Pennsylvania Chippendale Slant Front Desk - Making the Case Step 2

Now that I have the plans and built the prototype, it is time to get started on the actual piece.
I have some cherry stock from Irion Lumber left over from building the Chapin highboy a couple of years ago.  I am going to use poplar as a secondary wood for the desk.

I start by flattening the boards with hand planes since I do not have a jointer wider than 8 inches.  These boards are 13 inches wide.  I am going to need to glue them up because I need 19 1/2 inches for the sides.

After I get one side flat I can flatten the other side by running it through the planner or drum sander.

Here is the poplar bottom glued up and the cherry top is sitting on the saw top.

Here are the two sides getting glued up.  I use the weights to help keep things flat until the glue dries.
I use the wax paper on the board so the metal on the weights doesn't leave stains on the wood.

Next,  lots of dovetails to cut. The size of the dovetails doesn't matter too much, these are 1 3/4 inch tails and 1/4 inch pins.  They are on the bottom and not seen.

Once the dovetails are cut I layout the dados for the drawer dividers and writing surface using my story stick.

I have the top, bottom and two sides dovetailed so I do a dry fit to see that everything goes together.

I cut the dados and dovetail sockets in the sides using a router with a guide and the dovetails on the end of the drawer dividers using a dovetail bit and the router table.

I have to cut out the  1 1/4 inch from the corners plus 13/16 for a vertical divider to allow for the quarter columns that I want to put in this piece.

I dry fit all of the drawer dividers and writing surface, you can see the open corners for the quarter columns.

Now I have to put a 45 degree miter on the under side of the writing surface to allow the vertical divider a mitered fit.

I use a guide block to help cut the 45 degree miter on the front edge.

The vertical divider need to have a matching 45 on it as well, so I use the guide block to help with this cut.

Dry fitting the vertical divider, hope is doesn't need too much adjustment.

Looks like a good fit for now.

I'll put screws and glue to hold it in place when I do the glue up of the case. The quarter column will be glued in this space also.

Next I will make the top of the quarter column and the extension to fill the area above the writing surface before I cut the slope for the desk front.  That is will be in the next post.

Here is today's video: