My first Festool project: standup desk

[poto]

As I slid down the slippery slope, acquiring my first (and second and third and ...) Festools, I needed something to build. As luck would have it (?!?) a student of mine ruptured a disc in her back, and could not sit down for any length of time. Clearly she needed a stand-up desk. I searched around for some highly figured cherry, and put this desk together for her. It's all held together with mortise and tenon joinery; the only metal is the screws holding the top to the case, and the Soss hinges for the flip-up top. It was done entirely with my ATF55, MFT1080, OF1010, and CTMini. It's finished in tung oil and a coat of wax. It's probably much darker now (I haven't seen it since I delivered it to the student), but the figure should still show beautifully.

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[Eli]

Very nice. That's a keeper. Her heirs will fight over it.

 

[Lancashire Fusilier]

That's very nice. What joinery did you use on the leg to carcass?

 

[poto]

That's very nice. What joinery did you use on the leg to carcass?

I used mortise and tenon joinery on the leg-carcase joints. I cut the tenons using my OF1010 and a 3/4 inch dado bit. I laid the board flat underneath the guide rail on the MFT1080, put the router on the guide rail, and ran it across the ends of the boards. With a stop to align the boards, it wasn't too difficult to get nice flat tenons with square shoulders. I did the mortises on my drill press with a square mortising bit.

 

[rj paradis]

Hello,

Very Nice.....This is exactly what I'm looking at to build. I need some pointers on how to go about making it only with Festools. Let me know if it's something that you could help me out with.

Thanks,
rj

 

[poto]

This is awfully self-serving, but I thought I'd bump this thread as a potential entry for this month's contest. It was almost entirely Festool built, and the first thing I attempted with my new collection.

Poto

 

[tallgrass]

top drawer .....pun intended ;D

 

[robtonya]

Very nice, I like the way the wood grain looked on it.

 

[Fred West]

Poto, absolutely beautiful and your student must be extremely happy.

Now as this was done entirely with your ATF55, MFT1080, OF1010, and CTMini which of these did you convert to sanding capabilities and are you going to write that very impressive feat up?  Fred

 

[poto]

Ooo - you got me. I bought a $99 Makita RO sander for that project, and have never used it since. I'm now the proud owner of an RO125 and the rectangular sander whose name I can't remember (and the Festool site seems to be down, so I can't check). But I did a lot of hand sanding, too. 

 

[Warrior]

RTS400, a very nice sander indeed. I love the desk and the fine job you did grain matching.

 

[Fred West]

Poto, really? You mean you did not convert one of your fine tools to a sander as well???? Did you buy the RTS 400, 1/4 sheet sander or the RS 2 E, 1/2 sheet sander. I have both and love them both. I used my RTS 400 for about an hour tonight on some more raised panel doors I had to make. It works like a charm.   Fred

 

[dirtydeeds]

poto, your student is a lucky lady

 

[poto]

Hey, thanks for all the very nice compliments, guys! The desk is even more beautiful now that it's aged a bit. I keep having students come up to me and compliment me on it - I guess they're friends of the grad student I made it for. I'd love to do work for them, too, but they can't afford me.  Heck - I can't afford myself!  ;D

I have the RTS400. It's a great sander, though I found that I didn't use it at all on my last project (which I have yet to post). I used the RO125 exclusively, and it did an amazing job. Had some serious hogging to do, as well as final finishing of some big, flat planes of wood. It did everything. I got the RTS400 to get into corners, and to do some flat surfaces of a 3D puzzle I was making. Worked really well for that.

Thanks for noticing the grain matching, Eiji. I spent hours looking through a huge pile of cherry at TH&H, to find boards with the right figure. I ended up designing the desk proportions around the boards I found, rather than vice versa. It's like cooking: get inspiration from the ingredients available, rather than forcing a set menu on inadequate ingredients. I particularly like the wavy figure on the sides of the desk, as I have spent a lot of time studying internal waves in the ocean, which look a lot like that. A nice desk for an oceanographer!