid out correctly. That should eliminate the need to do it all over again when you realize you were off by an inch on one side and the center line is not in the center of the apron (yep - first hand experience is a great teacher).

Clamp a piece of mdf to the work bench using a ¾" piece of wood that is ~2" tall (needs to be taller than the wood strip), stood on end just above the center line. Make sure the edge with the arch is aligned with the outside edge of the work top.

Place clamps at either end of the mdf panel, a couple of inches off the ends. Make sure the back of the clamps are on the outside. I use small Bessey clamps.

This is the tricky part. Place the ¼" strip along the bottom of the template and the side clamps. Use a clamp to pull the 1/" strip back to the 2" piece of wood that is clamped behind the center line. Notice that the wood strip extends past the backs of the side clamps.










The backs of small clamps on either side of the piece can be rotated slightly, while keeping the clamp tight to fine tune the ¼" strip to the exact corner of the arch.

Check to see if it looks proportional and even on both sides. If so, use a Sharpie to draw the arch.

As you can see here, an inexpensive metal ruler also works. Notice the position and orientation of the small clamps on the outside of the arch. Rotating the side clamps is the key to being able to fine tune the ends.










From there, it is a matter of rough cutting the arch on the band saw, smoothing it out on the spindle sander and screwing the back and side supports to the template. Since the template will be used on the router table, the screws are counter sunk so they won't scratch the router table. The side support is also on the right side of the template so the board will be pushed into the support as the piece is fed through the router bit.

Mark the board using the template, rough cut the arch on the band saw, clamp the board down on the template jig. I use a a ¾" x 1-1/2 straight bit with a flush guide bushing on the bottom for template routing most arches.



















Since the apron arches are 2" thick, I ran the pieces through the ¾" bit with the bottom bushing then flipped the piece end-for-end in the jig and ran it through the router a second time to get the material that was above the bit on the first pass . Inevitable variations in the left and right sides of the arch causes some slight ledges between the two cuts that were sanded out on the spindle sander. This approach guaranteed that the arches were symmetrical.

Alternatively, I could have switched to a ½" x 3 flush bit with a top bushing. The piece would be flipped over so the profile from the initial pass was on top. Since the profile from the first cut is on the top of the board the template is not needed. The top guide bushing rides along the profile ensuring the second cut matched the initial cut.

All that was left was a little sanding on the spindle sander followed by some hand sanding to finish them off. 
The stringers quickly followed and then I realized I forgot to cut the bevels in the through tenons…….. Guess what the next post will be???? Yep - how to recover from a missed step.


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Arches for Aprons*
> 
> Finally feels like the project is starting to move along.
> 
> ...


Nothing wrong with doing it that way. But I make a fair amount of Craftsman furniture, and all I do is cut a spline from some scrap wood, have someone hold it midway and at the ends, and draw a line.

After that, it's off to the bandsaw, and final smoothing happens with a compass plane. Until you have a compass plane, it's hard to appreciate what a great job these things do with these kinds of jobs. I think if I had to make multiple tables, the templates would be worth it. But for one? Not so much.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

EarlS said:


> *Arches for Aprons*
> 
> Finally feels like the project is starting to move along.
> 
> ...


Chuck - I can't seem to get a nice smooth curve that is reproducible if I mark the board and cut it out without a template and then use that to mark the next board, and so on. The arches all wind up slightly different.

I don't have a compass plane so the router and spindle sander have to suffice for smoothing out the arch. I will have to look for a compass plane.

As with everything in woodworking, there are many ways to get the same result. Always interested in hearing how others do it. Thanks for sharing your approach. Always glad to hear from you.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Moving Along*

Things finally are moving along, unfortunately, a little too fast in the case of the beveled through tenons on the bottom apron and the long stretchers. I forgot to cut the bevels on the tenons BEFORE I cut the arches. As a result I had to come up with plan B. As you can see from the picture, it entails a long fence on the miter bar and a longer piece of sacrificial wood clamped to the miter bar and the stretcher.










Probably not the preferred method for cutting bevels on the tenons, but it worked.










After dry fitting the various pieces for the leg sections, I moved on to rounding over the edges with a 1/8" round over bit on the router table. From there, I sanded everything to 320 grit and applied 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal as an intial pre-finish, sanding with wet 800 grit between coats. After the legs are assembled they will be finished with a couple of coats of spray polyurethane.










