Staked desk finished

[msweig]

Finally finished a staked desk I've been working on for way too long for one of my daughters.  Basically using the Staked Desk plan from the Anarchist's Design book, but I skipped the drawer, and my top isn't exactly the same measurements as the plan (a bit narrower as I found a piece of Curly Cherry I wanted to use).

Top is finished with BLO and blond shellac.  The topcoat isn't perfect, but I figure my child will destroy it in her tween and teen years, so I'll just leave it for now and we can redo that top in the future.  Legs are painted black with GF "milk" paint. 

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I'll post some construction photos in additional posts.

[msweig]

Top was one long board I cut in half and glued the two pieces together.

   

Battens were cut to length and angled cut done via a track saw.

   

Top of the legs is a round tenon.  I don't own a lathe.  So marked out the top, cut shoulders, then chopped out large pieces of the waste, followed by using a really big file to smooth things out.  I was surprised how well this worked.

   

   

   

Next was cut the tapers.  This was roughed out on the bandsaw.

   

Finished with a hand plane.

   

Then the octogonal shape was done with hand planes also.

   

[jteneyck]

I like it a lot, and that piece of cherry is just gorgeous.  I like how you did the legs, too.  Well done.  

John

[msweig]

Next was the desktop.  Cut the sliding dovetails.  I used the battens as a guide.  Found that having a batten on each side was a bit more accurate for me.
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Chop out the waste.  The cut above and the chopping were probably the most stressful of the project, as this curly cherry wasn't cheap and I didn't want to really screw something up.
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And fitted
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Next was drill holes in the battens for the legs.  I just have a photo of the jig, but I got one hole drilled and the motor on my drill press blew up.  That was not an easy replacement due to the age of the drill press (1940s), and I learned a lot, but it was time consuming.
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Then the legs were dry fit into the batten.
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And wedged.
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This was followed by trimming flush, then attaching the batten to the table top (only glued in the front to allow for wood movement.
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Followed by cutting the bottom of the legs and leveling the table (photo is table on benchtop right before I marked where to saw the legs). 
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And it is done!  Other than the pesky finishing step...
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[msweig]

Finishing.  Initial plan was BLO and shellac on the top, and paint the legs black.  Did the BLO and shellac first.
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Then I was starting to debate if I wanted to paint the legs black.  Liked the lighter color, but the mineral stripes in the poplar was distracting on the battens.  And I had a defect on one of the legs I patched.  It would likely stand out with a clearcoat, but not be noticeable with paint.  I was also worried that the flat black paint would kill the effect of the octagonal tapered legs.  So decided to do a mockup.
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Tape a leg.
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And paint it black
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Yep, like that, so let's remove the tape (that felt/looked kinda weird), and paint all four.
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Then rubbed out the shellac.  Didn't go well because not the smoothest coat to go on in the first place, so had to add more layers, but eventually got it.  Next time I'm spraying the shellac.

And done.
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[KC]

Beautiful figure on the top!

[Philip1231]

Very Nice! Great grain/color on top. Excellent build thread; I know how much work it is to document a build and you did a great job! Kudos!

[Gary G™]

Gorgeous table you built.

[rectangle618]

Yes! Really nice... cherry and black - great look. Nice work.

[Bill Holt]

Beautiful table/desk!  Thank you for taking the time to show us your work.