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

81–90 of 106 posts

Re: The Story of My Desk

#81

Post by mturmon »

ejs wrote: post #45
swalsh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

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…

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#82

Post by sivetic »

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.

Both are hand planes, with #7 being a "jointing" plane.

Smartass remark aside, I've successfully jointed with a table saw and a router, and planed with a drum sander.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#83

Post by dfc »

sivetic wrote: post #82
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.

Both are hand planes, with #7 being a "jointing" plane. Smartass remark aside, I've successfully jointed with a table saw and a router, and planed with a drum sander.

It was not a smart ass remark. There are a lot of people that enjoy using hand tools. Its not just a nostalgia thing. The reduction in dust and danger is a giant draw for many people. The one power tool I really want is a band saw.

How difficult was using the drun sander?

Re: The Story of My Desk

#84

Post by Sam121 »

This is called "Out of the box" job. We always cry and blame that we are not in this company, not in this field, not in that area if i be there i make some changes.But the truth is we only know how to talk. You prove yourself with your work. Nothing is small and nothing is Big. Matter is how we done our job, passion and work with awesomeness. I am 100% sure if we give this work to any other he will definitely say "i can't do such type silly and small work for this i ll hire workers and carpenters " the main reason is, that person feeling guilt and think it's a small job. we can't change others mind but must have to learn from that type of work. Thanks sir to give me a positive hope. Respect from heart

Re: The Story of My Desk

#85

Post by dredmorbius »

pmorici wrote: post #19

This is cool if your goal is to learn how to do this stuff yourself but I don't think saving money is among the reasons to go this route. You can get a really nice solid wood desk in the $300 - $400 range on Etsy. Ad a piece of Paduit Wiring duct to the bottom for an inexpensive cable hide. You can also build your own desk a lot cheaper if you buy a pre made unfinished pine panel ($25-$50) for the top and use threade…

It's more about customization and getting just what you want.

You can also have furniture built by a cabinetmaker or furnituremaker, though prices will vary. And the DIY cost (if you have access to tools) will almost certainly be less, though depending on your woodworking skills and the complexity of the design you use, results may or may not meet your expectations.

And the price of a _well-made_ desk is typically fairly high -- $800 - $1200 before you go too crazy with designs, and you can easily spend more.

I'm kind of partial to this one myself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5OxVgH-T1I

Re: The Story of My Desk

#86

Post by Gormo »

p_eter_p wrote: post #36
jlongster wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I didn't think about that. There was so much research to do and eventually I just built the thing knowing I probably made mistakes. Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!

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.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#87

Post by vailripper »

swalsh wrote: post #6
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 (…

I've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

Look into the wood whisperer. He has done a lot of Greene & Greene projects in fantastic detail:

http://thewoodwhispererguild.com/members/

Re: The Story of My Desk

#88

Post by seniorsassycat »

What are our options when it comes to desktop ergonomics. I'm familiar with where my elbows should line up with the desktop, and where my eyes should line up with the monitor, and I'm familiar with the discussions about sitting and standing, but what about monitor angle?

I've wondered about embedding the monitor in the desktop, angling the monitor back around 30 degrees like drafting table.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#89

Post by gknoy »

ejs wrote: post #45
swalsh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

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"?

Re: The Story of My Desk

#90

Post by hamburglar »

jlongster wrote: post #5
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 (…

Yeah, I didn't think about that. There was so much research to do and eventually I just built the thing knowing I probably made mistakes. Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!

One of the most interesting aspects of these types of DIY projects to me is making (and learning from) the same mistakes that others have made. Sure, it'd be nice to get it all right the first time, but nothing really drives home the point like learning firsthand why something is done a particular way.

It's like your observation about the aprons: you start out by wondering why you can't just slap four legs on a tabletop, and you proceed to find out exactly why. If someone had told you to put aprons on there in the first place, you probably wouldn't have nearly as good a feel for their impact on the sturdiness of the table. The way you learned it is more effective. More time consuming, of course, but the experience is the whole point.

Post reply on HN