The inner pieces were glued up first.










Then the legs were glued up and the wedge tenons were pounded into place.










After the glue dried overnight, the wedges were trimmed and sanded flush to the tenons.

I also made walnut square pegs for the pins on the vertical pieces of the legs. I cheated and used the drill method others on LJ have mentioned.










Chuck the square blank in the drill like you would a bit. Place 220 grit paper on a foam rubber mat folded over several time to make a soft backing. Holding the drill at a slight angle, start the drill. Rock the drill around to make sure the blank end is rounded over to form a slight pillow. Frequently check your progress. Once satisfied with the form, move to 400 grit paper, then 800 grit, and finally 1500 grit paper. Pull the wood out of the chuck and do the same thing to the other end. Repeat until you have a stack of them ready to go.

I glued the square pegs in place, let the glue dry then drilled Miller dowels into the back side of the leg assemblies, slightly into the square pegs.



















After a little more sanding, and a coat of polyurethane, and the stretchers dry fit in place things are looking good:



















With the legs finished, the drawers, top, and associated internal supports are all that are left to build. Hopefully, there will be plenty of shop time this weekend…...


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Moving Along*
> 
> Things finally are moving along, unfortunately, a little too fast in the case of the beveled through tenons on the bottom apron and the long stretchers. I forgot to cut the bevels on the tenons BEFORE I cut the arches. As a result I had to come up with plan B. As you can see from the picture, it entails a long fence on the miter bar and a longer piece of sacrificial wood clamped to the miter bar and the stretcher.
> 
> ...


Looking great!


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

EarlS said:


> *Moving Along*
> 
> Things finally are moving along, unfortunately, a little too fast in the case of the beveled through tenons on the bottom apron and the long stretchers. I forgot to cut the bevels on the tenons BEFORE I cut the arches. As a result I had to come up with plan B. As you can see from the picture, it entails a long fence on the miter bar and a longer piece of sacrificial wood clamped to the miter bar and the stretcher.
> 
> ...


Now we're talking. Great progress, and I like the subtle sheen of your finish.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Moving Along*
> 
> Things finally are moving along, unfortunately, a little too fast in the case of the beveled through tenons on the bottom apron and the long stretchers. I forgot to cut the bevels on the tenons BEFORE I cut the arches. As a result I had to come up with plan B. As you can see from the picture, it entails a long fence on the miter bar and a longer piece of sacrificial wood clamped to the miter bar and the stretcher.
> 
> ...


It's cool to see the variations on this design. Nice combination of wood colors, and I like the pegged joinery.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Framing the Drawers*

After dry fitting the legs and stretcher I moved on to glueing things together.










Wedges were pounded into the tenons. I never really put much thought into making thin wedges so when it came time to make some, I was at a loss. I wound up using the tapering jig on the table saw to rip thin, tapered strips to use as wedges. It was probably not the most efficient or creative way to make them. Anyone have a good way to make thin wedges?

Cutting the wedges off and sanding them smooth was also an exercise in patience. The beveled ends of the tenons suffered a little bit of round over from the sanding and I wound up adding a wedge on the top and bottom of the mortise as the tenons didn't open up as much as I expected. All in all, though, I'm satisfied with the end result.



















The legs and stretcher construction is finished. I will pull out the sprayer and give the whole thing a final coat when the drawer framing is installed.

On to the drawer framing.

Cutting the back apron and drawer framing was relatively straightforward. I started with the back apron and the front stub aprons then measured the exact lengths for the drawer supports. After those were cut, I did some math to work out the drawer size and spacing and cut the spacers to length. From there, I switched to a ¼" dado stack on the table saw and cut the mortises and tenons, checking things as I went along.










If you look closely, you can see that the fronts have a 1-1/2" x 1/2" notch in the top and bottom where they will be sandwiched between the upper and lower front apron pieces. The apron pieces are separated with a 1-1/2" tall spacer block that is secured to the stub apron piece which is the glued into the leg with a mortise and tenon. Rather than use wood screws, I plan to use the small Miller dowels to hold things together. Most of it will be hidden but I think a glued dowel will be as strong or stronger than using a wood screw.










