Here is a Stickley-type desk I have cooked up in concept. My buddy wants a desk with a 30 x 96 top. Please comment on whether the top will be robust enough, and not sag. I am pricing the wood a couple of ways: ray-flake quartersawn white oak, and cherry. I have done spindles before as end-tenoned, but I think this time I’ll just rout a 5/8″ w x 5/8″ d groove and stick ’em in plain ended, with fillers between.
Replies
I'll offer a couple of comments, FWIW. First, I like the style of the desk, which is a sort of a table. This offers more than just a kneehole area to sit and work. For one with too many piles of papers, this is handy. I built my office desk in 1979, similiar style, just two shallowish drawers, and have used it every day in the office since then. It is smaller by quite a bit, however. 28 x 68.
The size of the top is pretty staggering. Eight feet is a tremendous desk width. 5/4 white oak, with the back stretcher, may or may not sag over time. But either way, to me it would probably look a bit light, just visually, even if it did not sag. I would think a finshished thickness of 1.5" - 1.75" might be more in keeping with the size of the top.
I'm not a Stickley sort of guy, so have no comment on those aspects of the desk. Looks like a fun piece to build. Hope you have a long bed jointer of sufficient width. Hand flattening all of that white oak would sure be an aeorbic workout, at least for me.
Good luck.
Maybe Bob Lang can jump in here and comment on the Stickley aspect.
I'd consider making the top thicker, perhaps 1.25 or 1.5 inches thick. This piece is massive and that would be more in character, IMO.
The front stretcher won't be especially strong since each side has a drawer cut out of it and it's only 4 inches wide in the middle. Have you considered putting stacked drawers (two or three) on each side, and having them only go half way into the table? If you do this you could add a central stretcher to the table which give more rigidity.
Another thing that might give the table more "Mission" character is to add open magazine racks below the drawers. I've got an antique Mission table with this sort of arrangement ... although it's only about 4 to 5 feet wide.
If you're considering quarter sawn oak you should look in the Joinery section where I describe a method of making quarter sawn oak legs. It's not a whole lot of work and the results are spectacular. I can give you more information if you'd like. The legs I made were 2 inches square and there were absolutely no glue lines and the legs were perfectly square.
Oh, and I'd tenon the spindles. Going to this much work it would be a shame to not do it the "old way".
John
Edited 3/18/2003 1:57:11 PM ET by johnhardy
Regarding sag, deflection varies as the cube of the length. If you could live with 6" overhang on the ends, it would shorten the span of the top between the legs by 8" and reduce the deflection by almost 25%. Another possibility would be to add a fairly deep box beam type stiffener across the center section, far enough toward the back that it wouldn't interfere with your knees.
Here's an alternate idea for fixing the spindles.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=11230.6
Mr. Micro,
I ran across this link to the sagulator recently in another thread. I am building a bookcase, and I wanted to make sure the shelves would not sag. This tells you how much sag to expect given the material and thickness, and expected load.
http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm
HTH
jc
That's a good-looking design.
Unlike the other guys, I'm not concerned about the top's thickness. Solid hardwood with 30"x1" cross section isn't going to sag a great deal. You also have a 6" apron on the back which will not sag at all, and a partial apron on the front which will help stiffen the structure. The aprons also provide visual thickness, so I don't think the 1" top will look too thin.
From your questions, I'm guessing you may not have built a lumber top as long as this before. A tip is that you can't just buy 5/4 planks, plane them a little, and get 1" net thickness. Planks that are 8' long are likely to have some bow and warp to them. When you face-plane them flat, you'll lose lots of thickness. Depending on the lumber, you might have to buy 6/4 or even 8/4 to get 1" net.
I concur with both Unc and Jamie. I have seen tops cantilevered up to 12" over the ends on a long top like this, and the look is total A&C. This, as Unc suggests, would cut the span down to 6'.
A top finished out at 1-1/4" would be ideal. You need to pick your lumber carefully, for both initial flatness(in the rough) and color/grain match. You may end up having to buy 8/4 anyway. I hope you have a nice heavy jointer for this, White oak can be very heavy in long lengths.
Micro man,
Nice looking design... except:
I think the desk will definitely sag beyond acceptable limits as designed - considering a long life. 8' is too long for a span, because even if it isn't by you, the desk will be possibly (probably be) subjected to a substantial load of books along it's length. Consider another set of legs on the inboard side of the drawers. You will still have more than ample knee space. As for the purity of sticking with a Stickly motif, I have no idea if this complys but I think it can be worked in atractively. As for the purity of structural integrity, I'm fairly confident it is necessary. Perhaps another means of shortening the span can be thought up - like some sort of bracing along the back.
As for 8' being too large of a desk top. Nawaaaaah. Not. I have an 8' desk. It's sorta like shop space. There's never enough.
As for getting a flat 5/4 top out of the lumber - I think you don't need 8/4. Shop carefully, store lumber properly, and fabricate top fairly soon after purchase of lumber. You should be ok. 8/4 would be an overkill and waste of wood in my opinion.
jdg
Thanks for all the input. Here is what I have done in my revised design. The legs are moved in so that the top overhang is 6" each end, thus the clear span (I'm a retired structural engineer and think in those terms) is about 6'-6". The top is thickened to 1-1/4". My wood guy is responsible for selecting and milling the planks (we will use quartersawn white oak) so as to yield a dead straight and milled 1-5/16" batch of 6" boards. We are butterflying the joints, probably in the same white oak. The legs are now dressed with those gently curved outboard-leg brackets seen in Stickley pieces. There will be a bottom stiffener, longitudinally, between the drawers, bottomside the top middle, that should lend some section to the center area. My "client" and I have been framing up a house he's building for a 212 guy (that's what we call those folk from way downstate) and standing on 2x12 plank scaffolding as we hang rafters, and we think we will be way OK, deflection-wise. Pics will follow as we progress.
Good enough to dance on.
If you haven't already started on this project I would make your desk with 6 leg,the other two legs in the front to prevent and insure their is never any sag, with a desk that long, Worked in the furniture ind. 20 years and their tops were made the way your building yours. Good looking desk and Good luck.
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