Popular Post John Morris Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 My son approached me last month and asked if we could build a desk for his bedroom for this upcoming school year, he is planning on a ton of homework and being in 10th grade and all, the work is going to get harder and harder. He asked me to help him build the desk just before I went into the hospital back in early June, I was in bad shape for the first few weeks coming out of the hospital and meanwhile he was asking me when we can start the desk, bless his little soul and heart, as crappy as I was feeling, he felt that ol Dad could get up and go and power through it all with a desk build. I had to put it off, with the way I was feeling, it wasn't even safe for me to be out there in the shop, and the fact that he asked me during that time period, and asked a few more times, indicates I was putting on a pretty positive attitude show for the family, despite how I was feeling. So, now that I am feeling pretty ok, much better than before, me and the boy went to the lumber yard and picked up a few cherry boards. The desk will be cherry, with walnut legs, he wanted two tone. Actually he wanted a Walnut desk, but once we got to the yard, the walnut was just too expensive, so he came around to cherry. We have a budget and we needed to stay within. And it so happens that I had some left over walnut so we'll incorporate the walnut into the mainly cherry desk somehow, thinking possibly the legs will be walnut. I had my boy rip down the boards on the Shopsmith, he did pretty good, burned the cherry on one edge and I then I took the second board and showed him how to use moderate steady feed rate and also keeping it against the fence. Once we had the boards sized, we chose one edge to join, the boards will be cut in half, and folded against each-other and glued edge to edge. I showed my son Jeroid how to handle the big No. 8C, he knows how mostly as he worked with me often years ago, but many years have gone by since he's been by my side in the shop, so picking up the plane again took some practice, fortunately we left the board wide by an 1/8" because I knew Jeroid was going to need practice room to get the edge right. Jeroid took a few passes on the edge and did pretty good, he had a few issues keeping the plane in constant contact with the edge, but he figured it out, I just stood back and let him error, and figure it out. He did. He really got the hang of it, and started to enjoy the process. By the last couple passes he had some shavings singing from the plane, I could tell he felt really good about what he was doing. The edge did get a little off, so I showed him how to get back to 90 with a little lateral adjustment of the plane iron, and he brought it back to square in about 4 or 5 passes. After he joined the boards, we cut them down and glued them up, that is where we are at right now, we have two desk ends, next we'll get the inner dividers joined and glued up. Thanks for reading along, seeya all next time! Artie, Gerald, Gunny and 9 others 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gunny Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Quality time spent with your son. NICE! Because in today's world you are the exception rather than the norm. FlGatorwood, p_toad, Artie and 4 others 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cal Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Now, that's what we want to see! Very glad that you are feeling "mo better" and well enough to tackle a new project with teaching thrown into the mix. This desk will be a great boost to Jeroid's self confidence. Fixing to be a sophomore in high school, fixing to have his sister leave for the Army - just life in general to a mid-teen has so many changes happening. Good on you for giving him what he needs in a father figure and for your time right now, you will both come out much richer on the other end. I am looking forward to following along with the build on this and the running commentary that will accompany it John Morris, aaronc, p_toad and 5 others 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gene Howe Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 This is going to be another great thread. You and Jeroid are building much more than a desk. Cal, FlGatorwood, Harry Brink and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post lew Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 The desk and the memories will last a lifetime. Good on you, John! Cal, Gunny, FlGatorwood and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Larry Buskirk Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Way to go guy's! p_toad, John Morris, FlGatorwood and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gerald Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Wish one of mine had been so interested. Good for you. Oh by the way WHAT no raised panels? Gonna have to get Steven to give you a talk. Artie, Cal, Al B and 3 others 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Artie Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Good for the two of you! Wondering how many Morris generations will get use from Mathis desk? aaronc, Al B, p_toad and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Al B Posted July 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 A wonderful bond between father and son. He didn't ask you to build the desk. He wanted to build it with you. That says a lot about your son ,and his dad. Cal, Gunny, FlGatorwood and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Morris Posted July 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Gerald said: Oh by the way WHAT no raised panels? Not yet Gerald, perhaps next project with the boy, simple is the word of the day on this one. We are shooting for something like this as our inspiration, minus the bottom drawer, that area will house the PC tower and long top drawer will actually be a slide out for a PC keyboard. Cal, Gerald, FlGatorwood and 5 others 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Morris Posted July 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 minute ago, Al B said: A wonderful bond between father and son. He didn't ask you to build the desk. He wanted to build it with you. That says a lot about your son ,and his dad. He did didn't he Al, he did. p_toad, Gunny, Al B and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Morris Posted July 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Artie said: Good for the two of you! Wondering how many Morris generations will get use from Mathis desk? Hopefully his own kids Artie, that would be wonderful to see it in my future grand kids room! Al B, FlGatorwood, Artie and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Morris Posted July 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 12 hours ago, Cal said: Fixing to be a sophomore in high school, fixing to have his sister leave for the Army - just life in general to a mid-teen has so