While I had the dado stack on the table saw, I also cut the slots for the drawer slide bars. I also decided to install a walnut bottom to hide the power cords that will be run through the back of the framing. The groove extends the full length from front to back so I can move it out of the way to get to the cords then move it back in place and hide all of the cords. The drawers will extend within ½" of the spacers.

A 2" hole was drilled though the back section of each of the drawer supports for cords to run through.
As the pieces were completed, they were clamped to the base to make sure everything fits together. Once again, you can never have too many clamps.










Everything was sanded and prefinished. I like it when a plan works and things go smoothly. This was probably the easiest part of the whole project. It is always easier when you can cut things and fit them together as you go. They key is getting the sequence right so you don't miss something and have to do it over.










The drawer framing will have to wait to be installed until the walnut plywood cut, sanded, and finished since the slots are closed on both ends. I will also need to make the slides when I make the drawer boxes. Another thing to remember: since the front aprons are only 1/2" thick, the drawer supports will need to be attached to the desk top with figure 8 connectors. Otherwise, the weight of the drawers will cause the front apron to sag.


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## NormG (Mar 5, 2010)

EarlS said:


> *Framing the Drawers*
> 
> After dry fitting the legs and stretcher I moved on to glueing things together.
> 
> ...


Well done, looks very nice


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*The Big Top*

I didn't really spent much time thinking about how the desk top would be built. I planed and jointed the walnut along with the maple and cherry.










I proceeded to glue up the panels using a biscuit jointer. With a top this large (39×72) I used 4 - 10" wide boards and glued them in pairs then glued the pairs together.










I also clamped the ends and middle to keep the board from cupping from the clamping pressure.










From there I glued up the final 4 board panel. After sanding the top with 150 grit on my belt sander to even out the glue joints I came to the realization that this behemoth was too big to run across the table saw to clean up the ends. That brought things to a halt in a hurry.

First, I tried to use the hand held circulating saw and the aluminum straight edge that I go to on plywood. For some reason the blade was on backwards. After burning the blade and scorching the wood, and nearly burning out the windings on the saw I realize the error of my ways. I bought a new blade and crosscut the end.

Better, but still not good enough. Time for one of my least favorite methods of making a clean, straight edge, using a router and a straight bit. I don't like this method because I'm not a fan of a ½" bit sticking inch out of a 1 HP router, spinning at 6,000 rpm or whatever it is, combined with the tendancy for the router to want to twist when you turn it on, before starting the cut, while you hold it with one hand and turn it on or off. It is a recipe for something bad to happen. Still, necessity is the mother of invention so I set out to make the cut as square, straight, and most importanly, safe as possible.

Laying out a perpendicular line to the edge can also be a chore, and since I needed it to be true, layout took a while, with lots of cross checks and starting over. Ultimately, I threw away one of my big squares that wasn't really square any more and a straight edge that had bowed. That took a while but it was worth the effort. It took a couple of passes get through the 4/4 board without bogging the bit down in the end grain.

End result a 39" x 68" top that passed the corner- to-corner diagonal test with less than 1/16" difference and no light showing along either edge of long square when I checked the corners. Success!!!

Lesson learned: I need to think about how to handle big pieces before starting any preliminary work on them like gluing up a 40×80 piece of walnut because I got impatient to start on the dek top. I should have cut the boards a lot closer to the finished length and I also should have squared up the individual boards before gluing them together.










Next problem that I hadn't really worked out: How do I make the tenons for the breadboard ends? I needed a 2" wide tenon, ½" thick, cut into the ends of the top. By now, I had spent a lot more time thinking about a safe, stable approach to the tenons and came back to the router.

After scribing the line for the shoulder of the tenon, I measured the distance from the straight edge of the plunge router base to the ½" bit I was using and set up straight edge off the cut line by that distance (2-3/4"). I also made 3 - ½" wide strips to use as filler strips along the straight edge to get the router bit over to the edge. I didn't want to move the straight edge once it was set. I set the depth step on the plunge router up so that the 1st step was 1/8" and then dialed the second step was 3/32" for a total of 7/32". The digital calipers confirmed everything was accurate.










After each pass was routered to the final depth I removed a strip which indexed the router by ½", with the last pass run along the straight edge.










