I finished the frame pieces and dry fitted them. I’m pretty happy with the results though similar to most woodworkers, I can see every error and blemish in the project and that frustrates me. I believe that I can fix a few of them after the glue up so that is the plan that I’m going with.
Overall the frame is square and stable which in a desk frame is what you need.
I still need to work on the drawer rails and the drawer itself. I’m going with wooden slider rails with a groove in the slide that matches up to them. Also I’m going to push the fates and try a half blind dovetail for the drawer front. This should be real challenging.
For the top, I’m planning to reflect a coffee and side table in the same room. The coffee and side table have moulding pieces around the field of the top. The moulding is simply angled on the bottom (thick at the field and thin on the edge). I’m going to do this by angling the outer edges and do it without moulding. I’ll use hand planes to get the angle that I want. I’ve already glued the top up but still need to square it up and smooth/flatten the top.
Notice that from the dry fit, that I’ve added the front lower drawer rail and the lower middle support cross member. I was thinking about adding another member going from the lower middle to the lower back but the frame already seemed very stable and strong so I didn’t feel it needed it.
Your project is looking great. I can’t see those blemishes you see
Don’t give up on chopping mortises without pre-drilling. For myself, unless it’s a very large mortise, I never drill as it simply slows me down. No right answers here but I find if I start slow, removing a shallow mortise and then starting to work deeper the mortise itself serves to direct the chisel. By contrast, there is no direction if the mortise area is full of holes.
How do you like your Two Cherries chisels?
Cheers — Larry “aka Woodnbits”