Woodworking 101: Solid-core door top desk, structural needs

Samstag, 3. September 2011

Solid-core door top desk, structural needs

Heya,

I’ve been looking around at plans for workbenches and desks for a while and finally settled on picking up a solid-core door to use as the top for what will essentially be a computer desk (I like lots of desktop real-estate.)

I’m perfectly content to have a rough 4×4 or 2×4 based construction. I’m really not looking to win a design award here.

But one thing that’s frustrating is that the projects I’ve been looking up seem to have a knack for hiding the joint work and full layout of the leg/back framing. OR, they, as workbenches, have bottom shelves, or some similar under-surface obstruction; and it’s tough to tell the difference between baseline structural components and “additional features.”

I need the front and space underneath to be open as it will be a desk, so I’m restricted to 3 sides really. But I’m not sure what is needed to keep it structurally sound.

Any ideas how I can figure out how to keep it solid without wasting a lot of wood on trial and error designs?

Thanks, o/

- Mike