Once the various setting were locked in on the router and squares, it was fairly short, though dusty, work to router both sides of one end, flip the board, and do the same thing to the other end.










I cut the sides back an inch and now I have most of a desk top. I just need to make the breadboard ends.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *The Big Top*
> 
> I didn't really spent much time thinking about how the desk top would be built. I planed and jointed the walnut along with the maple and cherry.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

Building something this big is an adventure in creativity. Looks like you're in the home stretch.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Breadboard Ends*

Before I jumped into making the breadboard ends I decided to do some reading and get a little more explanation on wood movement and what role breadboard ends play.

Excerpts from Popular WoodWorking magazine website:

"Boards expand and contract at a greater rate across their width than they do along the length. How much they expand and contract is more a matter of species and final resting place than anything else.

Also, wood tends to expand and contract more actively toward the bark side of the tree than toward the heart side. When you look at the growth rings on the ends of the board, the convex side of the rings is generally more active than the concave side. When one face moves more than the other, the board ends up bowed across its width - this is what we refer to as cupping.

Straight away you should know that, structurally, breadboard ends are strictly used to control cupping; they are not meant to stop shrinkage or expansion. There is no way to keep a board from changing dimensionally.
Breadboard ends are a mechanical means to overcome a board's natural tendency for one side to expand or contract at a greater rate than the other. Whenever you try to overcome the nature of wood, you run the risk of cracking, splitting or breaking something."

There are a number of options which can be distilled down to 2 different approaches:

After making the mortise in the breadboard and a tenon on the top, drill a hole for a pin through both the breadboard and tenon. Elongate the hole in the tenon to create a slot parallel to the edge of the tenon in both directions to give the pin room to move. The pin is glued to the top and bottom portions of the breadboard. As the boards expand and contract the tenon is held tight lengthwise while having room to expand and contract along its width. Craftsman style and Shaker style tend to use this approach.










The other option is to secure the breadboard to the tenon from the end by cutting a slot into the outer edge of the breadboad and then cutting a narrow slot through the breadbard. A scew holds the breadboard tight on the tenon and the recessed slot allows the screw room to slide inside the slot as the board widths expand and contract. The screw becomes part of the tenon and slides in the slot in the breadboad. As you can see from the example, this is the method used to such spectacular effect in Greene and Greene furniture.










Since I am a big G&G fan, I wanted to subtly use the rounded pillow feature on the plugs that cover the screws. Rather than use a series of small plugs, I chose to use a series of different sized bars.

The tenon is 2" deep and ½" thick. The breadboard end is 4" wide, making the mortise 2" deep, but still requiring a #9×2-1/2" screw to pull the breadboard into the tenon. After setting up the router table with a ½" upcut spiral bit it took the rest of the afternoon to make the mortise, 1/8" deep per pass.










The breadboard overhangs the top by ½" on both ends. with a ½" gap on the ends of the mortises to accommodate growth. As you can see, the ends were beveled and then the sharp edges were rounded to give it a less angular appearance.










I set up the router table with a variety of stops to make the ½" slots for the plugs.










Here is the end result. Set up for each set of slots took quite a bit of time to make sure I could flip the board end for end to make the mirror on the opposite end.










After a little work with the chisels to square the ends I set up the drill press with a 1/4" brad point bit and drilled some elongated holes through the breadboards allowed for wood movement. A little more chisel work cleaned up and splinters so the hole sides were reasonably smooth.










Glue was applied to 5" of the tenon center top/bottom as recommended by most how-to videos. The glue binds the center of the boards into the center of the breadboard and ensures that the wood movement is relatively even on both sides. The breadboards were held tight with some clamps while the screws were installed.

After making sure the breadboard was centered I started installing the screws, pre-drilling pilot holes as I went along. Even with pre-drilling the holes I had one screw crack the tenon. Getting the screw tight enough to pull the breadboard tightly into the shoulder of the tenon without over tightening it was a chore.










At this point I realized the 1/4" thick breadboard top and bottom were probably too thin since I could see it move when I squeezed it. I went ahead and added a set of pins in the center to help hold things together and provide an anchor point in the center of the breadboard. The plugs were glued over the screws. Everything was sanded to 320 grit and stained with Watco dark walnut stain.



















