Thursday, January 3, 2019

Walnut Desktops

Just to recap, this was the scene before we started the refurb. After getting rid of the sliding door, we needed some new furniture to replace the crap we've been mekin' do wit' for.....well, for donkeys years actually. We figured we could make much better custom desk tops ourselves than we could buy.


We started with two 4' x 8' sheets of walnut veneered ¾" plywood which we cut to size with the jigsaw and squared-up with the router.



Perimeter trim pieces were cut from solid black walnut and mitered at the corners.


The trim was attached with a mixture of biscuits and wood glue.


Multi-stage glue-up. Like Jerry Rosa says, you can never have too many clamps.



The excess walnut trim was removed with a combination of my new Bench Dog smoothing plane and the Dewalt random orbital sander, and the bench tops were sanded to 360 grit.


The underside of each desk top was sectioned with narrow strips of walnut. This will help located the desk tops above the file cabinets. 


We cut cable access openings in both desk tops - fortunately, my first (and favorite) woodwork instructor was on hand to explain how to sharpen a chisel "ba'ht stone."



It's easy with a sharp chisel.

Plugs were fashioned from walnut scraps.

Plug supports were glued in.

The finish was three coats of flat varnish, which had a cure time of twenty-one (21) days.


All cured and installed: