That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (curl up in the short dimension) in check.

That said, there is one issue with breadboard ends: the long boards will shrink and grow in width with humidity changes over the seasons by 1/4" or more. Lumber only changes in width, not in length. So the breadboard ends will not accomodate the seasonal change...and something will give. Likely cracks will open up.

There are techniques to avoid this. Perhaps the author used some of them (only gluing the breadboard ends in the center, etc.), but if so I missed it.

Moral of the story:

* learning new things is great

* diving in is awesome

* sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again.

Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!

My grandfather was a master shipwright then carpenter and while I inherited none of his skills there is something uniquely relaxing about watching a craftsman work.

It's like your observation about the aprons: you start out by wondering why you can't just slap four legs on a tabletop, and you proceed to find out exactly why. If someone had told you to put aprons on there in the first place, you probably wouldn't have nearly as good a feel for their impact on the sturdiness of the table. The way you learned it is more effective. More time consuming, of course, but the experience is the whole point.

Course; probably a little more expensive to do that with woodworking :)

Where "the trades" means any and all activities, not just blue collar occupations. I'd estimate that atleast one quarter of the stories on HN are about "semi-secret tech secrets," eg "How I do X with vim/rails/AWS/ubuntu." That being said dealing with the expansion and contraction of wood is hardly a semi-secret of joinery. Expansion and contraction of wood is a fundamental concept in joinery and cabinetmaking. Any decent introduction to joinery/cabinetmaking book will discuss this basic property of wood as early as possible.

A good mental model for water and wood is inserting and removing a bunch of marbles into the business end of a broom. The broom will not get longer as marbles are inserted, but it will get wider/fatter as the marbles take up space in between the straws of the broom.

It is also worth pointing out that when you arrange the boards the end-grain should create a "wavy pattern" in order to mitigate cupping; one board will cup up and the next will cup down. My ascii art is failing me but here is a best effort:

  Good: |\\\///| |///\\\| |\\\///|

  Bad:  |\\\///| |\\\///| |\\\///|

Good: nun

Bad: uuu

Bad: nnn

(For those who struggled with what the above was showing.)

Alternatively, buy quarter-sawn wood !

Good: III

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Ce...

This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.

Good summation of my efforts remodeling my house.

If you really start getting in to designing furniture "The Measure of Man and Woman" (http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Woman-Factors-Design/dp/04...) is full of useful measurements and ranges that tables and chairs should satisfy for average, 1 percentile, and 99 percentile humans.

Wood is actually pretty forgiving. You can prototype the size of something in cheap pine, and remember, it's always easier to cut off another inch from those table legs then it is to add one!

Also quartersawn white oak is most used, a wood that does not have as much expansion going on.

This is how I did it for my A&C style coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-721...

Final shot of the coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9115541399/in/set-721...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Stickley

My favorite style, bar none!

You'll find these two books quite useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-Peart/e/B001JS36Q2/ref=ntt_ath...

> Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

1) alternate the growth rings of the flat table pieces: one cupping up, next down, next up, etc.

2) keep breadboard ends in line with the plane of the tabletop by using splines

3) pin or glue the breadboard ends only in the center.

4) start reading Fine Woodworking magazine.

I would absolutely love to do that. The book is a great read -- the basic premise is that you can build furniture from green wood in such a way that the drying of the wood will lock your joints and strengthen the stool: http://www.lostartpress.com/Make_a_Joint_Stool_from_a_Tree_p...

http://thewoodwhispererguild.com/members/

Since we're sharing, here's a couple things I've made around the house:

https://scontent-b-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/302582_2063...

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/309672_1015...

I've been using it every day for over a year and the desk has withstood a barrage of abuse much better then previous desks I've owned. If you have the space to build one, I highly recommend building one to match your exact specifications.

Here a blog post about how I built it: http://nolanbrown.com/howto/2012/12/19/desk-build/

I'm now using a sit-stand desk: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/the-geekdesk-writin... , which was pretty expensive, but I would find it hard to go back to sitting exclusively, or forward to standing all the time.

I ended up pairing a NUMERAR countertop (73" x 25") with an adjustable height base (like this http://www.thehumansolution.com/uplift-900-electric-sit-stan...) and am very happy with the combination.

I tried to build a desk with a butcher block top and metal base but my metal construction sucked and it was wobbly. I'll keep your post in mind if I build another desk.

You can get a really nice solid wood desk in the $300 - $400 range on Etsy. Ad a piece of Paduit Wiring duct to the bottom for an inexpensive cable hide.

You can also build your own desk a lot cheaper if you buy a pre made unfinished pine panel ($25-$50) for the top and use threaded steel pipe for the legs. The great thing about threaded steel pipe is that you can tighten or loosen the pipes slightly to eliminate any wobble. And all you need to build it is a drill and a brush to finish it.

