Sit/Stand Office Desk

Around the same time I bought the lumber for my office bookshelf - it may have been the same trip - I bought the lumber to build a sit/stand desk. 

Back when I worked in an office I briefly had a sit stand desk in my cubicle. It was nice to be able to stand part of the day and to sit part of the day. Now that I am permanently working from home - it will be a sad day if somehow I am ever forced to return to an office - I wanted to make my office work for me.

Step one of that was to build the Slant Front Bookshelf from my prior post. Step two was to build a sit/stand desk. My requirements were:

• I wanted a little more space than I had with my 30" x 60" metal office table
• I wanted it to be pretty
• I didn't want to go overboard on design and construction - no frills

The story of how this desk finally came to be is the same as my Slant Front Bookcase. In brief, shortly after buying all the supplies to build the desk we lost my father-in-law. The subsequent year and a half was busy readjusting to life helping take care of my mother-in-law.

However, after finishing my bookshelf over this summer I realized if I hurried I could finish my desk before it got too cold to use my garage as a finishing room. I double checked the weather forecast and saw a one week window where the weather would be in the 60's F.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take so I buckled down and spent what weekend and evening time I had available to get the desk top built.

I started by milling the 5/4 Sapele boards for the desktop getting them flat and straight. After arranging them in as good of a pattern as I could I glued two up two sets of two. After letting the glue dry overnight I glued the two halves together.

Then it was two or three evenings of sanding and scraping to get the tops flat and scratch free.

I trimmed the ends with a circular saw and straight edge, then rounded the corners with a 1/2" router template, and rounded the edges with a 1/4" router bit.

A little more sanding - about and evenings worth - and dust removal and it was ready for finishing.

The finishing process took about a week. I used General Finishes Oil and Urethane thinned with mineral spirits to make it into a wiping varnish. It works well for me; however, it is slow to build. Also with the weather being cooler than optimal for curing I was giving it a full day between coats.

After letting the finish cure for about 10 more days I attached the legs and set the desk in place.

The weird thing on the wall is a temporary shelf stuck vertically in a French cleat. When I want to use my personal computer at the desk I can close the lid on my work laptop, re-orient the shelf, and use my personal laptop pretty much the same as my work one.

I had plans for building shelves but as you can see from the red leaves outside my office window we were well into fall at this point and I was afraid I wasn't going to get another span of days nice enough to do finishing.

Then, not a week later I saw four days of acceptable weather predicted in the long range forecast. I figured I may as well try to get the shelves done. Worst case I just have some wider boards sitting on my lumber rack for the winter.

The 3/4" Sapele boards I had for my shelves were long enough and wide enough that I could cut them in half and then glue them back together to make all the parts of the shelves. I raced through the milling process so I could get them glued up.

I probably should have taken a little more time with this step as I didn't get the best joints I possibly could have. However, I was able to put those parts in inconspicuous spots so I am not too worried about it.

After scraping the glue I was able to put these boards back through my planer to get them flat again. It was nice to not have to scrape them. However, sanding actually took longer. The shelves have more surface area than my desk. C'est la vie.

I built a quick straight edge for my router to make the stopped dados for the joinery. It worked great. The only failing was when I didn't clamp it down tight enough and it slipped. Fortunately I caught it before I totally ruined the side I was working on. I "fixed" it by finishing the dado I was cutting, then slid the straight edge down a little to just cut the dado a little wider.

Unfortunately this meant I had two separate setups for cutting the matching tongues but it wasn't too bad. I normally use a dado blade in my table saw but these boards were too long. I have a radial arm saw I could have used but it isn't fully set up yet. After much pondering I used my 2 HP router with a rabbeting bit to cut the tongues. I had nearly no tear out on the ends. I love working with Sapele.

I was a little nervous about cutting the middle dividers to length but I measured three or a dozen times and then cut them. I really didn't have time for teeth gnashing and just had to get it done. Fortunately, my measurements were correct and all my dry fitting showed everything was fitting well.

I spent a lot of my non-workshop time thinking about how I was going to glue up these massively long shelves considering order of operations and with what I had available in my workshop. What I ended up doing was gluing and clamping the dividers into the shelves and letting the ends hang off my outfeed/assembly table.

I wasn't excited about clamping to internal structure but I only have two of the really long k-body clamps.

I was a little worried about the weight of the sides bowing the shelves upwards while the glue was still trying so after taking these pictures I took a couple of short k-body clamps and used them to shim up the shelves at the edges of my assembly table. I don't know if it was necessary because I did it and my shelves have no bowing.

The blue tape on the joints did help. However, I also got some tape stuck in the joints. I'm not sure if I'll try it again. I had minimal squeeze out regardless and cleaning up the tape was not zero effort.

After some final finish sanding it was time for the finishing room.

After applying the same wipe on poly as I'd used on the desk I moved it inside to finish curing. I was a little afraid the shelves would beat up the relatively soft sapele of the desktop so I used some double sided tape to tape some felt to the bottom of the legs. It stuck plenty well especially considering gravity is going to help keep the two pressed together.

