Jus and I are attempting to build several desks for our home office. They're fairly basic but are designed to fit our space and provide much needed working room.
The problem is that we're using a pine frame and one of the side frame pieces bends upwards somewhat. We don't have the option of getting more wood of the same size anytime soon, so we need to try and fix it.
We've noticed that with a small amount of pressure on both ends, the whole thing straightens without much of a problem - but of course it doesn't stay straight. So we're trying to figure out a way of bracing it so that it locks.
We're thinking of adding one of our spare pieces of wood between the legs, which wil have the added benefit of stabilising the legs a little more, then while somone holds the frame down, straightening the twist, drilling in a thin metal cross brace.
Will that work? Apart from getting a straight piece of wood, are there any other solutions?
posted
Okay, first of all whether you're working in wood or in steel, nothing is every exactly flat or exactly square. For wood particularly so. The trick, as you have guessed, is to have members boxed in so that you can pull them into true alignment. Then in addition to the screws, dowells, or nails that you use to keep the work together, you should also use a good carpenter's wood glue. Here in the states, I prefer Elmer's Carpenter's Glue. If you rub down and wet both pieces to be joined with a thin layer of glue first, it will form a bond stronger than the wood itself. If it ever breaks, then, the wood itself will split apart. The joint will remain intact.
You will need clamps to hold the work in place 24 hours until the glue dries. Clamps for furniture making come up to six feet in length or more. The longer ones are rather expensive, so use the shortest ones you can get by with.
Good luck on your project. Woodworking is very fun. Let us know how it turns out.
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posted
Looking from the front of the desk, on the long back piece of the frame, the left hand end bends upwards.
It causes the entire top frame to twist, making it's leg come off the ground - and if you push down that leg, the leg at the diagonally opposite corner pops up.
However we've noticed that as it's pine, when we push down on both ends at once, the frame straightens.... we just need to figure out if our logic is sound in the fix diagram - i.e. if we push down on both ends to straighten the frame, is there a way of securing the frame to keep that straighteness?
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posted
It looks to me like the purpose of boxing in the top as it's shown is for this very thing, to ensure flatness. You don't give any dimensions, but the side parts look as though they are perhaps several inches thick. (10 cm or so, perhaps?) Do those side parts bend up as well? Are they solidly attached to the top? To me it looks as though that should be sufficient to keep it flat. It's hard to say without more detailed information, though.
X bracing below will definitely give you more control, however, if you don't force it, glue it, and clamp it in the correct position, then it still won't be straight when you're done. I think I'd use wood instead of steel for the bracing.
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We wound up just saying f**k it and going out to Bunnings (5th trip in 3 days) and got another length of wood.
But it's been a trial.
We're building three big desks to fit along the end of our apartment.
The intial plan was to get some Jarrah veeneer particle board for the top - we found some that was marked at 1800mm X 800mm X 19mm - make a frame to sit it into and then attach some legs.
Bear in mind that I skipped shop at school in favour of music. You weren't supposed to have a choice, but since I changed schools half-way through grade eight, I told the new school that I'd done shop first semester at the old school so I could do music twice. Fun at the time, but at the expense of much manliness later in life.
So it's really Jus who's building the desks, with me just holding and clamping stuff. And lugging. Don't forget the lugging.
Anyway, so we've hired a circular saw, run a powerlead from our apartment to the sidewalk and setup shop there. Heh.
We've cut all our lumber frame pieces to the right lengths and trimmed the veneer to be 600mm deep. Our frame pieces are 90mm X 45mm, so we planned to have a desk that was 1890mm long and 69mm deep.
Except when we go to see if the veneer fits, we find out that it was marked wrong at the lumber yard, and it's really 1500mm long.
So we wound up getting some hardwood, 600mm X 110mm and put strips of that in at either end, bounded by some thinner framing bits we picked up - and you know, it looks amazing!
EDIT - ok - this is now about 8 hours since I started writing the above. We've built the second desk and are staining the first one. We hope to have these finished off by tomorrow night.
