What's on my bench

- What's on my bench -

Currently I have started building myself a new desk for my computer.
I have been using a student desk that I purchased some time ago and has been kind of a cramp to my work flow ever since. The problem is the size of it, I use two monitors and after I add my keyboard and mouse there is pretty much no desk top left.
I have always enjoyed wood tops with metal legs but I have never build anything like that, so I thought this would be an opportunity to experiment it and if I end up not liking it I can always build a base. So I guess what I'm building is a new top and with cherry of course. I need it to be just a little bigger with a riser to the back for the monitors and also some sort of organization in the riser area for a thing or two.

I decided to start with the riser of the desk top for the monitors then I'll build the base of the desk top to fit that.
After I milled my material I laid out the dovetails that will connect the sides of the riser to the top and cut them out.

Then transferred the dovetails with a marking knife to the top and cut them out.
And after cleaning up the waste material they fit.

Now with the joinery that will be used to connect the top and sides done I created the through mortises that will accept the bottom of the riser. After I laid them out using my drill press I drilled the center of the mortise out then squared each mortise with my chisels. and on the backside I created a groove along these mortises to accept the bottom piece of the riser. In the bottom piece of the riser I cut a tongue as shown to fit this groove using the table saw then fitting with a shoulder plane.

With the bottom piece inserted into that groove in the upright I marked the locations of the tenons then cut them out. And with a little clean up I had a fit.

Now I could do a dry assembly.
At this point I milled and rough cut to size the materials for the internals of the riser and was ready to start there.

First I had to create the grooves that would accept the interior dividers of the riser.
I did this using my router with a guide lining the top and bottom up to each other to ensure everything would be square, afterward I squared the rounded ends of the grooves from the router bit with my chisels.

I then cut the dividers to size and used the router table to created the tongues at the top and bottom of the dividers that would be used to fit them, then using a combination of a hand saw and a chisel I notched the front ends of the tongues I just created to allow the dividers to extent a quarter of an inch past the end of the groove when assembled.as show below on my test fit of these two up rights.

Currently I'm working on the two side shelves of the interior. Both pieces have been cut to size and had tongues created on the ends and notched in the same way I did the up rights for interior. Also I did create the template on the bottom left for the shelf faces and cut that design into the shelf on the right side.
I can't forget to mention I found a piece I really like for what will be the drawer face eventually too.

Be sure and check back as I keep updating my progress and don't forget to get out in your shop and build something awesome.

​ - What's on my bench -

- What's on my bench -