Anyway, I finished it last Monday, and here’s the final part. Because it’s finished.

This here is the pile of wood that the desk has been for the last few months. Upon looking at the proportions of the desk, I realized it was too long.

Look after the jump to see in progress shots.

Clamping the desk to the kitchen table because my work bench/coffee table is too low. And Frank was asleep on the couch.

Anyone want to buy me a workbench? ….anyone?

Skeleton version of the nearly finished desk. Just half lap joints and screws, so I can take it apart again if I need to move it.

And here is the finished desk. Just took some plywood and nailed it on for shelves and a desktop. Now I could have used mdf, added extra supports and all that, but I didn’t. It’ll do.

The shortened section is the desk top, the support underneath it, and the pieces that are resting on the floor. It was too deep, which made it hard to reach the shelves while one was sitting down.

It’s actual turned out to be a great ergonomic success – Frank and Sin like sitting and using laptops at it so much that it’s still in the sitting room.

New Project coming in the new year. Keep your eyes peeled. Two projects in the works at the moment actually. Keep an eye out. It’ll all be in the carpentry category.

What’s on the schedule for today? More of the same. Almost exactly the same in fact – I made a mirror image of what I made yesterday, then cut the three cross pieces. The cross pieces are located at the front of the desk, in the middle of the desk, and about 1/3 of the way up between the two back uprights. It really is an incredibly simple design.

More after the jump.

The jointing method that I’ve chosen across the desk is half lap joints with some screws thrown in instead of glue. I didn’t want to use glue mainly because, my joints aren’t machine tight and glue might not be enough and because I may want to take the desk apart at a later date if I’m moving somewhere else.

So if you’ve measured twice, cut all your pieces to size, and fitted them all together, it’s time to grab your drill. Hold the pieces together with clamps, or with a friend and drill pilot holes. Pilot holes are holes that are smaller than the threads of the screw and they reduce the risk of splitting the wood when you drive the screw. They’re crucial.

So get screw happy. Really screw happy. And you’ll end up with something that looks like a desk. Mine looks like this -

A couple of thing to point out here:
1. Haven’t cut the shelf supports yet
2. That’s not the finished top.

The top is just a piece of plywood I had lying around. I’m going to have to get a sheet of MDF to properly finish the desk off. And to make the shelves.

I decided to take a break from the project for at least a couple of days to let the proportions of it sink in. Right now I’m thinking that it looks too long. Not width or height wise, those are fine. But from the front of the desk to the back… it’s hard to reach to where the shelves are going to be while still sitting in a chair.

I might cut 6 inches from it to make it a little slimmer against the wall. The design is so basic that I can easily handle it.

Oh by the way, because of it’s size and it’s design the desk is a little shaky on it’s feet. So if you’re going to build this use plenty of supports, or improve upon the joinery.

My brief on this desk was to make a really cheap, single minded desk to put my laptop on, and store some books and junk that’s lying around my bedroom. And if I just wanted to plonk my laptop on it, it’s done. But I want the shelves, so I’ll get back to this desk within the next two weeks.

Just tag search “project” and you’ll get all the posts about the desk.

Thanks for tuning in

So, it’s a bit crucial to get it right. I’m using this new mitre saw I bought a while back for in and around 20 euros from Homebase, and it does a great job of making sure that your cuts are straight, or well angled if you so wish. It doesn’t do compound mitres, which annoyed me slightly when taking it out of the box, but after using it today it does many jobs quite well. Cutting 2 by 2′s though… it’s about as much as it can handle.

More after the jump.

After cutting the sides of your half lap joints with the mitre saw, a tenon saw would do the trick, you start to chisel out the piece that’s left going no farther than the line you have marked. Chisel up at an angle from both sides, then slowly work across until the bed of the joint is level. Don’t chisel straight across as you’ll blow out the back of the joint.

Measure twice, cut once. The mortises in the back upright need to be exactly the same on both sides, otherwise the desk won’t sit level. And if the desk isn’t level you’ll have many pencils roll off onto the floor.

Measuring and cutting the other pieces according to the plans, create one side of the desk. If you have google sketchup and you wish for me to email you the plans then leave a comment below.

When you complete one side, it should look like this.

And then you rest. Or if you have power tools, you’ve finished the whole desk by now. But I’m going to hone my skills with hand tools for now. More tomorrow.

And here is my second prospective project. This is a desk for my room that has to fit in a very confined space: 80cm by 80cm. It’s between the end of my bed and the wall, and there’s nowhere else for it to go because my room is rather small. It’s one of the two box rooms in the house.

I am actually building this project starting Friday. I’m going to try and do it in a weekend, but it’s unlikely seeing how complicated it is. The two back uprights have 8 or 9 joints each. On one piece of wood. Man that’s going to be tough to pull off.

Did the planning and I’ll be able to make it with just 3 lengths of 50mm by 50mm. That’s 2″ by 2″ in the old money.

I have the house to myself this weekend. I’m considering doing a project. Google sketchup is a fantastic program to use when you’re thrashing out some details. The picture is of a craft table I’m considering; I could build the skeleton quite easily in a weekend.

The drawer fronts could be plastic, coloured with a tinted sheet. I really like this design so I’m going to keep going on it, and maybe I’ll build it one day.

I’ll probably make myself a desk this weekend though as I am in bad need of one.

Here’s an idea, since this is a first prospective project, maybe I’ll design 4 or 5 things then you, my loyal readers can vote on them.

I splashed out 30 euros for this drill, which isn’t a lot to some, but I’m on a very fixed budget. There was one for half the price of this one, but it didn’t include a carry case, and I thought I’d splash out a bit.

More pictures and reviewing after the jump.

The drill boxed with components. If you want the technical specs for the drill go to the Argos page linked at the end of the post. I’m here to tell you how it works in the real world.

