Home List Rules User Help Fun Stuff Subscribe Websites Links eGroups Updates		Do-It-Yourself Editor's Desk Courtesy TobyM and Walt, an editor's desk you can make yourself. Dimensions: 24 inch x 14 inch Weight: ~6 pounds (U.S.) Materials: Plywood Quarter-round molding strip Hinges (2) (here, brass 1 3/4 inch x 1 1/4 inch) Wood screws (4) Bent metal bars (2) Rubber band

Construction details from Walt. This desk requires saws (a wood saw and a hacksaw), a screwdriver, a drill, and (if available) a router.

• Wood. Here, the desk was made with high-grade veneered plywood-- stained and varnished by Walt. (Often you can ask lumber or home-improvement stores to cut your boards to specified dimensions, thus skipping the sawing part.)
• Molding. The ledge at the bottom is a quarter-round molding strip, which you can get at any hardware store. Here, it's fastened with carpenter's glue and four screws from the underside "just for good measure."
• Bars. A hacksaw was used to cut a metal rod, then the two lengths were bent using pliers. (Brace them in a vise or something similar as you bend them.)
• Grooves. Here, a router to make the grooves or slits for the metal bar, but you could also create a channel/groove/slit just by cutting two little pieces of quarter-round molding and glueing them to the bottom board. Alternately, you could get similar (if not as neat) grooves with judicious use of a sharp chisel.
• Holes. The hole in the side of the upper board (for the bar) would have to be made with a drill.

Toby adds: The rubber band keeps the metal bars from popping out of their holes and slits. I slide one bar out of its groove, slip the rubber band around it, stretch the rubber band across to the other bar, pop that bar out of its slit, slide the rubber band around it, and I'm done! You might say it's the only replaceable part of my editor's desk. When it gets "used up," you have to replace it (those heavy rubber bands that are often used to strap MS pages together last an incredibly long time), but that's way easier even than replacing a light bulb. [More on rubberbands.]

How Toby Uses the Desk

Of course, it's not like I actually carry the desk anywhere. Mostly, it just sits on the dining room table--until I have to dismantle my "office" when we're having company.

Although there are slits in the bottom half, for the ends of the metal bars, so that I can adjust the angle of the desk, I always choose the same slit every time I open the desk. The middle one works just fine for me (uh-oh; now don't go asking me what the angle actually is; I don't have a protractor). Since this is so, there's really no absolute need to even make the desk collapsible--except that it's very convenient to have it fold flat when it's not in use. [Note: compare this with the Levenger desk, which does not appear to be adjustable or foldable. (vw)]

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