Building a Desk

I have been learning a new skill over the past few months, and that is woodworking. I have had the unique opportunity to have a dad as a woodworker by trade, so I have been able to learn everything with him.

In doing so there were so many step along the process, a few that I loved, a few that I hated (the sand planer needs to be burned).

The first step was figuring out what I even wanted to build. Just like many I have been working online due to the pandemic, and since the pandemic started I have realized how much time I really spend just sitting at my desk. This is not healthy! Our bodies were not designed to sit for eight or more hours a day, and it definitely started to have an impact. I noticed that I couldn’t stand without wanting to sit for long periods of time, and being only 25 years old that started to concern me. So I decided that I wanted to build a sit/stand desk.

Time to pick out the wood.

I wanted a dark colored desk that would stand up to the test of time. This desk could possibly be transformed into a dining table in the future if the need for a desk subsided.

We chose wenge, also known as Millettia Laurentii, or African rosewood. The woods that we picked up were sustainably sourced. It is a very hard wood, being 45 to 55 pounds per cubic foot, for reference, your typical white pine is 22-31 pounds per cubic foot.

Sizing and planning.

Now we needed to find out how large of a desk I wanted, and what kind of mechanism would be best for the sit/stand idea. I settled at 61 inches long, and 25 inches wide. It was a task to try to find a base that would support the weight of this desk. As I mentioned this is a heavy hard wood desk, we never weighed it on a scale but I would assume the final desk weight was around 50 pounds if not more. So finding a base that would support that weight, plus my monitors, and any resting arm weight and other stuff that will eventually wind up on the desk.

This was difficult as I had already spent a sizeable amount of money on the wood itself, which luckily I still have multiple boards of left. We ended up finding this amazing base from Monoprice https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=35377&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpcOTBhCZARIsAEAYLuVvhCkHlyJwmvMgb6AXqS7kxC6c0z31mqwESyM2m-8wZJ8U9ZNdBdgaAuSbEALw_wcB that would support the weight and had the right dimensions for the wood we had.

The work begins.

Now it was time to learn. This learning process began with cutting all of the wood to size. Which was much easier than expected. After sizing it was time to joint it, which is not what it sounds like, it is basically making sure that you have a 90 degree angle and a flat edge. These flat edges are then set against the table saw in order to make sure that the opposing side is the exact same as the jointed edge. This creates perfect edges, and helps to ensure that your plank of wood is the same width through the entire length.

Then planning again, learning how to decide what way I wanted the top of the desk to look. Then biscuit joining it together, this was fun as you cut small holes essentially on the sides of the boards, then add a small wooden biscuit and glue and then clamp it all together. At this point we had all four planks of wood connected together and it is starting to look like an actual table at this point.

Then scraping all the glue off, and when that was done, it was time to plane it. Planing is when you are making the top and bottom of the wood the same width. It is like jointing but for the larger side of the wood. You want to make sure that the entire piece of wood is the same width and in order to do so, you use the sand planer. The most evil tool in the garage in my opinion. It was the hardest tool to learn and the tool that would show where you messed up the most in the final product.

After that it was time to rout the edges. This means making the edges less sharp, and adding a design if you want to. I chose to have a 45 degree angle on the bottom beginning from the bottom half of the table. I then also didn’t want to have a sharp edge at the top of the table, so I added another 45 degree angle to the top of the table the added just a small flavor to the feeling of the table that both added style and more comfort so as to not dig a corner into my arms as I type.

Sanding. Sanding. Sanding.

After sanding it was time to add a finish. We used an oil based finish that sunk into the pores of the table while also offering a lot of protection. This then had to be sanded off and then a layer of wax and buffing was added to help create more shine after sanding the finish had dulled it down.

Then assembling the final product.

I’m sure that I missed one or two steps in describing this process but it was so much fun to build and I can’t wait to create more pieces and slowly replace all the current IKEA furniture into handmade functional pieces of art that fit me more than anything I could ever buy.