Above are all the steps I used to make the pull out work surface for the desk. Next I’ll make the three drawers that will sit in the cabinet and then I’ll be finished with the case.
Desk pull out work surface, bread board ends and draw bored pegs
I jointed two 10″ wide pieces of cherry together to ensure a tight joint.
Then glued them.
Once the glue had dried, I squared up the edges on the shooting board.
Then I plowed a groove in the end boards.
Then I drilled holes through the grooved bread board ends.
I trimmed the end on the main board to prevent spelching.
My Veritas Jack Rabbet plane does a nice job of making a rabbet on the main board. Rabbets on both sides of the board create the tongue for the bread board.
Here are the shavings from the Jack Rabbet.
I used my brad point bit to mark the holes to be drilled in the tongue and moved in 1/32″.
I also elongated the end holes to allow movement.
I glued only the center hole to allow the ends to move.
I sawed the edges of the waste to be removed to the proper depth.
And chiseled out the waste using a chisel smaller than the slot and then a crank neck chisel.
I finished up using my router plane with some more chiseling to prevent tear out.
Last I put the runner in the groove and planed it to fit smooth.
Then I did final clean up on the pull out surface.
The pull out surface installed.
And with a coat of shellac.
Shellaced bread board ends.
Great photo story of the process. Glad you made it back into the shop.
I like seeing the steps of your work. Very interesting.
Looks like a good weekends work. Almost there, looks great
Thanks all!!!
how did you made the dowel for the bread board? Another question, did you also offset the elongated holes? looking good.
I bought the dowel from Rockler and ran them through my lie nielsen dowel cutter. When I make dowels, I trim them close to size and run them through the dowel cutter also.
And yes, I offset the elongated holes. I anticipate movement in the direction of the elongation, but not in the perpendicular direction.
Thanks for reading!
That’s a really complex desk design. Drawers, bifold doors, slide out work surfaces. It’s going to be amazing when you get it done.
I hope so. It’s certainly the most complicated project I’ve done so far. We really need a desk too (you saw my other one 😉 )