Pine Lap Desk

[daniel lane]

Wow...it is rather hard for me to imagine a world without pine.

Perhaps I slightly misspoke, Harold - out here on the left coast, eastern white pine is durn near impossible to get (reasonably). What pine is here is often fast-growth sugar pine, which doesn't make for such nice projects. When I was living out east, I had much easier access to nice pine lumber, and I miss that.


daniel

[Jim Ritter]

As requested here are some photos of the lap desk I made out of Butternut and walnut trim. The box is 15"x20" and at the back it is 5" high. The top at the back has some "character" and I like it, almost didn't use the piece but I'm glad I did.











Sorry just realized some photos were out of focus, and it's too dark outside to redo them. I still need to find what mag the plans were in. They had another version that had a drawer in the side like Jeffersons desk, I have Butternut pieces cut for that one but need to make time to finish it.

[Trevor Walsh]

Isn't butternut a joy to dovetail? I really like the profile of the walnut breadboards, it's a nice touch.

Tony, should I do up several of the brass hasps? Post some drawings talk about it and do a tutorial?

[Jim Ritter]

Thanks, I do like Butternut, but as a wood it is pretty soft. These pieces were left over from a boat interior I was rebuilding. I would not mind a tutorial if you have the time.
Jim

[Jim Rouse]

Looking good!

[Jim Ritter]

I found the article. It was from Woodworker's Journal May/June 1986. I am really dating myself now. They did a whole series on Shaker pieces and this was one of them. It is a measured drawing of a desk in the collection at Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. As I said the original has a drawer on the right side that I chose to eliminate on mine.

[Tony Shea]

Yeah Trevor I'd love to see your design of small brass hasps and see how you make them. Like I said, many of my small boxes or similar projects would be better suited with a hasp instead of a small lock. Small box locks can be a pain in the butt to install and are not always neccessary.

[Trevor Walsh]

I just ordered some silver solder paste, I have to draw up a plan and get back from vacation to work on it. Expect a post mid-post 4th July week.

[Trevor Walsh]

Here's the first drawing for the hasp, it measures 1" wide and about 1 3/8" long. What do you guys think about it?

[Trevor Walsh]

Here is a picture of the underside of the lid, with my first carved monogram.

[Jamie Bacon]

That carving looks amazing. Nice touch!

[Tony Shea]

My biggest issue in finding hasps for the boxes that I make is the length of the top half of the hasp. Most of my boxes have a lid thickness of 1/2" or less as I like a frame and panel style lid. I'm not much of a fan of clamshell type lids that have plenty of space to apply a hasp on. So the top half really needs to be at most 1/2" long, and 3/8" being a bit more ideal. That is for my application though. How do you plan on actually making these Trevor?

[Trevor Walsh]

Thanks Jamie, I really need to practice the lettercarving if I'm hoping to get it into a wedding gift, the pine was a pain. I can't wait to get into something like cherry or mahogany. BTW how is the shop progressing?

Tony, is the top half the part morticed into the lid? That would probably be doable. As for the fabrication, I've got some thin brass strip that I will jewelry saw, and drill into shape, then I will turn some round rod into thick wall tubing on the lathe and hard solder them to their respective leaves, one barrel on top, two on the free leaf. If I've done everything right they will swing properly and I'll be able to rivet a steel pin into the barrel. It's fairly simple bench work, as a jeweler would call it and doesn't take many tools, the clearances and fits are just critical.

The front "lock bar" screwed to the front face will be a little trickier. I will saw out the outside shape and drill two small holes and two CS screw holes. Into the smaller holes a bent piece of brass rod with two necked down ends will be inserted and again riveted into the plate. I'm hoping to rough out some of the pieces tomorrow so I can start working on it.

[Jamie Bacon]

[QUOTE=Trevor Walsh;1953493]Thanks Jamie, I really need to practice the lettercarving if I'm hoping to get it into a wedding gift, the pine was a pain. I can't wait to get into something like cherry or mahogany. BTW how is the shop progressing?

Looks like you have a pretty good knack for letter carving to me. What tools did you use for this carving?
The shop is still moving forward, albeit slowly now. The heat has made it tough to get much accomplished. I have the walls painted and am starting to trim the windows and doors. It's taking longer than I thought it would, but it's been enjoyable.

[Trevor Walsh]

Tools used were a 1" BEC, a 1/2" BEC, a #5/12 gouge, and a knife a tiny bit.