How to build this desk?

March 5, 2008 7:00 PM

How hard would it be to build this desk?

I've never built anything before. Any advice (including, "Forget about it.") or suggestions (like use this kind of wood or this kind of technique) would be appreciated.

posted by mekanic to home & garden (21 comments total)

Now, IANAC* but to me it looks like pine, which is fairly easily accessible, but I gotta say...I don't see building a desk like that without access to a planer and a table saw...probably a router too. A drill press might come in handy, but a hand drill might do the trick.

I guess what I'm getting at, unless you have lots of time and are willing to do it old school (that is, with hand tools), I suspect you would need some pretty hardcore power tools to accomplish this task easily.

*I Am Not A Carpenter
posted by Richat at 7:06 PM on March 5

Is it a desk? Looks like you can't pull the chair under it. You might want to test whether this is a comfortable position for you to work in first. e.g make a barrier to pulling the chair in at the dining room table. You'll be leaning forward more than most people prefer.
posted by winston at 7:07 PM on March 5

I'm with Richat, gotta have the tools, and if you do then I'd say it would be pretty straight forward.
posted by Echidna882003 at 7:08 PM on March 5

I'm pretty sure that's an Ikea table. It would probably be faster and easier to buy it from them if you have one nearby.
posted by octothorpe at 7:13 PM on March 5

The top is a bunch of plain pine boards edge-glued together which IKEA seems to do with ease but may be hard to do yourself. You'd have to find those pieces somewhere - the 2x2 uprights are pretty regular. You may be able to find a butcherblock kitchen countertop that would work once cut to size. Other than that I doubt you'd need anything as exotic as a planer, assuming you can get the top somewhere already planed. So, skipping top top and footrest pieces all you'd need is a mitre saw, a drill and probably a sander. Whoever you get the countertop pieces from may be able to cut them to size for you which removes the need for a table saw.
posted by GuyZero at 7:14 PM on March 5

For what it's worth, I never really made the hardcore rule-based distinction between a desk and a table before. Thanks winston and 1!
posted by Richat at 7:15 PM on March 5

How hard would it be to build this desk?

Stupidly simple. The hardest part will be the metric assloads of sanding required to get a nice surface like the one in the picture. There are no curved edges (the edges of the legs are very slightly rounded, but that could be accomplished by sanding), so you won't need a router. It looks like just a bunch of straight cuts. You could do this with portable table saw and a drill.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:15 PM on March 5

So we've got some over-engineers in here tonight.

Are you wanting this table for its simplicity? Or its looks? Or you just want a table?

You could do something very similar w/ a hand drill and a circular saw (or any saw, really. Hell, a hand saw would work. Or rather "A crosscut saw".)

It appears to be either 1x4's or 2x4's, although I'd personally be inclined to stick with 1x6's and furring strips (for the connecting of the parts you cant' see)

The real issue there is going to be cost, as the "finish grade" pine for that much exposed and splinter free wood surface isn't cheap. However, enough polyurethane and anything's splinter proof.

The challenging part looks to me as though they've tried to avoid screw holes on the outside of the structure. There are 10 million ways around this, including joining and, more simply, plugs.

I guess I'm sort of circumventing the question, but do you want a table *like* this one, or THIS ONE.

The tools you'll need: a drill. A saw. A speed square. Probably a level. A measuring tape or stick. Some wood glue. Some wood screws. A pencil and paper. And a vacuum for the dust.
posted by TomMelee at 7:29 PM on March 5

I would add to the list a sander - orbital sander. If you want to be more primitive, you might do well with a sanding block.

The top surface will be very soft wood, so it will mar pretty easily. You might want to consider using a harder wood for the top.
posted by amtho at 7:35 PM on March 5

You'd need a joiner to get the edges of the 2x4s used for the upper and lower surfaces perfectly square. Lumber from the mill has a radiused edge. If you glued and clamped those together as-is, you'd have a desk that resembles rumble strips.
posted by adamrice at 7:35 PM on March 5

Easy, and few tools needed.