many changes happening. You know Cal, I had not looked at it like that, in the sense that a lot is happening in his life right now with his sister leaving for the Army, he does not let on about it, but I know he'll miss her. Thanks for that perspective. Cal, Artie, Al B and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post PostalTom Posted July 29, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 You know, if this is his first major project, it would be really cool if you could document as much of the project as you can with pics and commentary, and put it together at the end in a scrapbook. That would be an awesome Christmas or birthday present. aaronc, Cal, FlGatorwood and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gunny Posted July 29, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 1 hour ago, John Morris said: he does not let on about it, but I know he'll miss her. Thanks for that perspective. My daughter is 15 and with my son gone she has commented a few times about it. p_toad, FlGatorwood, Cal and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlGatorwood Posted July 30, 2019 Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 Yep, John, he is building under the guidance of his father. What bonding and giving him something to pass down. In the year 2070, he'll be telling his grandson the story and maybe allowing his grandson to modify the desk to fit the life of that time. But, the story he can tell to his offspring. Way to go. John, you're a good dad with a special son. You are obviously handling this with finesse. Gunny, p_toad and Cal 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Morris Posted August 5, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 5, 2019 Well here we are, hot as heck and the garage is pushing 94 degrees all day, so it was hard moving from our AC 78 degree home to the 94 degree garage, but my son and I ventured out anyway. Saturday we pulled the clamps from the panels and found the panels were cupped, and I think it's because the clamps were on all week under pressure and the heat and humidity we've had, all added up to undesirable conditions for our panels. So we had to flatten the panels. I undertook this operation myself with my son standing by and watching, I just wanted to get moving on the project and get this little FUBAR taken care of. So I pulled my Veritas Jack and went to work, in diagonal directions, keeping an eye on the thickness of the edges and trying to keep a uniform thickness. Before I started working the boards I planed a chamfer on the edge where the plane exits each stroke, by doing this you avoid edge tear out, since the plane is working almost perpendicular to the grain, the risk of edge tear out is high. I started working the panel from left to right diagonally and with deep cuts. The panel is flat now, this image is after about a dozen passes left to right. You can see the short flaky shavings indicative of planing perpendicular to the grain. Someday I'll camber the iron of this plane to avoid the edges of the iron dipping into the surface, but since this is just rough planing to flatten, and it will be followed up with a smoother anyway. I took a few passes on our newly flattened panels with a No. 4 Smoother, I demonstrated to my son how to accomplish this operation. Then my son jumped in and started smoothing the panels. He is really taking to planing, becoming familiar with the planes quickly and I can tell when the plane hits max efficiency and the wonderful sound of "scweeeeeesh" rings out with full shavings rolling out the top, he is really taken in with it all. With the panels prepped and ready, we cut the legs out on our Shopsmith, 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" and a tad over to allow for surfacing and clean up. I started out with the Jack and it was working beautifully but I noticed a couple of the legs were bowed end to end so I pulled down the No. 8 Jointer and flattened the bowed legs. Once the legs were taken care of we squared up the panels. After the panels were squared up I was able to understand how wide and deep I had to make the grooves in the legs for the panels to slide in. I am still getting used to my new downsized shop, since I downsized last summer, I really have not had a need to groove anything, till today. And I realized what I used to groove lumber with, is all gone. When I sold my 12" table saw I included the Freud dado set with it, and my router table was also sold which would have worked wonderful as well. I have a Stanley 45 but it's buried somewhere and I am sure even if I dug it up, I'd have to spend a good amount of time bringing it to usable condition for today, I want to get this desk finished for our son so he can use it soon for school. So I ran the legs through the SS table saw one blade width at a time, and snuck up on the fit. Once I got the width I wanted I broke the left over splines from the grooving operation and pulled them out as you can see them laying off to the side under the mallet. I cleaned up the bottoms of the legs with a chisel, and chopped a squared end at the bottom of each leg where the panel will stop. So I guess what we have then is a stopped groove right? Here is one complete panel, or desk end, we are debating if we should cut the bottom rails to finish off the appearance. Strength wise is a non issue, since I cut the stopped grooves for the panels, but we could mortise in bottom rails, it would look nice. So that's it for today folks, had fun on Saturday with my son and today, as you can see my Shopsmith is being put to great use, today I used the table saw function and learned some more table setup configurations for the work. We'll update this topic next week, and thanks for following along folks! lew, Gerald, Gunny and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunny Posted August 5, 2019 Report Share Posted August 5, 2019 A fine days work, add to that work with son on his project. Priceless!!! aaronc, FlGatorwood, John Morris and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morris Posted August 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2019 Hey @Woodbutcherbynight, you gonna drop me your contact info so we can get your MWTCA membership out to ya? Thanks for the compliments on the day Gunny, it's moving slow, but good, very good. Cal and FlGatorwood 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Posted August 5, 2019 Report Share Posted August 5, 2019 Good job there @John Morris. You know there could be several reasons for the bowed panel, but one preventative is to use cauls and time in clamps does not cause bows that I have ever seen. One more tip for your son is planning methods. Instead of pushing across the bench . Plane parallel to the bench and this allows you to use your body . Kinda of a rocking motion for a short panel. John Morris, Cal, FlGatorwood and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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