Cord access holes will be added shortly along with several coats of Arm-R-Seal.

There are probably some things I could have done differently, but the end result looks good. Hopefully, my worries about the thickness of the breadboards will prove unfounded. Comments?? Suggestions? Experiences?

Building drawer boxes and fronts are all that is left before final finishing. The numerous glass panels will be ready for pick up next week so I'd better get moving…..


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Before I jumped into making the breadboard ends I decided to do some reading and get a little more explanation on wood movement and what role breadboard ends play.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

Great looking top. I had similar concerns about the depth of the mortise on the breadboard end. I originally cut the tenon at 2", but I was having problems getting the mortise that deep so I stopped at 1" and cut off the tenon to match. I don't really see a benefit of having the joint that deep especially if you are going to run screws in from the end. If you are going to use dowels through the top and bottom, then you probably need the longer tenon to ensure the dowels don't crack through the end grain.

One problem I'm having with my desk (as I type this while sitting at it), is that over the last few months the glue joints between the boards have formed a small ridge. I used Titebond III and everything was dead flat when I started finishing. I'm not sure if this is just natural shrinkage and the glue is less prone to this or what. Have you had this problem with any of your pieces? I've built 4 end tables from white oak, and the tops on them are still smooth after several years. However my cherry desk top and my file cabinet top appear to both have this problem. It should be a straight forward fix to sand out the ridges and apply a few new coats of finish. Or would a card scraper (I don't have one and have not used one) be better?


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## acanthuscarver (Mar 27, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Before I jumped into making the breadboard ends I decided to do some reading and get a little more explanation on wood movement and what role breadboard ends play.
> 
> ...


Aww, man! Why would you start out by quoting THAT guy?

The desk is coming along nicely. Can't wait to see how it ends up.

One minor concern I have is that you ran the mortise pretty much the full length of the breadboard. At 2" deep, it might weaken the breadboard enough that, if the top cups, it could crack the breadboard. On something as wide as your desk top, I probably would have made 3 or 4 mortises to give the breadboard a little extra strength.

Looking good. Keep up the great work!


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## abie (Jan 28, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Before I jumped into making the breadboard ends I decided to do some reading and get a little more explanation on wood movement and what role breadboard ends play.
> 
> ...


Great Description:
this is one to save in Favorites
Wish I had this when I did my first breadboard end.
Great Job
TNX


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*Drawers*

There are as many different approaches to drawers as there are woodworkers. The way I see it, a drawer is a box that slides into an opening. The use and type of drawer decide what is needed. In this case, the drawers don't need to be fancy or complicated. The center drawer is 2" x 12- ½" x 24", the side drawers 11- ½" wide. The drawer box is ¾" maple to give it a nice clean appearance. A cherry front will match the rest of the desk, and the drawer bottom is ¼" walnut plywood to add a visual contrast to the maple and continue the use of walnut as an accent throughout the desk.

After planning some rough maple to ¾" thick, cutting the various pieces to length and height I pulled out the Leigh dovetail jig and instruction manual and set things up to make through dovetails. I always read through the manual to make sure I don't miss a step. Past experience taught me not to use a plunge router since I am in the habit of retracting the plunger after each pass with the router. In this case, releasing the plunger retracts the dovetail bit into the guide sleeve and destroys the sleeve and nicks the bit…. I wrote a reminder in the manual in big red letters to make sure I don't repeat that expensive mistake again.










After finishing the pins and tails and checking the fit, a slot was added to the inside edge of the drawer pieces for the plywood bottom. The slot needs to be slightly taller than the slide so the drawer will still slide freely as the wood expands and contracts through the seasons. By using a slightly undersized dado and a flipping the boards over for a second pass, I achieved a slightly over-sized slot for the slider that was exactly centered on the drawer side.










Previously, when the drawer dividers were being made, a ½" slot was added in the center of the divider for the drawer slider. The openings on the drawer frame are ½" taller than the drawer box. The extra space will ensure that the drawer doesn't rub on the top or bottom. The openings in the frame are also wider than the drawer for the same reason. I remember reading somewhere that the only part of the drawer that should touch the drawer frame is the top edge of the slot where the drawer slides on the runner

I ripped several ½" strips of maple for use as the runners and checked to make sure they fit tightly in the slots in the frame. The drawers were slid into place to check for fit. As you can see, I also added the plywood bottom and some drawer dividers.










