Side Panels

The other portions of the desk that I could have made with the available resources were the side panels. They are basically shorter, much wider an sturdier supports. These are a part of the new design, and the sides will consist of the 10 inch tall side panels and a thinner two inch normal support with tenons under the panels. 

The side panels will attach to the legs with what my grandfather calls "biscuits". I will create a more detailed post about them in the future as the idea is hard to understand and even I need a better understanding of them. 

Recent Building Reflection

Over spring break I met with my grandfather for about 20-25 hours worth of work. It started on the cold Tuesday morning, with the first work being bringing wood over to his work shop and smoothing the boards. The legs were made out of a much shorter, thicker board, while all of the supports and side panels were made from a much thinner board. Drilling the mortises is a problem currently, as the square chisel kept sliding up the press. Eventually we drilled out the mortises and next time we meet we plan to use the square chisel and manually carve out the correct area. 

On the day after, Wednesday, I spent most of the day chipping away for the tenons with 5 circular saws. The tenons are 5 inches long and about an inch thick, which is still quite a sturdy amount and will be used to slide into every mortise. 

Milling the Tenons

Along with creating the mortises in the legs, I had to create the tenons on the ends of the supports so that the pieces could fit together. Five saw blades were set up on the tablesaw so that the correct amount of wood could easily be taken away.

So far this has been the most fun part of the project, especially because it included the most amount of hands-on time. A problem with using this method, however, is after the blade is run through from one side and comes out to the other, the wood will chip and split and ruin the sides. This isn't too large of an issue, mainly because these pieces will not be too visible since they will be touching the table top and are almost completely out of view. 

I'm quite proud of how the end results came out, the length of the eight tenons is about +/- 1/16th of an inch, which is an all right margin of error. 

The Mortise and Tenon in Action

The entire frame and legs is held together with the Mortise and Tenon joint. Since yesterday, Tuesday, we spent the entire day working on smoothing the wood, today will be dedicated to cutting the frame to length, them trimming portions to demonstrate the correct making of the Mortise and Tenon. My grandfather found in his cabinet a contraption to set up on his drill press of a Mortise maker. I forgot to take a picture of it, but basically it is a drill with a similar sized square chisel slightly higher than the tip of the drill. However, the square chisel kept sliding up, so in the end we decided to create holes and chisel out the remaining portion by hand.

The holes came out to be in the correct place for each, other than the leg on the far left. Accidentally, the holes were drilled too far down the leg, and created a length of longer than the height of the back supports which we intended to link with. The problem now is that the areas will no longer flush. Thankfully, though, there is about 40 inches of wood, and we only need about 30. This is useful for redoing the leg in the future if we are unable to attach the support. 

Smoothing and Initial Cutting

Because the lumbar we started with is rough, we sent the board through the milling machine to cut off a very small amount from the edges to create an even, smooth surface.

As one can see from the top of the wood, the surface is incredibly rough. It was hard to get the height of the mill correct, as we had to keep adjusting as it went through to cut the amount we wanted. 

The finished piece came out looking really amazing!

I was amazed at the difference the milling had created. The previous piece of wood would give splinters from simply running my hands down it. The second felt as if I could slide across it in my bare feet without any worries. 

Construction!

I went to his farm house early this morning, Tuesday April 15th. The moment I got there he simply said to follow him. I thought we would go check out the shop, and he'd give me a rundown how we were going to go about the day. He surprised me by bringing us to the largest barn on his property. Apparently, he's been hoarding all of the wood of a walnut tree for about five years now. His friend from Maryland gave him about 2000 ft boards as long as he shipped it up to Trumansburg.

The amount he has is crazy, and it surprised me a great deal. We'll use one of the boards to create the legs and frame, and in the near future we'll have to find the top. He suggested a whiteboard (similar to a classroom's), which I think is a cool idea. 

New Top Possibility

From my grandfather's feedback, I've begun thinking of the suggested way to attach the top. His idea will use the smallest amount of wood possible, as the frame will be small, yet the top still large. According to him, it will be similar to how a tabletop is attached. The top will contain two layers, the top layer will be the nicer looking wood with about a two-five inch overlap of the under layer. The frame will be built to have the under layer nicely slide in, and the top will stop it from going all the way through. This is an incredibly simple yet fantastic design, and as soon as I have time I will draw it up in Inventor.

Date to Begin Work

Spring Break is quickly approaching, which is a time period when a great deal of work needs to get done. I'm really excited to start cutting next week, especially since it'll be in my grandfathers workshop which I've only gone in once before, and I've never used any of the machinery inside. We've planned to meet on the 15th and 16th of April, as it is the only day of break when I'm not working. The freedom in my schedule allows for an entire day of work, and hopefully we'll make the most of the time given. I haven't been able to acquire any wood necessary for building, so I'm assuming we'll make a quick run to a lumbar yard to pick up scraps.

