Staked Desk - Part IV - Done

Just a few more finishing touches and this desk will be done.

Jeff Lefkowitz had a tip on Instagram a few days back that leather glued with hide glue made nice floor protectors for chairs if glued on with hide glue.  He punched out disks and glued them on, but I decided to just glue on scraps and trim them with a sharp chisel.

I used liquid hide glue, and let it dry for a few hours.

Gravity makes a nice clamp sometimes.  I bet no one has thought to use a Moxon vise like this before!

Once it was fast, I trimmed it to rough shape with a chisel and planed a chamfer on the leather and wood using a block plane.  I was surprised that the leather planed just fine!

If this stays put, I'll use it on my chairs, too.  I hate for a chair to scratch a wooden floor.

Here's proof!

I had a request to see how the drawer would hang.  Remember I put grooves on the inside of the drawer at the top to hang off of these rails:

Of course this is the desk upside down on my bench.  The battens are screwed in with elongated holes and no glue so wood movement shouldn't be an issue.

This is the bit that goes in the groove of the drawer.

Notice I didn't have brass washers to match the brass screws - I used stainless washers.  I'm pretty sure it will not be seen.

Now that the desk is almost ready, I can take a couple of final swipes on the top with my smoother.  Since it is all put together, there is a bit of a problem with workholding.  I braced it the best I could against my tool chest, and everything worked fine.

Tadaaaa!  The finished project.

I had a little tung oil/BLO mixture left over from my last project that I used on the top.  This top is gorgeous.  I really like that it is made from one wide board.

The ash parts got plain boiled linseed oil (BLO).  This was because I ran out of tung oil.  I used tung oil on the top in a hope that it will give a little bit more protection.  We do not plan on abusing this desk, though.  After a few coats of oil like this, I will top it off with wax applied with a pollissoir.

Here are a few more detail shots.

Here is a picture a bit out of order, it is the last photo before finish was applied.

Another photo of the drawer.

I have to say that I  am happy with how this desk turned out.  It might not wind up living where it is supposed to go for long, it might go to the other apartment and be paired with one of my Welsh stick chairs.

I would highly recommend this project if you need a nice looking, quick and dirty project.  It really is fast to make.