I've whipped up some photoshop samples of what it was supposed to look like:
posted
That does look GREAT! I want digital pics of the finished product from several angles!
I never ever use particle board for anything, as it is heavy and very weak and disintigrates if it gets wet.
But lumber is plentiful and cheap here. I know it's much more expensive in Europe, but dunno about Australia. You have rain forests up north, right? Can you get real wood there easily? If so, I highly recommend it over particle board.
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posted
Very cool. This reminds me of a table I once saw that I wanted to try and recreate one day.
It had "leaves" that slid out in each direction from underneath the main table. Each leaf was about 2/3rds the length (so it had support on the slide, I guess). When they were all out, it looked sort of like a plus shape. At least, I think there were four. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe there were only three leaves, kinda like a tetris piece.
Is there a name for the table? Or is it just a unique, crazy table? Any ideas if there is a commercially available version of this table?
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I have one word for you when it comes to building home furniture.
Poplar.
It costs slightly more than pine (very slightly compared to any hardwoods). But on a scale of workability and forgivness for your woodworking blunders, it's orders of magnitude better than pine.
It's soft. Doesn't shatter. Takes well to a hand chisel if you want to do your own mortise and tenon. The coloration is fantastic (assuming you can stand a tinge of green that very slowly ages to brown).
After all my home furnishing projects, most of the pine ones have bit the dust (during the project or not long thereafter). My poplar ones are still standing and gorgeous.
fallow
PS. Just try a small poplar piece. Especially if you want to work it by hand.
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posted
Really fallow? My dad works in wood, and has been making things for himself and others for 20 years now, and he loves pine. He really hates poplar (also called aspen, I believe). He said it was, and I quote, "shit wood", and he hates the fact that our cottage has a ton of it in our yard.
We just had 10 of them cut down, adn one of them, the largest, was completely hollow inside. My dad, and the guy who cuts them, said that they usually rot and fall because they are too soft.
I thiught it would be hard to find peices large enough to work....where do you find it?
posted
Poplar actually is a good wood to work with for general purposes. It is soft, but nowhere near as soft as pines, which are most capable in constructing furniture. The color is a bit too green for my personal tastes, and while it accepts stains, the greenish tinge stays with the wood no matter what (well, short of an ebony or mahogony stain).
I used Poplar to make my thesis model, and several of the pieces I was cutting with a table saw were only an inch thick, and showed no signs of being in danger of failing.
Now that all this has been brought up, I'll have to link my furniture pieces. My personal favorite material for furniture constrcution is Baltic Birch Plywood. It it becoming horribly trendy, which means I'll have to find something else soon, but my bookshelf and coffee table are both made of it (a nice light color, with very noticable bandings when stained)
Glad your desk turned out Troubs, I also look forward to seeing more angles of it.
posted
At all my local hardware/lumber stores. I can't speak for every place, but it's always been a few cents on the board foot above pine.
It doesn't splinter. It doesn't crack. If you go astray while sawing, it doesn't fracture the length of the board. It's prettier, in my eye, with the broad swirls and sworls instead of dense knots (impossible to cut-through, sand or finish).
That's been my limited experience. With hand-tools, it almost feels like clay.
posted
One of our neighbors did come over and take his pick of the wood. He said he made lamps with it, then asked my parents if they would like to BUY one!
Well, we only gave him 2 truckloads of wood for his lamps....lol
I think he should have given them one. He actually looked a little put out when my parents shot him a look and declined....
posted
The veneer we found was really nice, quite thick and made the whole top very strong. We're sealing the veneer into the frame with estapol, so hopefully we won't have to worry about wetness.... crossed fingers...
Lumber is reasonably cheap here, I guess.... but even reasonably cheap is beyond our budget at the moment, hence the home-handyman routine.. lol
I'm not sure that you can get poplar in Australia tho...
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posted
We've run into another twisty-wood dillemma, which has put off the finish of the desks probably until the weekend and will necessitate yet another trip to bunnings. But the two completed desks look fantastic.
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Let us know how it turns out.