The drawers were disassembled, sanded, glued, and sprayed with polyurethane.










Additionally, the runners were glued into the drawer frame. Once again - you can't have too many clamps.










Drawer fronts and some finishing details are all that is left of the build. There is also a final coat of polyurethane to spray on and rub out. Just in time too, as the stained glass panels for the legs are ready for pick up.










Hopefully, everything goes well and the finish dries well in spite of the weather changing and the desk will be ready for final pictures next week. That leaves one more installment of the Taliesin Desk Build to wrap things up.


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *Drawers*
> 
> There are as many different approaches to drawers as there are woodworkers. The way I see it, a drawer is a box that slides into an opening. The use and type of drawer decide what is needed. In this case, the drawers don't need to be fancy or complicated. The center drawer is 2" x 12- ½" x 24", the side drawers 11- ½" wide. The drawer box is ¾" maple to give it a nice clean appearance. A cherry front will match the rest of the desk, and the drawer bottom is ¼" walnut plywood to add a visual contrast to the maple and continue the use of walnut as an accent throughout the desk.
> 
> ...


Looking forward to the finale!


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *Drawers*
> 
> There are as many different approaches to drawers as there are woodworkers. The way I see it, a drawer is a box that slides into an opening. The use and type of drawer decide what is needed. In this case, the drawers don't need to be fancy or complicated. The center drawer is 2" x 12- ½" x 24", the side drawers 11- ½" wide. The drawer box is ¾" maple to give it a nice clean appearance. A cherry front will match the rest of the desk, and the drawer bottom is ¼" walnut plywood to add a visual contrast to the maple and continue the use of walnut as an accent throughout the desk.
> 
> ...


Can't wait to see those panels in place.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

EarlS said:


> *Drawers*
> 
> There are as many different approaches to drawers as there are woodworkers. The way I see it, a drawer is a box that slides into an opening. The use and type of drawer decide what is needed. In this case, the drawers don't need to be fancy or complicated. The center drawer is 2" x 12- ½" x 24", the side drawers 11- ½" wide. The drawer box is ¾" maple to give it a nice clean appearance. A cherry front will match the rest of the desk, and the drawer bottom is ¼" walnut plywood to add a visual contrast to the maple and continue the use of walnut as an accent throughout the desk.
> 
> ...


Some pretty nice things happening here. I am enjoying this blog.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*The Wood Working Blues*

I'm a huge fan of the Blues. The Blues are my go-to music in the shop. Stax, Chess, MUddy Water, Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Elvin Bishop, Buddy Guy, the list goes on and on. Well, this week I've been singing the Woodworking Blues.

I've been working on the finish for the walnut desk top. Cutting the openings for the cords went well. I made an mdf template that ran the full length of the top with notches removed where the openings needed to be cut.

A little dusty, but the end result turned out like I expected.










I applied some Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil for the first coat to even out a few of the light patches. Things were going great.










Danish Oil takes a couple of days to dry under good conditions. It takes even longer when it is rainy and the temperature is fluctuating as happened last week. At some point, I opened the garage door and quite a lot of water dripped out of the panels onto the desk top. I didn't see any of it which meant the water sat there until it dried. Along the way, it several large water spots appeaered.










It is the off colored lighter are in the middle of the picture, much more obvious in person.

Why not turn it over you ask?? The top side color and grain is really something plus there are a number of knots that were filled on the back so it wasn't an option.

A couple of hours of sanding the entire top from 220 to 400 grit and then a new coat of Watco, wait 3 days, then I finally could start applying the Arm-R-Seal. I'm a couple of coats into that tedious process. The finish has to completely dry before I can flip the top over and do the same thing to the other side. Generally, I can do one coat every 3 days but the recent hot, humid weather one day and sudden temperature drops to near freezing has me turning the heater on at night and the A/C on during the day to keep the humidity down and the temperature constant.

I've also been working on the drawer fronts and cord caps. I came up with some really intricate, complicated pieces that incorporated some of the glass from the leg panels. I was also planning to use a couple of larger pieces of glass in the drawer fronts.










