today i'm going to show you how to make a solid wood desktop i made mine custom out of ashwood
over seven feet long but wait a second- let's go back to the beginning and see how i got here
after cleaning out my office i could finally get my newly built base cabinets into position
i adjusted the leveling feet until the cabinets were flush and i could
then clamp them together and attach them with some screws
after checking for level i positioned and leveled the third cabinet then popped in all the drawers
if you're interested in seeing how i built these cabinets i'll leave a link to both the video and
the build plans down in the description below alright with the cabinets finally installed and
leveled exactly where i want them to be it's time to get started on the desktop now for
this i'm going to be building a solid ashwood desktop that's going to be over seven feet long
i won't lie this is the biggest build i've ever taken on before and it's making me a little bit
nervous to tell you the truth but i've been planning this desk build for months now and
time for procrastination is over it's time for me to just dive in
i mean how bad can this turn out right come on seriously let's get started wish me luck
the biggest challenge in making this desk will be the limited space i have in my shop
there's not much room to work on such a large project but that's why most of
my tools are on wheels so i can move things out of the way and make room to use my tools
i'll position my joiner so i'll have at least 8 feet of infeed and 8 feet of outfeed
i'm starting with 5/4 rough sawn ash that i'll mill on all four sides this is my first time
milling such long boards and i quickly realized that my joiner wasn't long enough to support them
and be able to work safely i put everything on hold and made a trip to Princess Auto
to pick up a pair of roller stands in order to support the wood both on the infeed and on
the outfeed i started by flattening one face on the jointer putting the cupped face down
and keeping the pressure on the outfeed side it took several passes until the face was flat
and let me tell you working with long solid wood boards is quite the workout with one face flat
i could flip that face up against my joiner's fence in order to flatten and square one edge
i checked the edge for square then could move over the planer to flatten the opposite face i fed each
board one after the other progressively lowering the cutter head until all the boards were flat and
had the same thickness i was hoping to end up with one inch in thickness but ultimately ended up just
a hair below the one inch mark with all the boards milled to their final thickness the last step is
to rip them to their final width of the table saw running the jointed edge up against the fence
i won't lie getting big boards perfectly square left me a little frustrated when i realized that
there were gaps in my joints but after flipping a few boards around i managed to close most of
the gaps and get a decent fit alright it's time to get these boards glued up but after feeling
how heavy each of these boards was i came to the realization that once this desktop was assembled
it would be really long and really heavy so instead of figuring out a way to carry it up two
flights once it was all done i decided to assemble it directly in the office where it would stay
Glue ups can definitely stress me out so to make it as stress free as possible i got everything ready and
carried it all upstairs starting with my clamps - a lot of clamps - and this is when i'm grateful to
have these Bessey K-body parallel clamps they make a huge difference in keeping panels flat
and getting tight seams without any gaps and speaking of clamps a big thanks to Bessey Tools
for sponsoring this video i'll leave links in the description below to all of the clamps that i use
so be sure to check those out alright so here's my glue up process in a nutshell i applied a thick
bead of glue to one edge on four out of my five boards getting full coverage on the edge using a
glue brush i can now lay my boards flat and start closing the clamps without tightening just yet
just a light twist until they start to bite i then add these mini F-clamps to both ends using one per
seam to make sure it stays aligned and flat i can then go back and start tightening all the
clamps checking that each board stays flat and the seams look good for extra insurance i use clamping
cauls in the middle to make sure the panels stay dead flat these cauls are slightly tapered from
the midpoint towards the ends and i've put clear packing tape on the bottom edge so it won't stick
to the glue okay i can now do a final tightening of all my clamps but- oops i almost forgot to add
these clamps on this section that overhangs my bench so i'll add them on top alright time to let
this dry but i won't go too far just yet after about 30 minutes i came back to scrape off the
glue while it's still soft i finally found the perfect tool for this at Princess Auto
it's a razor blade scraper but with plastic blades that won't damage the wood in the past i've tried
wiping off the glue with a wet rag and i've tried waiting until it dried and use a chisel but i got
really frustrated with both of those methods okay kids for this next part don't try this at home ;)
scraping the glue off the top was one thing but getting to the other side was quite the workout
this top with all of these clamps is super heavy and now i know you're wondering will
those flimsy plastic saw horses hold up under the weight? I wondered the same thing myself but
then again these sawhorses are rated for 1200 pounds so i went for it and luckily for me no
catastrophes ensued the glue was starting to harden by now so i quickly finished up
once all the glue was scraped away i let the top cure in the clamps for a full 24 hours
now comes the fun task of sanding starting with 80 grit to remove any remaining glue and
get it nice and flat now don't be fooled by this accelerated shot because THIS-
is actually the real speed i'm going at and it took me a good 15 minutes to get through one side
i flipped the top over - a lot lighter now without all the clamps -
and sanded it with 80-grit on the other side hitting the edges too
with the top now flat i pause the sanding at this point to work on shaping the desk
i finally get to try out my new toy to square off the ends and trim the desk to its final size
of course if you don't have a track saw you can also use a circular saw with a homemade guide rail
that's what i did for years and it worked just as well maybe not as smooth and clean as a cut but
it'll work next i use my trim router with a small round over bit on all the edges i'm rounding over
the edges ever so slightly it's barely noticeable really just enough to knock off the sharpness and
break the edges you could also do this with a block plane or even just sand the edges
alright time to get back to sanding but rather than bore you i'll just share two tips: first it
really helps to make pencil lines before you start on a new grit this will help you gauge your speed
and sand more evenly and second did you know there was a simple rule when going up in grits?
never increase by more than 50. So if you're starting with 80 grit, plus 50 percent = 120
plus 50% = 180, and plus 50% is up to 270, but I'll stop at 220. if you skip ahead any faster you'll
likely see swirl marks in your finish i'm going to finish this top with Osmo Polix-oil but first
i vacuum the entire room to avoid any dust contamination and i'll use this tack cloth
to catch any remaining dust nibs i've seen different methods to apply Osmo either with
a roller or a pad but i've also seen people use a plastic spreader and i wanted to give it a try
it took a little getting used to but ultimately i found it was really easy to spread the finish
around in a thin coat getting good coverage the important thing is to wipe up any excess with a
lint-free cloth and when i was done i used another clean Osmo easy pad to wipe down the top again
i applied two coats to the bottom face let it dry then flipped it over to work on the top face
i love using this product because it's so easy to apply and gives such a smooth silky finish
and it's low VOC and both coats can be applied within one day pretty awesome i let it fully
cure for a few days then came back to slide the desktop into position ever since i started
planning this build i've questioned whether or not i would attach the top to the base cabinets
now that it's built i'm not sure that's really necessary but i figure if i don't do it now
i'll never do it i'm going to screw the desktop down from inside the cabinets up into the desk
but if i just drive in screws without allowing for wood movement the desktop will likely end
up cracking over time so instead i'm going to make elongated holes at the back so the screws can move
with the wood when it expands and contracts all that's left is to get the top back into position
drive the screws and this desk will be ready to use i'm so excited to finally have a big desk
with plenty of storage where i can store all of my audio and video gear and work on editing my videos
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