DIY Furniture: Finn Desk

It is time for me to go back to college for the fall, but I don’t have a desk for studying and reading, so I decide to design and make one for myself. I set a physical limit for myself to only use a 4’ x 8’ x ¾” plywood. I also want to improve my woodworking skill in using the Shopbot CNC.

• 1 sheet of 3/4" x 4' x 8' birch plywood
• 2 cans of white spray paint
• 12 M6 x 45mm furniture bolts
• 12 M6 x 20mm insert screws
• Mallet
• Wood glue
• Hex keys
• Power drill and driver
• Drill bits
• Fusion 360
• VCarve
• Shopbot CNC
• Gloves
• Mask
• Measuring Tape
• Pencil

I want my desk to be simple, minimalistic, easy to disassemble, and light. As a college student, I don't have enough money to buy a good and affordable desk with a low budget.

Inspired by lots of open source furniture designs from Opendesk, my desk will be fully made using plywood materials. Keeping simplicity and ease of assembling in mind, I prefer my design to not sacrifice structural strength for fewer components.

I measure the space between the wall and my bed, making sure that I make use all of the space so that it will be flush with the corner wall. The legs are the most important parts of the desk in term of strength, so they are thicker than other parts. The horizontal support increases the structural strength of the desk and prevents shakiness. The model is designed in Fusion 360.

Individual cut paths are labeled with routing style and depth parameter. The entire desk fits within one 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood. I use Fusion 360 to sketch all the cut paths and then I use VCarve to generate the sbp file for the Shopbot CNC.

I use a 2-flutes end mill bit with a diameter of ¾”. After anchoring the wood on the machine, I then loaded the gcode file onto the Shopbot software, and ran it.

In order to get a smooth-surfaced desk, I sand the legs up to 220 grits and the desk top up to 400 grits. The sanding process involved using rougher sandpapers at the beginning and slowly moving into smoother sandpapers.

This step requires a place with high ventilation, and I need to wear mask to prevent breathing in toxic chemical particles. The brands of my spray paints are Rust-oleum White and Krylon Fusion. I want to give my desk a clean look, so I choose a white color.

1. Glue the aprons to the pocket slots on the underside of the desk top.
2. Drill the holes on the side of the aprons and horizontal support for insert nuts
3. Screw in the insert nuts
4. Bolt the legs onto the aprons using M6 x 45mm furniture bolts

The desk turns out to look pretty good, strong, and stable. I am very excited to use it. If I could improve on one thing, I would use Baltic Birch Plywood instead of Birch Plywood, because it is stronger, void-free, and has all hardwood layers. Although Birch Plywood is cheaper, I ran into some issues screwing the insert nuts, because not all layers are hardwood and have voids, making it harder for the insert nuts to tighten against the wood.