You can also have furniture built by a cabinetmaker or furnituremaker, though prices will vary. And the DIY cost (if you have access to tools) will almost certainly be less, though depending on your woodworking skills and the complexity of the design you use, results may or may not meet your expectations.

And the price of a _well-made_ desk is typically fairly high -- $800 - $1200 before you go too crazy with designs, and you can easily spend more.

I'm kind of partial to this one myself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5OxVgH-T1I

http://i.imgur.com/vFAThh.jpg

Oak, oak, oak, and more oak. I love oak.

And here's a full build album, including pictures of my wife's desk on the other side of the room:

http://imgur.com/a/HTxXk

Everything was done by hand except for the cabinet boxes above the corner desk and the cabinet doors, which I had made by a local cabinetry shop, since I don't have the proper tools and router bits.

This was one of my first major woodworking projects, and I can confirm what jlongster is now learning: you don't know how much you don't know about something until you try and do it yourself.

No, not the desk, which looks good, but the fact that a small child apparently inhabits that house, but it's spotless.

http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2013-10-09/feat_Bezo42__08__630.jp...

I was a bit overwhelmed when we dived right in as I had absolutely ZERO experience before, but it was easier than I thought, especially when I got over the fear of losing limbs and whatnot.

I ended up building a basic shelf but am really proud of it - this inspires me to go back in and try to actually plan something to build - I know there's a bunch of resources out there but anyone you guys would specifically recommend?

Check out thewoodwhisperer.com. This guy's videos are invaluable and great for beginners.

Also, don't buy cheap tools. Just about everyone has to learn this the hard way (myself included), but there is a reason this advice is parroted so often.

https://www.youtube.com/user/askwoodman

I went with a walnut top, and then got some legs from Ikea so I could adjust the height to where I'd like. I think next time, I'd make my own legs for even great stability.

Besides doing the finish, the process is super easy. Just lots of sanding. I posted some photos to Instagram, which then synced to Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisstreeter/sets/721576366662... One note is that these photos are pre-27" monitor, so the desk looks a bit more complete now.

It's got adjustable height from slouching to standing (painful to adjust, but possible in 1.5" increments). The shelf I have up top has room for 1 full sized PC, 1 printer, and 2 NAS servers. I use another shelf on the bottom to rest my feet (also adjustable height). Adding an IKEA SIGNUM cable trough behind the tabletop makes it clean as possible.

[0] http://adam.pra.to/content/jerker/ [1] https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&safe=&tbm=isch&q=i...

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/wor...

The total cost should go around 30USD + one hour to sand both the table and the trestles for a safe and good looking end result.

Ikea countertops (i believe we have numerar) : http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/kit...

Legs (we chose the Vika Byske which were on sale half off): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=leg

We sanded the surface and used mineral oil to finish it.

We'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good yet cheap desk!

Yes there is. They are affectionately known as the #4 and #7 (or #8) and Stanley made a fortune selling them since the late 1800s.

Smartass remark aside, I've successfully jointed with a table saw and a router, and planed with a drum sander.

How difficult was using the drun sander?

Using a drum sander to plane was easy - no different than a planer, though far slower (and safer if you ever decide to feed end-grain through it .. tip: do not attempt to feed end grain through a planer, as it may lead to disastrous results).

A band saw would be a nice addition depending on the type of work you're interested in. It's probably one of the harder power tools to replace with a hand-tool equivalent, though I've seen some very nice results with hand saws. None by myself of course :p

I love hand planing, but it'll be a while before I'm good at it, it's still an investment money-wise, and it's much harder than running the boards across a joiner.

I went through a similar process of looking for a sit-stand desk, scoffing at the price and deciding to build my own. Though my end result is a bit different: http://i.imgur.com/M2ZlkaM.jpg

You'll have this problem with any solid desk with aprons or a drawer. If you like it that way, you'll need something like a metal base so that you don't need aprons.

There is this persistent myth that plywood == cheap which is absolutely wrong.

You can get very nice expensive plywood that will be stronger, prettier, cheaper, and longer lasting than a solid piece of wood.

Also, is that polyurethane varnish for the second coat?

I've wondered about embedding the monitor in the desktop, angling the monitor back around 30 degrees like drafting table.

It's 5' long, 25" deep, and 32" tall. It came out a little taller than expected because I put feet screws in the bottom of the legs so that I could make the table even. Those screws added almost an inch. I just have to raise my chair a little bit though.

http://jacobbijani.com/post/63757715317/me-and-tidas-desk-bu...

[1] http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/01/early-amazon-door-desks....

[2] http://glog.glennf.com/blog/2011/10/16/the_true_story_of_the...

Thanks for posting.