The top and bottom sections of laminated pine can be bought at any Home Depot, sometimes near the 1x12 pine and sometimes near the pre-cut plywood (standard sizes include 24"x60", which is probably close to the size of that table); the legs look like they are 3x3's; the pieces going around under the top (there is a word for these, but it has gone out of my head) are probably 1x3's. All the lumber you should be able to find at any lumberyard. Having a table saw will make your life easier, but all you would need is to have the Home Depot people pre-cut the big pine pieces to size, then you notch out the corners of the bottom piece with a hand saw; cut all the 1x3's to length; ditto the legs; screw and glue all together. It would be stronger if you used mortise and tenon joints or snazzy hardware, but even without it will be plenty strong if you are careful in your assembly.

So saw, drill/driver, and lots of care in your cutting and fitting and you can do it. As you add tools (eg table saw), things get easier. No need for planer, jointer, etc, unless you want to laminate up the pine tops yourself for some weird reason.

And probably cheaper to just buy the thing at Ikea -- they are getting their lumber so cheap that it is sometimes hard to replicate it for less at the lumberyard.
posted by Forktine at 7:38 PM on March 5

yea, forgot the sander. Orbital would be best, but any would do. So would a stapler and a chunk of scrap wood and a couple pieces of sand paper.
posted by TomMelee at 7:43 PM on March 5

(And I am 100% certain that you can buy the laminated pine at Home Depot because I have a piece of it in my back room; I think it cost me around $15, but it could have been more, for a 2'x5' piece. Using 3/4" plywood would probably be cheaper, but not everyone likes to see exposed ply edges.)
posted by Forktine at 7:47 PM on March 5

Seconding octothorpe that it's probably an IKEA table. I've one that's taller but with less depth to it for supporting my decks. It's pine. It's braced both at the top and the bottom. At the top there are two almost width-wide braces glued to the underside of the top surface that buttress against the top crosssupport of the legs. The bottom shelf you see is the main brace for the legs so they don't fly apart. The shelf is the length of the table but has the width of the legs cut from each corner so it can fit snugly in. This is then screwed in. The legs themselves use a combination of wooden dowls and those bizarre IKEA screws that require an Allen key. If you want me to try and dig out the original specs or photo the table I have, MeMail me.

When I first moved into my flat I decided to make something. My friend and I had been talking about making camoflaged furniture. The item would be painted a certain way, and the backdrop too, so that when you look at the item from a certain angle it would disappear. If I can do it, so can you.

I didnt get around to the backdrop, but the [self-link] zebra table is still around after 4 years. It took 2 months of me cutting up wood and my flat smelling of paint, but it was totally worth it, even the heart-attack I almost suffered trying to get it out of the door.

Best of luck!

Oh, and if you anticipate a lot of screwing, invest in a Stanley Yankee. It saved my sanity and wrists on numerous occasions.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 8:08 PM on March 5

I hate being the spoilsport here, but I'm going to go against the crowd a little here and say that, if you have no experience building things or working with wood, building that particular desk is not going to be that easy for you. It's certainly not going to be "stupid easy," which in my book means you can do it in a day or less with trial and error without any prior skill. That's not the case here - you're going to need to make some precision cuts, fasten or join the pieces together carefully and do so in a way that makes things all nice, sturdy and stable.

Sure, if you buy the desk from Ikea and just have to assemble it, it will be easy. But if you need to determine what you need, select all of the materials and tools, select fasteners, fasten appropriate joints, etc., that is not really a job for a beginner. That's my opinion. Now, it would be easy to make something about as functional as that desk, but it probably would not look as nice or smell all nice and piney and feel like that desk would. If you want stupid easy, buying something is the way to go. Replicating that exact desk from raw materials without woodworking skill and appropriate tools is not a trivial task.
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 8:54 PM on March 5

Easy, if you aren't super picky about having everything look perfect. If you are, then don't attempt it as a first project. Forktine's advice looks good. I recently built something very similar, but uglier as a workbench and it didn't take much time at all.
posted by ssg at 9:18 PM on March 5

It will be a lot easier and cheaper buying this desk at IKEA or anywhere else. Without access to tools, this would be more trouble than it's worth. Having said this though, it won't be as much fun.

I'm going to assume though that you have access to:

1. a mitre saw, circular saw, or hand crosscut saw
2. a drill
3. some long clamps
4. a store that sells a variety of milled lumber (i.e. wood that has been finished to standard dimensions (1x2, 2x4, etc)) and finished tabletops.