The accessories that came with the drill were rather limited, but then again, what do you expect for 30 euros? 3 wood bits, 3 metal bits and 3 masonry bits. I tried each of the bits out, by just sort of haphazardly drilled holes in some bits of wood, a bit of metal and half a breeze block. It works well while drilling all three. It’s solid, it’s cheap, and it’s fairly reliable. There is a little locking button on the handle to lock the speed when you’re drilling so you don’t have to squeeze the trigger the whole time: A bit handy for masonry drilling.

Now on to the down sides.

On my particular drill the spindle is a little tiny bit unbalanced so the tip of your drill bit tends to wander a little bit. I’m not doing wildly accurate work so it suits my purposes fine. If I was doing amazingly accurate work I’d splash out the money to buy a drill press.

The screwdriver bits provided are of very low quality and I stripped one of them on its very first outing. So I’d suggest buying your own driver bits. The speed is also quite hard to control, or maybe it was just the way I was holding it… but it means it’s difficult to control the pace of screw driving, which probably led to stripping the head of the screwdriver bit.

So let’s see… score out of ten… people love those, it’s an quick measure of quality.

7 out of 10. Weighing up the shortcomings, the advantages, the versatility, the low quality… and price wins. It’s cheap, very cheap, and you don’t have to recharge it. Though you probably will need an extension cable.

As a first drill it’s a very good idea, but just make sure that this is a stepping stone if you’re hoping to continue woodworking as a serious hobby.

Argos page here

Happy mad carpentry.

So today is bit devoid of information, so I’ll give you something else:

Autocad design after the Jump.
It’s a coffin.

This is the six sided coffin I knocked up in about six hours, and with some minor adjustments and some streamlining the finished plan will be up in the commissions section of this here website. Feel free to drop me an email as per the commissions page if you’d like one.

Oh, and the program I used to design the coffin is called Google Sketchup. It’s free, really easy to use, and incredibly versatile. Give it a bash if you want to, and if you do want to, you could design your own item, then send it to me to make for you.

I don’t see this as ripping off someone’s idea, I see it in the way I see many things: Good ideas never die. Two totally separate people invented the television at the same time, coming up with the combination of words “The Mad Carpenter” has obviously struck several people throughout time, and I’m just one of them.

Want to meet the others?

1. The Mad Carpenter Inn. If I’m ever in Laramie Wyoming I’ll be sure to drop in to them, get some pictures and spend the night.

2. Serology: It’s in the blood. A tale of a killer carpenter from Germany in 1901. It’s a true crime forensics deal.

3. Mad Carpenter: A Spanish Fantasy. An ebook titled Mad Carpenter. It’s a little uncanny though, in the blurb it says:

[...] who is the mad carpenter, to collect timbers for his making of her coffin

He’s a mad carpenter, that’s making a coffin? Like the coffin I made?

Spooky.

4. A piece of fractal art. Speaks for itself really.

5. The Mad Carpenter by Jalan Crossland. A song and everything. That video is not actually 20 minutes long. Check out the hat on that guy. I’m starting to think that us mad carpenters are of an ilk.

Jalan Crossland “The Mad Carpenter”

Oh and by the way, the reason I chose “The Mad Carpenter” is because I’ve always liked the idea of being a “Mad Scientist” but I was never any good at science. What I am good at, is making things out of wood.

So there’s my top 5 other Mad Carpenters. Obviously, I’m number 1.

Today’s tool is a 3.6V power screwdriver from the budget tool range Challenge which I’ve only ever really seen stocked at Argos, a strange mix of warehouse and retail shop.

Just to explain Argos to the those of you out there that don’t know; you walk in, look through the laminated catalog of dreams, fill in your slip with the tiny pens provided, then wait for the great computer God ARGOS to call your number and deliver you your wonderous delights.

Enough of that, on to the screwdriver.

This is the little box that it came in, promising lots of goodies and joy inside. However for you kiddies, the goodies and joy are after the jump.

Alright then, I could list off the specs of this thing, but you can follow the link above if that’s the sort of thing you’re looking for.

The screwdriver came with 5 bits; 3 Phillips head and 2 straight bits. These 5 bits cover most of the household applications you would come across in your daily maintaining things in the house. However, it does not include any hexhead bits, a pretty standard fitting in a lot of flat pack furniture, so there’s a point gone off the score. The manual does suggest buying other bits, but stipulates that these pieces are not supplied in the kit.

It can be used in both pistol grip as shown below, or the handle can be rotated to fit the circumstance. A nifty little feature.

This little power screwdriver cost me less than 8 euros, and that is ridiculously cheap for a rechargeable tool… but, and here come the downsides…

It’s very basic, it takes an initial charge of 12 hours, and then 5-7 on each recharge, the torque is pretty low, meaning you’ll need to drill a pilot hole for your screw and it comes with a limited range of bits.

The main problem I have with this though, is that, for about double the price you can get a cordless drill from the same place, and the same manufacturer, and that would be much more versatile, and has a shorter recharge time.

So, in summation, if you need a power screwdriver, why blow a lot of money on a top of the range one, if you’re not going to use it that often? And if you drive a lots of screws, then buy a drill and a little box of screw bits and be happy.

This screwdriver is a middle ground for the person that drives the occasional screw or just doesn’t own a set of manual screwdrivers, and doesn’t want to.

I rate the Challenge Power Screwdriver a very neutral 3 out of 5. For this sort of price, don’t expect much. But it has redeeming features which mean that in a spot too tight for a drill, I’ll be grabbing my little power screwdriver before I grab my old style Phillips head from the bag.

So there you go. Minor fame. Don’t discount local publicity outside of the internet.
Hundreds of views in a single day, due to a little mention on the radio.

Thanks Ray.