Attempting to Reschedule

Since I'm unable to meet with Mr. Cooper on Thursday the 10th, I called him to ask to reschedule. I believe attempting to reschedule had offended him since I called after the meeting time and date, so I will be out of a possible interview with him. I'm really disappointed about this as I was looking forward to seeing his workshop, but it's completely expected as I was disrespectful by asking to move the date after it had already happened. This is definitely something to learn from, and if I plan on interviewing anyone else in my life, I should definitely remember to ask to reschedule BEFORE the date.

Criticism of New Design

After reviewing my topic, my grandfather sent back really helpful feedback. 

"TOP

Treat the top as a separate piece to be placed on top of a stable frame, just the way a table is made.  It can be one thickness of MDF or two. The principal board (the one that shows and is the work surface) should have one side laminated with melamine (It comes that way).  If you decide on 2 thicknesses, I have a piece suitable for gluing to the underside of the top.  It will be smaller than the top so it will fit inside the frame we are going to build.  That means, the INSIDE dimension of the frame should be no longer than 32”.  It presently is 34”.  The edges of the top piece will be raw, so we will put a strip of walnut around all 4 edges.  The edge towards the user will be flush with the work surface and the other 3 sides will extend upwards about ¼” so things won’t slide off.  The walnut will look good with the white melamine.  The outer dimensions of the top can be determined later or you can design the frame pieces, figure out the final outer dimensions of the frame, and then design the top with about a one inch to two inch overhang all around.  The walnut strips will add about ¼” to each dimension.

FRAME

The frame is pretty much as you designed it except it will have a full set of stringers (the long skinny boards) all around the top to stabilize it.  I like your use of through-tenons very much, so the longer pieces will pierce the top end of the legs as through-tenons.  The left-hand short piece will have to have short tenons because the piece will be on the same level as the through tenons, which will have priority for occupying the legs.  The right–hand stringer will be the side of the drawer box.  We will attach that in place using biscuits. (I have biscuits and a biscuit joiner.) If you will make your through-tenons a little longer, maybe 3 ½”, there will be room to cut mortises into the portion of the tenon that sticks out, and we can put a wedge through each tenon to secure it in place.  That way, you can remove the wedges to disassemble the desk.  The top will be attached to the frame with 4 clips and 4 screws, so the top can also be removed when disassembling the desk.  Incidentally, don’t build the top until the frame is complete.  Then we cut the top to fit the frame.  The horizontal stringers on top should be widened to 2 ½” or 3” for increased stability.  In fact, all stringers can be widened to the same width.

LEGS

Did anyone ever tell you your legs were a little skinny?  A I” square leg is pretty bendy.  I would go with 1 5/8” legs.  That’s the size of a so-called 2x2.  I can show you examples here at the house of various sized legs and you can make a choice. If the thicker legs look too blocky, I would recommend tapering them starting just below the lowest stringer.  The taper is on the inside of each leg, not on the outside, so only 2 sides will be tapered."

We're planning to meet over break at some point to discuss the project further. Since I'm quite busy this coming week I'll be unable to do as I hoped, like visiting hardware stores and meeting with Matt Cooper. 

From my grandfathers comments, I'm working again on my "Improved Design" to change the attachment of the tabletop and the width of the legs. The problem with changing the width of the legs in CAD is they determine sizes of most of the other lengths of the desk so almost everything will change minorly. 

Much Improved Inventor Work

I've almost completely finished my design at this point. There are most likely a few errors I've overlooked, so I just sent the file to my grandfather for his insight.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7_QrtLhHNngeDU3UVNULWxzaFE/edit

The design itself is simple in my eyes, but certain parts about it I truly enjoy. Creating the design in a CAD software may be a more efficient process, but it lacks the joyfulness of drawing with a pencil and ruler.

Contact with Matt Cooper

Over the past few weeks I've been intending to contact Matt Cooper, a local woodworker that has created some amazing pieces of work. Since I'm intrigued in the subject and it would be a good idea for me to get another interview, I called him and attempted to set up a time to come in and talk with him. When he first picked up the phone, he seemed to be pretty busy and said he would call me back. About the same time the next day, he called me and we arranged for me to call him Thursday (4/10/14) morning and remind him I will be coming in and exactly what time I should come in. I'm looking forward to finally meeting him, and I'll soon create some questions that I can ask him.

Weekly Reflection and Future Plans

The past week I spent mostly thinking about what I wanted for an end result, and attempting to put it into drawings and models that may possibly work. On the CAD portion of my work, I'm not too sure the back panel will hold up as I'm hoping, as there is a two part mortise and tenon to hold the desk together. The top of my desk so far I've planned to be three planks about 8inches wide each. Currently the look is similar to a park bench, so I'm hoping for wider pieces of wood to work with. 

I'm looking into reused wood at Ithaca ReUse located at the triphammer mall. It accepts donations from locals who want to give their past projects, and Ithaca ReUse resells them for a very small price to make profit.