I'm really happy with how it came out considering the short time - for me - that I spent making it. It's somewhat basic but I don't need anything fancy. I'm kind of a utilitarian sort of guy.

As a side bonus all my measurements came out exactly right. I was a little nervous bringing the shelves and the desk together the first time but they fit with just the right amount of margin. My new desk is about a foot longer than my old desk which required moving the bookshelf over. The door opens with inches to spare. Just as I planned it.

I've only tested the standing feature of my desk once. I need to make sure my cable management is completed such that I don't pinch any cables on the window trim and I don't want to yank anything off the desk if a cable is too short. I'll get to cable management over the next month as things start settling down again.

This was a fun if somewhat rushed project.

Office Slant Front Bookshelf

 Back in March 2020 my office closed and told everyone we were working from home for the indefinite future. Now four and a half years later I am permanently working from home.

Two years ago I built a quick-and-dirty desk for my wife's home office. She really needed a nicer desk more than me. I've been using an old steel office desk I bought used at a metal salvage. It worked fine for holding things off the ground and had enough space for my monitors and computer. My wife had been working on a 2ft x 4ft student desk that didn't have space for her monitors and a keyboard.

Once I had my wife situated with a temporary desk made from a butcher block and some poplar legs I put on it my plan was to build myself a bookshelf to replace the old Sauder one I had been using to hold extra stuff.

I found plans in my Woodsmith magazine that I liked. I was going to use some free soft maple I have sitting on my lumber rack but I couldn't find enough clear maple to make the bookshelves. Since I ad enough leftover 12/4 maple from a prior project that would be appropriate for the legs I decided to go buy enough maple for the carcase.

This was to be my 2021/2022 winter project. I got as far as milling and gluing up the sides and shelves before tragedy struck.

Between multiple deaths in the family over the next two years I didn't have the bandwidth or energy to get into my shop. At least until this last summer (2024).

Step one was checking my shelves and sides to see if they'd warped, twisted, bowed, or done other unspeakable things over the years they were in storage. Fortunately before "shelving" the project I had stickered everything and it all stayed dead flat.

Step two was cutting the joinery on the parts. I made a quick and dirty jig for my Dewalt 2HP router. It's a horrible jig and I did a horrible job cutting the dados. I'm going to blame being rusty from 2 years of little or no woodworking. Living, learning, and growing.

The long groove on the back on on the shelf is for a captured 1/4" plywood back.

The next step was cutting all the tongues on the shelves. I a dado blade in my table saw to get close then used a shoulder plane to fine tune them until they fit the dados snuggly.

Unfortunately on my first dry fit I found out that my shelves fit one side but not the other. My plan was to cut the taper on both shelf sides using my circular saw and a straight edge. The "second" side I cut a little wide of the lines so I could use my router and a flush trim bit to make them identical.

Unfortunately I think I forgot the second step. I admit there was a brief panic. Then some overnight thinking. Then I checked and fortunately I had kept my stopped dados well enough short of the front that I could just trim the side side back. Then it was trimming the shelves to fit...  again...

It made me glad that I've matured in my woodworking hobby past the point where I just throw glue on everything and figure out fitment problems on the fly with wet glue.

Anyway, after dry fitting I took it apart again, added glue and put it all back together.

Then onto the base. The base was a lot less stressful. Fewer joints, simpler woodworking.

I have to admit, I thought I wanted to hand chop the mortises. I failed. I did one or two. They were pretty ugly. I don't actually have a mortising chisel so I was trying to use a bench chisel. It probably wasn't sharp enough either. Failure can be a learning experience. I keep telling myself that and hope it's true.

Anyway, I "cheated" and drilled out the bulk of the waste using my drill press and Forstner bits. I then went back with the bench chisel to flatten the sides. Regardless of the technique no one can tell after it is all glues up.

In the above picture you can see the template used to shape the front rail. I think the instructions said to shape the front and the back rail. I didn't bother because no one is ever going to see the back rail. I tapered the legs, made the riser blocks, rounded over the corners, sanded and then it was done.

I finished the carcass, the back, and the legs separately with water based General Finishes polyurethane. 

I was a little nervous about the back sliding in. Dry fitting it before finish it was really tight. Fortunately the finish actually made sliding it in place easier. It was a nice firm fit.

If you try this project I found adding the stand to the carcass a little tricky. Personally I prefer joinery to align parts but in these plans it's just "line them up and screw them together. I found I needed a straight edge to make sure everything was aligned properly and then a few shims to get everything aligned.

I guess I didn't get any photos of building the drawer. It's a 1/2" baltic birch plywood drawer with a maple false front. I did use side mount metal drawer slides. I'd considered options: no slides, wooden slides, undermount drawer slides.

I went with the side-mount metal drawer slides because I had them and I wanted to be done with the project. This unfortunately is one of my weaknesses. Knowing the mistakes I'd made on other parts of the project I just wanted it to be done.

All that said, it's a nice bookshelf. It looks good and holds things off the ground. Only woodworkers who look closely will see my mistakes. I would recommend these plans and the project to anyone who likes the looks of the bookshelf.

https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/slant-front-bookcase/