When the panels arrived and I compared my efforts to the panels Alex and the folks at Heritage Glass made, I decided to go with Plan B:










Yep - the whole mess, about a week or so of work and a lot of wood that went into my grand scheme wound up in the trash.

In case you are feeling sorry for me - not to worry. Sometimes this happens. I doubt that anyone has everything turn out well every time. This is part of the process and part of learning not only the craft, but also the art of wood working.

Oh - and I called Alex and ask him if he could make some more panels for the drawer fronts. Of course he will and they will match the legs perfectly and the whole thing will work.

As for the cord caps, I have some Bubinga, or maybe Redheart, or Bloodwood, that will make really nice cord caps. Or I could find a piece of figured cherry or walnut. For now, I'm focusing on finishing the finish correctly and singing the Woodworking Blues.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *The Wood Working Blues*
> 
> I'm a huge fan of the Blues. The Blues are my go-to music in the shop. Stax, Chess, MUddy Water, Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Elvin Bishop, Buddy Guy, the list goes on and on. Well, this week I've been singing the Woodworking Blues.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

You're definitely taking this desk to the next level.


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

*All Good things Must End*

I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.

I decided to use figure 8 fasteners to hold the top to the base and allow it to move with the seasons. I happened to get my latest copy of Fine Woodworking and there was an article discussing how to properly connect the top and base and why it was important to allow for seasonal movement. A variety of methods were explained. I did learn that the figure 8's along the front and back need to be angled to allow the boards to move.

I used a dozen Figure 8 fasteners spaced around the sides, front, back, and along the fronts of the drawer spacers. After using the forstener bit to drill 5/8" indentations for the base portion of the figure 8, my helper (wife) and I lugged the old glass top desk out and brought the base into the office. The top came next. Wow is it big (72"x 39"). I crawled under the desk and attached the Figure 8's to the top. As you can see my other helpers (Charlie and Linus) helped out.



















The walnut top was finished out with several more coats of Arm-R-Seal followed by wet sanding with 1500 grit paper. I'm a fan. Previously, I used Minwax semi-gloss to achieve decent results. The Arm-R-Seal provided a superior finish, providing a depth and luster to the walnut that brings all of the character of the walnut out. After lightly rubbing the top down with a 2500 grit Scotch Brite I applied Behlen's Finishing Compound and hand rubbed it which brought out the gloss.










The last item of business was adding the stained glass panels to the legs.










It took a little fine tuning with a chisel to get a perfect fit, then some clear silicon used like glue on the back of the panels to get them in place.










Here are some pictures of the desk along with the lamp that was one of the inspirations for the stained glass.



















As you can see, the drawers are still waiting for the stained glass panels. They will look much better than the original idea of just a piece of glass.

I learned some new techniques, re-discovered ways to do things that I forgot, and the end result is a magnificent desk. I'm going to wait for the final glass panels before I post it in the Projects. I still need to make a clock to hold the Mowtawi Frank Lloyd Wright tile, and I'm working on a bill box that will use the same design from FLW's Oak Park Studio stained glass that the entire project is based on. Lastly, I'm going to attempt to build the Kevin Rodel chair to go with the desk.

My most sincere thanks to Jim Young for the Sketchup plans and a lot of encouragement and suggestions, along with other LJ folks that read the blog and commented. A big thanks to Alex and the folks at Glass Heritage for the amazing glass panels and for putting up with the all of the additions and changes. Also, thanks to Kevin Rodel for designing such a wonderful piece of art. I wish I could afford to buy some of his creations. Since I can't, this will suffice.


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## WhattheChuck (Aug 26, 2008)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


Awesome!


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


That's fantastic.


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## sb194 (Feb 19, 2010)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


Stunning! Top notch work, and looking forward to seeing the chair to go with it.

Sean


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


Hi Earl,

That really came out great. The stain glass panels are a perfect fit for this desk and the execution is top notch.

I wish you many happy bill paying sessions at your new desk.


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## Macan (Jan 8, 2016)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


Awesome job! I'm hoping to get time to build this desk myself this winter. Your blog will be very helpful and very considerate of you to take the time to journal your work.
I like your personal touches!


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## grimgrinnin (Nov 2, 2016)

EarlS said:


> *All Good things Must End*
> 
> I'm finally finished with the desk. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be wrapped up.
> 
> ...


Wow - beautiful!


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