desk – Page 5

I’ve started thinking about the top to my desk and this post should come in handy.

Half Dovetailed Stretcher

Layout

I sawed most of the waste and then used a chisel to reveal the dovetail.

Used to the saw to start waste removal.

Chiseled out the waste.

Cleaned up with a router.

It’ll look better after a little cherry saw dust and epoxy are added.

I decided to use a dovetailed joint for the bottom rail. It took a little time, but will go faster the next time now that I’ve done it once. It would look better if I hadn’t chamfered the rail that it was going into. Oh well, live and learn.

Can you find the dog in this picture???

Need a hint? Click on read more.

Continue reading “Can you find the dog in this picture???”

Finishing up the left side

Squaring up the mortises.

My preferred way to taper the legs.

Chamfering edges with my chamfer plane.

Beveling the bottom of the feet with my shooting board.

Erasing makes and making a final finish surface. Yeah, no sanding!

There are many things I prefer to do with hand tool and all of the above fall into that category especially tapering the bottom of the legs. In the past I’ve done that on my table saw. It requires a jig and test cuts.

Trimming them by hand and cleaning up with my hand plane is .. well fun. I also find cleaning up with out sanding much more fun with a better result.

OK .. hand tool commercial over. 🙂

More progress on the desk.

I made some progress the rest of the frame beyond the cabinet and it’s coming along a bit faster than the cabinet. I’m certainly getting a lot of practice making and fitting tenons.