Woodsmith Magazine 102 - European covered desk

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CHERRY ROLL-TOP DESK

Feature Project cherry roll-toP Desk A tambour door is only part of what makes this desk special. It also features a simple, classic shape and straightforward construction. S ometimes the more obvious things tend to hide the “S-shaped” or double-curved roll-top desk which requires important ones. Take this roll-top desk. Your eye is auto- Or take a look at the design features. Sure, the decora- matically drawn to the tambour door. There’s just some- virtually no hardware (just a few woodscrews). thing about a door that opens and closes without swinging tive cutout on the bottom edge of the front rail is appealing. on a hinge. But you really need to look past the door to see But at the same time, it provides additional clearance when what makes this desk a special project to build. sitting down to write at the desk. And the tapered legs give For one thing, there’s the desk organizer hidden behind the desk a light, graceful appearance. the door. Normally, an organizer is built as an integral part But the most important feature of making this roll-top of the desk. But this one is designed as a totally separate desk is how easy everything goes together. I credit this to a project that can fit on any desk. Yet once it’s completed, it good design. Right from the start, when cutting the tapered slides easily into place under the tambour door. legs to gluing the slats to the canvas for the tambour door, Another example is the desk hardware — or more the straightforward construction went like clockwork. I accurately, the lack of it. What you have here is a classic guess you can’t ask for anything more. 1 © 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Construction Details Overall Dimensions: 1 42 / 2\" x 43\" x 24\" CROSS SECTION CUttiNG DiaGraM 1 x 4 - 60 (3.4 Bd. Ft.)#/4 A A A A #/4 x 5 - 96 (3.4 Bd. Ft.) E Materials B C 3 3 1 #/4 x 5 - 96 (Three Boards @ 3.4 Bd. Ft. ea.) L F A Legs (4) 1 / 4 x 1 / 4 - 27 / 4 / 4 x 4 - 40 3 B Front Rail (1) G G C Back Rail (1) 3 / 4 x 4 - 40 #/4 x 5 - 96 (Three Boards @ 3.4 Bd. Ft. ea.) D Side Rails (2) 3 / 4 x 4 - 21 1 3 I H H E Frt./Bk. Cleats (2) 3 / 4 x / 4 - 38 / 2 3 1 #/4 x 6 - 96 (4 Bd. Ft.) N F Side Cleats (2) 3 / 4 x / 4 - 19 / 2 K K G Desk Top (1) 3 / 4 x 24 - 43 H Case Sides (2) 3 / 4 x 12 - 23 #/4 x 7 - 96 (5 Bd. Ft.) E J I Case Back (1) 3 / 4 x 12 - 40 / 2 1 !/2 D D J Cleat (1) 3 / 4 x / 4 - 40 3 M M L K Case Top (1) 3 / 4 x 9 / 2 - 43 1 3 #/4 x 6 - 96 (4.3 Bd. Ft.) L Lift Rail (1) 1 / 2 x 1 / 4 - 40 / 8 3 !/2 3 3 M M M M M Tambour Slats (28) 5 / 16 x / 4 - 40 / 8 1 N Rail Support Strip (1) 1 / 4 x / 2 - 39 ⁄ 8 7 2 © 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Base The base for this roll-top desk is built like a simple table. There are four legs and a top joined by some rails. I started work on the base by making the legs. LEGS. These legs (A) start out as 1 / 4\"-square pieces of 8/4 stock cut to 3 a finished length of 27 / 4\", see draw- 1 ing at right and leg detail at left. At one end, I marked the location for 1 a pair of / 4\"-wide mortises to hold the tenons cut later on the rails, see Fig. 1. These mortises are cut on adjacent faces. But what’s a little dif- ferent here is they aren’t centered on 1 the leg. Instead, they’re offset by / 2\" from the outside edge, see Fig. 1a. To cut the mortises, I used a Forstner bit and drilled overlapping 13 holes / 16\"-deep to remove most of the waste. This depth provides a little extra clearance for the / 4\"-long ten- 3 ons on the ends of the rails. Since the bit cuts a clean, flat-bottom hole, it only takes a few minutes to square up the ends and clean up the sides of the mortise with a chisel. TAPER. Now to make the legs look The front rail (B) and back rail (C) But to make sure the tenon fits snug more graceful, I cut a taper on all four are 40\" long, while the side rails (D) in the mortise, you’ll want to sneak sides, as you can see in Fig. 2 and in are only 21\" long, see exploded view. up on the final thickness, see Fig. 3. the leg detail at left. Next, I cut a / 4\"-long tenon on To complete the tenon on the rails, 3 RAILS. After tapering the legs, set each end of all the rails. This tenon all that’s left is to create a shoulder on them aside until the rails are com- is centered on the thickness, but the ends so the tenon matches the pleted. The rails that hold the legs there’s really no trick to doing this. length of the mortise in the legs. To 1 together are identical in width (4\"). Just flip the rail over between passes do that, / 2\" of the tenon is removed But their lengths are different. to remove stock from both sides. from both edges, see Fig. 3a. 1 3 2 3 © 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

DECORATIVE CUTOUT. Up to this point the front and back rails are identi- cal. But to provide a little extra clear- ance for sitting at the desk, I cut away part of the front rail, see drawing at right. To do this, simply lay out the curves at the ends of the rail and con- nect them with a straight line. Then remove the waste with a band saw and finish by sanding to the line. BULLNOSE. The legs and rails could be assembled now, but I wanted to break 4 the sharp corner and create a smooth edge. So I routed a bullnose profile on the bottom edge of all the rail pieces, see Figs. 4 and 4a. To do this, I used 5 a / 2\" round-over bit raised / 16\" above 1 the router table, see Fig. 4a. ASSEMBLY. With the bullnose com- pleted, the base can be glued togeth- er. To make this easier, I glued the legs and side rails first. Then I clamp- ed the front and back rails between the side assemblies, see Fig. 5. 5 CLEATS. Next, I worked on making the cleats that hold the desk top in 3 position. These are / 4\"-square pieces of stock with oversized shank holes drilled in them, see Fig. 6a. The front and back cleats (E) are the same 1 length (38 / 2\"), while the side cleats (F) are shorter (19 / 2\"), see exploded 1 view on previous page. These cleats are simply glued to the desk rails. But to make sure the desk top sits tight against the rails, the cleats aren’t flush with the top Then after cutting the top to finished Fig. 7. It will help strengthen the base edge, see Figs. 6 and 6a. Instead, size (24\" x 43\"), rout a bullnose pro- as you move it around in the shop. they’re set a little below the edge to file on all four edges. Here again this You can go ahead and drill the holes, create a small clearance gap. required a / 2\" round-over bit, but but don’t put in all the screws just 1 DESK TOP. Next, I glued up several this time I used a hand-held router. yet. Later, you’ll have to remove the boards to create a solid wood blank Finally, it’s a good idea to tempo- desk top before the roll-top case and for the desk top (G), see Fig. 7. rarily attach the top to the base, see tambour door can be installed. 6 7 4 © 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.