Jronman Posted April 16, 2018 Report Share Posted April 16, 2018 I am designing a large L shaped desk. I am toying with the idea of adding bracing which I colored green to the side of the desk colored in grey. The section in grey extending above the desk's top will have cleats on the interior side for hanging shelves, pen holders, and other things I think of. The cleats would allow me to rearrange the shelf setup on the desk or if I come up with a better design for shelf I only have to replace the shelf instead of the whole desk. Below the Desk's top on the edge will be a drawer unit for serving the purpose of a file cabinet. My goal is to have a way to easily take apart large sections of the desk so it can be moved through doorways and around corners and whatnot. Large furniture is a pain to move in tight quarters and hopefully this solves the issue. I seen Festool recently came out with the domino connectors which caught my interest. I colored the connectors in red. Is it possible to use the connectors to join the brace with the desk in this way? I just don't know how I would be able to access the screws that are for taking apart the connectors. I just don't know enough about the connectors to know if there is a combo of connector parts that would work. I don't currently own a domino and wouldn't be against getting one. It is the best setup I have seen for knock down furniture. Here is the desk design so far. Green is drawers, blue is faceframe, and grey is everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted April 16, 2018 Report Share Posted April 16, 2018 Perhaps I'm not understanding the drawing, but why would you need to remove the green cleats from the back of the vertical panel of the desk? Those seem like minor little pieces, the remove of which won't really do anything at all for reducing the size of the movable pieces of the desk prior to assembly. That having been said, I think knock down connectors could be used to join the desktop to the vertical piece as well as to join the pieces of the desktop to each other. That would be a perfectly valid excuse to go out and buy a DF700, as far as I'm concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted April 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2018 @khariV the bracing needs to come off before the top portion and drawer unit because it spans the whole height of the desk. Also the top will be able to separate into 2 maybe 3 sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted April 17, 2018 Report Share Posted April 17, 2018 Sorry - I still don't see it - perhaps because the full size drawing doesn't have the vertical side pieces in place or maybe because I'm just being dense. However, it looks like the bracing is on the vertical piece opposite of the desktop, which comes out perpendicular to the and on the other side. I'm just not getting why the green pieces would need to be removed from the vertical. You make the vertical with the braces / shelf brackets as a single piece and the desktop joined to it with the knockdown fasteners. That way the vertical could be carried in and the desktop all joined up on-site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted April 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2018 @khariV is this what you mean? here is a quick sketch of it. The drawer unit in blue with drawers in yellow, vertical part in blue, and brace in green would be one piece that would be permanently fastened together? The desktop in grey will be removable and will butt up against the blue portion? I also did a quick sketch hopefully better explaining my original idea. The green bracing would come off the blue sections allowing me to then remove the blue sections from the desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SetBuilder Posted April 18, 2018 Report Share Posted April 18, 2018 IMO bracing really is not needed. Its 3 cabinets the back will keep it from racking. What is the finish on the sides, paint, stain or laminate? The bigger concern would be the top, since depending upon size you will probably need to make it in two pieces. Where will you put the seam and how will you support it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted April 18, 2018 Report Share Posted April 18, 2018 If he's planning on mounting shelves to the vertical side piece, the braces are probably a good idea so that the vertical piece has something other than a butt joint to support the lateral loads of the shelves. If the desktop is made in 3 pieces, couldn't you just have the central cabinet have small wings to support the tops so that all of the weight wasn't solely relying on the connectors / dominos? @JronmanOther than that, I don't really see any problems with the diagram above as far as using the knock down connectors. Where are you thinking that you wouldn't be able to access the connectors to disassemble? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted April 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2018 4 hours ago, SetBuilder said: IMO bracing really is not needed. Its 3 cabinets the back will keep it from racking. What is the finish on the sides, paint, stain or laminate? The bigger concern would be the top, since depending upon size you will probably need to make it in two pieces. Where will you put the seam and how will you support it? More than likely there will be no back. If anything I may design some kind of brace. The current office setup in our house has a window above the desk which I would not want to block. If I were to build this I would be using A1/AA oak and oak ply with oil stain and 3 coats of satin polyurethane. 2 hours ago, khariV said: If the desktop is made in 3 pieces, couldn't you just have the central cabinet have small wings to support the tops so that all of the weight wasn't solely relying on the connectors / dominos? @JronmanOther than that, I don't really see any problems with the diagram above as far as using the knock down connectors. Where are you thinking that you wouldn't be able to access the connectors to disassemble? Plan was to have a joint at the edge of the middle cabinet on either side so I have 3 tops. I could also have a joint in the middle of the middle cabinet and have only 2 tops. In the second diagram on my last post it shows 3 dominos in a vertical position between the top and blue pieces. Those should be easy to do and I could even hide them behind the green bracing. It is accessing the 4 horizontal dominos joining the green bracing to the blue pieces that I am unsure of. If there was a straight to straight knock down domino that could be uncoupled from the end then I could do it but all knock down dominos are uncoupled from the side right? I suppose screws are probably the best option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SetBuilder Posted April 19, 2018 Report Share Posted April 19, 2018 By back I meant back of each of of the 3 cabinets. The back would not extend past the desk top, it would be rabbeted in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted April 19, 2018 Report Share Posted April 19, 2018 14 hours ago, Jronman said: In the second diagram on my last post it shows 3 dominos in a vertical position between the top and blue pieces. Those should be easy to do and I could even hide them behind the green bracing. It is accessing the 4 horizontal dominos joining the green bracing to the blue pieces that I am unsure of. If there was a straight to straight knock down domino that could be uncoupled from the end then I could do it but all knock down dominos are uncoupled from the side right? I suppose screws are probably the best option. The horizontal connectors attaching the green to the blue vertical and the blue cabinet wouldn’t require access on the right side. That would be the blind side with the little fins that pop out. The cross drilled hole to access and tighten screw in connector could face inwards on either of the green pieces so you would tighten them from the inside between the uprights. When you sit at the desk, especially if you’re “behind” that vertical panel in the center, you’d never see the plug holes. Here's a top down picture of what I"m referring to and a close up cut-away of the connector system. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted April 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2018 Ah I see now. Will I be able to use 3/4 ply for the side and 3/4 lumber for the brace? I suppose the vertical section would have an extra 3/4 added for the cleats which might be enough and I could also increase the thickness of the bracing by gluing two 3/4 boards together for one brace. The cabinet would only be 3/4 thick in the side walls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted April 19, 2018 Report Share Posted April 19, 2018 The DF500 connectors will work in 3/4" wood, but I'm not entirely sure about using them in plywood. I've used the 700's in hardwood, but not plywood, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. You might have to do some poking about on FOG or ask if there any green-ficionados around these parts that might have experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.