First, think about this project in terms of 3 main parts, the tabletop and lower shelf top, the rails, and the legs. You're going to need different standard dimensioned lumber for each of these. It looks like this is pine, so these instructions are based on softwood dimensions,

Table top and lower shelf top

Buy butcher block top at a place like IKEA or Home Depot and have them cut it to the dimension that you want. It looks like the tabletop is bigger than the shelf so keep this in mind. You could do this yourself if you have a circular saw or hand saw, but it will probably be more accurate and easier using their equipment.

Rails

Buy 1x3 lumber (3/4" x 2 1/2" actual size). Most pine lumber will come in standard lengths like 6', 8', 10', 12', etc. Buy enough length for the top and bottom rails. Look for the pieces that are the most square and the straightest. Cut all the short rails at one time using a stop to make sure all the lengths are the exact same size. Same thing with the long rails. The most important thing isn't that they are exactly a dimension that you want, like 30", but that all like pieces are the same exact length.

Legs

Buy 3x3 lumber (actual size 2 1/2" x 2 1/2") and cut them to length. Again, use the straightest, most square pieces you can find. Also, make sure that you cut all of the pieces exactly the same length.

Others

Buy some 1/4" dowels rods and a 1/4" twist bit or forstner bit. Or get some 3" wood screws. Also, get some wood glue, sand paper, and finishing stuff if you please.


Putting Everthing Together

1. You're basically going to use what are called loose tenons to attach the rails to the legs. Google it for the basic idea. Drill 1/4" holes into the ends of the rails and the sides of the legs to accept the dowel rods (2 or 3 on each end). Use some masking tape to mark off the depth of the drill bit and drill all the holes to this depth.

2. Cut the dowel rods a 1/16" short of the total depth of both holes. Sand the dowel rods so that they aren't such a tight fit into the holes. You don't want to have to hammer the dowel rods in, but get the dowel rods in with some gentle hand pressure. If you're going to use screws, forget this step, but it's going to look a little bit uglier.

3. Sand the legs and rails. It will be a lot easier now than when it's all put together.

4. Glue everything up. The most strength will come from the connection between the dowel rods and the holes, so don't go crazy slathering glue all over the end grain of the rails.

5. Clamp it all together and tighten the clamps until they're hand tight.

6. Let it sit for an hour, do a final sanding, and finish it any way you want.

On preview. I have to agree that I think that this isn't going to be as easy as some posters here have made it out to (I guess even myself included). I work with this sort of thing every day and have access to a full shop, so I have a lot more control over the process. Just be super anal about all the dimensions (1/32" tolerances) and this should make your assembly a lot easier.
posted by borjomi at 9:57 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

I made a very similar desk recently - similar, in that it has all the same elements and materials. It was my third or fourth wood working project. I started with boxes and shelves. The desk came out much easier and with a better end product. If you can get your hands on some hand tools (as mentioned above) and the space to work on it, I say go for it.

Measure twice. Cut once!
posted by GPF at 6:21 AM on March 6

I'm definitely with Forktine on this. I've bought several of those edge-glued pine craft boards at Lowe's and used them as desk extensions, the surface for a 10-foot window seat, and a nightstand top. For all this not-so-fine carpentry I use a circular saw, standard square, drill, and an inexpensive orbital sander (though sanding by hand would work fine, too).

If you don't mind the screws and maybe some brackets showing, the table wouldn't be very hard. You could use all standard dimensional lumber, as Forktine pointed out, and you could have the lumber supply place do most of your cutting for you. Depending on how much you're willing to spend, the top and bottom pieces might be thinner than shown in the picture.

You might also skip cutting insets for the legs in the bottom piece and instead just make it narrower so it fits between the legs. There are all sorts of angle brackets you can buy to make a strong connection from underneath if you go this route.

My only warning would be to use a sealer on top of the pine before you apply the polyurethane. Adding the poly directly to pine can raise the grain, so you don't get as smooth a surface. Minwax makes a soft wood sealer that will mitigate that. You'll find it in the stain section of the store.
posted by PatoPata at 9:38 AM on March 6

The desk there is very similar to the Make: Workbench that has been made and modified by loads of people. Start at the link and google as well for make workbench. Get your wood pieces cut where you buy it.
posted by Iteki at 9:53 AM on March 6

Thanks all for the help. I feel like I have a much better handle on how to proceed...
posted by mekanic at 3:14 PM on March 6