GaryMadore
Member
I told LOML that I was making one of her birthday presents. Smart-a$$ that she is, she enthusiastically declared "AWESOME! I hope it's a pen because I hardly have ANY!" (Yeah, she got a bunch of specialty pens for Christmas)
Undeterred, I told her that it would not be a pen and that she would just love it. She recently bought herself a laptop and has been coveting a lap-desk that I made for myself. Mine was quickly slapped together out of pine, is beginning to crack (I glued and screwed everything together!), and is unfinished. Hers, on the other hand, has to be somewhat nicer because it is, after all, supposed to be a present.
It's just a basic lap bench with some Asian-inflenced shapes on the ends (can you "see" an Indian palace?) and is about 20" wide x 14 deep.
Because mine cracked, I wanted to make a "free floating" top for hers. What I eventually came up with was to plow dovetail grooves the full width of the top (underside, of course) and matching, but slightly undersized, dovetails on the uprights. I secured the sides by drilling holes to drop small pins (cut-off nails) in. then covering up the pins with plugs cut from the same lumber (lousy job matching the grain, though!).
So, here it is after some Minwax "Golden Oak" and the first coat of Minwax (gloss) polyurethane....
Top panel (glued up from 4 pieces - should be easy to see the glue lines):
I don't know why the plug is almost glowing in this shot - it's not that light:
One end. Cut out freehand on a bandsaw with a too-wide blade:
The front. I don't know if you can see the dovetails and the plugs that cover the pins:
Dovetail and plug detail:
I hope she likes it (and gives me my ratty old pine one back!)
Oh, I also hope she's not a closet woodturner who browses IAP: Her birthday isn't until the 9th....
Cheers!
Gary
P.S. I had originally planned to have stopped dovetail grooves ending about 1" back from the front lip, but forgot about that while I was happily plowing the top into my rapidly spinning bit... Let's call the half-blinds a "design modification", shall we?
Undeterred, I told her that it would not be a pen and that she would just love it. She recently bought herself a laptop and has been coveting a lap-desk that I made for myself. Mine was quickly slapped together out of pine, is beginning to crack (I glued and screwed everything together!), and is unfinished. Hers, on the other hand, has to be somewhat nicer because it is, after all, supposed to be a present.
It's just a basic lap bench with some Asian-inflenced shapes on the ends (can you "see" an Indian palace?) and is about 20" wide x 14 deep.
Because mine cracked, I wanted to make a "free floating" top for hers. What I eventually came up with was to plow dovetail grooves the full width of the top (underside, of course) and matching, but slightly undersized, dovetails on the uprights. I secured the sides by drilling holes to drop small pins (cut-off nails) in. then covering up the pins with plugs cut from the same lumber (lousy job matching the grain, though!).
So, here it is after some Minwax "Golden Oak" and the first coat of Minwax (gloss) polyurethane....
Top panel (glued up from 4 pieces - should be easy to see the glue lines):
I don't know why the plug is almost glowing in this shot - it's not that light:
One end. Cut out freehand on a bandsaw with a too-wide blade:
The front. I don't know if you can see the dovetails and the plugs that cover the pins:
Dovetail and plug detail:
I hope she likes it (and gives me my ratty old pine one back!)
Oh, I also hope she's not a closet woodturner who browses IAP: Her birthday isn't until the 9th....
Cheers!
Gary
P.S. I had originally planned to have stopped dovetail grooves ending about 1" back from the front lip, but forgot about that while I was happily plowing the top into my rapidly spinning bit... Let's call the half-blinds a "design modification", shall we?
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