Build Post: The Leroy Desk

The Leroy Desk

Materials

sapele + steel + brass

Dimensions

7' L x 25.5" W/D x 30" T

This desk is the first piece in a collection I had in mind. This series of Leroy furniture will feature simple lines, mid-century design, and an emphasis on functionality for your workspace. For our home, this specific Leroy desk is 7 feet wide, which gives my wife and I plenty of space to work on the same surface. 

The natural red and brown tones of the sapele went perfectly with the dark forest green in our home office, as well as added a warm touch to our creative space. The steel legs offer the support needed for the desktop, our computers, and my wife's plants (which will stay on her side of the desk I hope) and visually the legs are simple with squared connections and keep the emphasis of your attention on the beauty of the hardwood work surface. 

Here are some photos and comments of the build process. 

Every piece of furniture starts with a design. I like to use Sketch Up to perform all of my design work in. With Sketch Up, I can "build" every piece of furniture, to scale, before I ever set foot in the shop. 

I scored with this 19.5" wide board I found at Woodcraft of Boise, ID. Wide boards make the laminating, or gluing, process much easier and faster. Because of this board, I only needed to glue another 6" wide piece to achieve the 25.5" depth of the desk, whereas normally I would have had to laminate anywhere from 3 to 6 boards together. 

The 19.5" board of sapele maxing out a Powermatic 20" helical head planer. 

After planing, jointing, and gluing together my boards, I use the Festool TS-55 Tracksaw to cut my desk to length, which in this case was 7'. 

The TS-55 is so simple to use, and very accurate. To start, simply mark your lines on either edge of the board or surface to be cut. Then take your track, clamp it on those marks, and make your cut. 

Sanding the midcentury style sides to the desk with my Rigid (ZRR2601) 5" Random Orbital Sander. The variable speed works great for taking off material, as well as slowing down when it comes time for finish sanding. 

Brass makes for great accent pieces in furniture. This 2.5" salvaged solid brass pipe will be cut to line the hole in the top of the desk for the cords to go through. After it is glued in place, I like to use my chamfer bit on my router to cleanup the sharp edges on the inside of the pipe that were created from the cut. 

Clamping is always a creative process in itself. With steel it is important to keep your pieces clamped very tight, because after you weld, the steel can have a tendency to move while the weld is cooling down. 

For this piece, I used Tried and True's Varnish oil, which is a non-toxic polymerized linseed oil that has natural resins which harden inside the wood when cured. This finish has no color additives, so it's ideal to use when hardwoods such as sapele to bring out their natural colors. I chose this finish because of the durability needed for a high-use piece such as this desk. 

From concept, to design, to a finished product, what can Howard Built make for you?   

Below are links to the tools, finishes, and suppliers used for this project. 

Boise Woodcraft

 

Festool TS-55

Tried and True Varnish Oil

Ridgid 5" Variable Speed Orbital Sander

Please feel free to comment or send me an email through me "Contact Us" tab in the top right corner. I would love to hear what you think!