Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Story of My Desk

jlongster.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 106 posts

Re: The Story of My Desk

#91

Post by noir_lord »

Gormo wrote: post #86
p_eter_p wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Woodwright's Shop is one of my favorite shows for learning techniques like this. He uses all hand tools, so you get a better understanding of the theory without getting too wrapped up in what tool to use. This project has a lot of breadboard ends: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/

New Yankee Workshop is also a great show for learning woodworking with power tools.

I absolutely adore this show.

My grandfather was a master shipwright then carpenter and while I inherited none of his skills there is something uniquely relaxing about watching a craftsman work.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#92

Post by dugmartin »

madoublet wrote: post #28

This turned out really good. I had a similar journey a few years back where I took a class and built a custom headboard. It was a lot of fun. The two "hacks" that I got out of the experience were to (1) use biscuit joints (in replace of dowels). And, (2) to buy a Kreg jig. These two things made putting together just about anything a lot easier.

I also recommend the Kreg jig. I just built two desks for my office with doors for the tops and the legs and rails joined with a Kreg jig. They went together very quickly and the Kreg joints are very solid.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#93

Post by 001sky »

dfc wrote: post #74
tjic wrote: post #2

It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (…

"Sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again." Where "the trades" means any and all activities, not just blue collar occupations. I'd estimate that atleast one quarter of the stories on HN are about "semi-secret tech secrets," eg "How I do X with vim/rails/AWS/ubuntu." That being said dealing with the expansion and contraction of wood i…

Good: unu

Good: nun

Bad: uuu

Bad: nnn

(For those who struggled with what the above was showing.)

Alternatively, buy quarter-sawn wood !

Good: III

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Ce...

Re: The Story of My Desk

#95

Post by shoover »

dfc wrote: post #75
sliverstorm wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where can I get plans?

Try Popular Woodworking. They have some of the most accessible projects. For a really interesting/exciting small publishing company take a look at Lost Art Press. LAP is sort of the Pragmatic Programmers of the joinery world.

Accessible, indeed. PW makes things look so easy. I have a few projects on the TODO list thanks to them. Fine Woodworking has nice stuff, too, like this workbench: http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/18985/still-dont-have-a-....

Re: The Story of My Desk

#97

Post by ne8il »

gknoy wrote: post #89
ejs wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoy arts and crafts style furniture, I only consider true breadboard ends if they are mortise and tenon jointed on. When doing this you can design for the movement of the wood. Also quartersawn white oak is most used, a wood that does not have as much expansion going on. This is how I did it for my A&C style coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-721... Final shot of the coffee tab…

Please forgive my trouble googling this, but what is "A&C style"?

Arts & Crafts style. Made popular in the US by Gustav Stickley's furniture design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Stickley

Re: The Story of My Desk

#98

Post by steiza »

sliverstorm wrote: post #68
shoover wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the tech…

Where can I get plans?

If you're feeling adventurous, carry a tape measure and check out the size and shape of furniture around you.

If you really start getting in to designing furniture "The Measure of Man and Woman" (http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Woman-Factors-Design/dp/04...) is full of useful measurements and ranges that tables and chairs should satisfy for average, 1 percentile, and 99 percentile humans.

Wood is actually pretty forgiving. You can prototype the size of something in cheap pine, and remember, it's always easier to cut off another inch from those table legs then it is to add one!

Re: The Story of My Desk

#99

Post by jsnrkd »

guynamedloren wrote: post #25

Woodworking is a fantastic outlet for creativity, and seriously underrated/underappreciated. Great way to take a break from coding. Extremely rewarding, and not very difficult to learn the basics, either. Since we're sharing, here's a couple things I've made around the house: https://scontent-b-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/302582_2063... https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/309672_1015...

Totally agree. Check out my pieces too! http://jsndev.net/portfolio/table/ http://jsndev.net/portfolio/coffee_table/

Re: The Story of My Desk

#100

Post by jlongster »

dfc wrote: post #79

there's no replacement for a joiner and planer Yes there is. They are affectionately known as the #4 and #7 (or #8) and Stanley made a fortune selling them since the late 1800s.

To keep my post short, I actually skipped over the long period of time where I tried using hand planes. Problem is I couldn't invest in getting several of them, so I don't have a proper joiner one. Even then, using the planes on a hard wood like oak was really hard.

I love hand planing, but it'll be a while before I'm good at it, it's still an investment money-wise, and it's much harder than running the boards across a joiner.

Post reply on HN