While helping one of my sons move some of his furniture and things from one house to another, I was asked if I could patch up the desk that he had made when he was in High School. There is a picture of this desk to the right. The desk was made 16 years ago and still had a nice finish to it. One of the legs was a little wobbly and the desk drawer no longer slid in and out very well because one track was missing. It was made from solid white oak. It may have a few little nicks, but overall it looked to be in good shape. That was until I (impatiently) tried to pack it into the trunk of the car so that I could get it home. By the time it arrived to the shop it had a few more problems than a wobbly leg. I have to admit that the construction was nice and square. The glue jobs were solid and strong. It was a very nice project for a student to do in a high school shop class. He had done a great job. My plan was to repair it and put it back together without changing the appearance.
The first thing I went to work on was to install triangle braces into each of the four corners. I don't know what to call these things. I just make them out of left over oak pieces. They help hold the corners square and they also give additional support to the legs. (Maybe I should patent this?) I used the pocket screw system to install this. If you are not familiar with the pocket screw system, you have this jig that you can drill a hole into wood at an angle. Then you use a special screw to join the two pieces of wood. http://www.kregtool.com/Master-System-Prodview.html When you tighten up the screws, it makes a nice solid connection. Of course I slop on the glue. Can't go wrong adding a little extra glue.
The picture at the right is a close up of a corner that has been completed. The underside has two screws going into the white oak in the opposite direction. Once I had one of these triangles installed in each corner, the legs were nice and solid. I drilled a hole through the middle each triangle piece so when the top was mounted and glued back on I could put a screw through that hole to help hold the base to the top. Previously the top had been glued and that bond had held (till the idea of fitting a big desk into a trunk came up). Since I was gluing a connection that had glue on it from a previous time I felt a few screws would not hurt. Gluing two new boards always makes for a strong bond, but gluing two boards that have some old glue on them from a prior bond tends to not hold together as well.
The next thing to fix was to create a matching draw track. Before I installed the draw tracks, I cut out a replica of the drawer bottom out of cardboard and laid in between the tracks to make sure that I would always have room for the drawer to slide in and out. (Nothing like gluing those wooden drawer tracks in place and finding out that they are spaced to close together or something. The voice of experience here.) Recently I purchased a product called "Slip-It". You put it down where wood rubs on wood, like this wooden drawer rubbing on a wooden track as it slides in and out. Slip-It gives wood a waxy coat and makes the slide go smoother.
Well, to the right is the finished repair job. There was nothing done to the outside of this desk that changed from its original appearance. It's looks like the same great desk as before only a little stronger now. (So strong it could actually hold a ton of bills.) (Kidding -- just kidding.) I will have to return this desk in the back of the pickup. (Car trunks seem to be hazardous to furniture.) This was a simple project for the week. It was nice to have a simple project once again. It kind of gave me the time to monitor my investments in the March Madness basketball pool. (Not getting rich there either.)
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