Solid Wood Cabinet Desk

Working from home has become more popular than ever. Even though I’ve been teleworking for over a year now, I’ve been doing so from everywhere but my home office. The kitchen, the couch, the bed, you name it! The truth is my home office looks more like a storage unit than anything else.

Today, I’m finally building my solid wood desk top that will sit on top of my base cabinets. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a desk top out of rough sawn ash wood. My desk is going to be huge: over 7 feet long! With plenty of storage space and leg room.

You can also watch the build video on YouTube.

• 5/4 rough sawn ash wood
• K Body clamps https://amzn.to/34oOc1X
• GearKlamps https://amzn.to/3bZjVe6
• Mini F-clamps https://amzn.to/3vxoX9u
• Roller stand https://amzn.to/3oWA2hW
• Push blocks https://amzn.to/3fujxXa
• Machinist square https://amzn.to/3fpK48f
• Featherboard https://amzn.to/3fsKjiJ
• Mirka dustless sander https://amzn.to/3upVYmJ
• Sanding disks https://amzn.to/3p46fUD
• Trim router https://amzn.to/34q0JSQ
• Glu-bot bottle https://amzn.to/3bVnFgQ
• Glue brush https://amzn.to/3c1vFgt
• Glue scraper https://amzn.to/3fUkMy7
• Tack cloth https://amzn.to/34pjIwO
• Osmo Polyx-oil https://amzn.to/34qRku4
• Card spreader https://amzn.to/3uqQ84I
• Nitrile gloves https://amzn.to/2Tk0BSt
• Osmo easy pads https://amzn.to/3ut81jg

After cleaning out my office, I could finally get my newly built base cabinets into position. I adjusted the leveling feet until the cabinets were flush and I could then clamp them together and attach them with some screws.

After checking for level, I positioned and leveled the third cabinet, then popped in all the drawers. If you’re interested in seeing how I built these, you can check out the cabinet build video or the drawer cabinet build plans for more details.

I’m starting with 5/4 rough sawn ash that I’ll mill on all 4 sides. This is my first time milling such long boards, and I quickly realized that my jointer wasn’t long enough to support them and be able to work safely. I picked up a pair of roller stands in order to support the wood both on the infeed and on the outfeed. Using a straightedge I could line them up with the jointer beds and get to work.

The Lumber Milling Process

I’ll start by flattening one face on the jointer, putting the cupped face down and keeping the pressure on the outfeed side with my push blocks. It took several passes until the face was flat and let me tell you, working with long solid wood boards is quite the workout!

With one face flat, I can flip that face up against my jointer’s fence in order to flatten and square one edge. I checked the edge for square with a machinist square, then could move over to the planer to flatten the opposite face.

Feeding each board one after the other, I could progressively lower the cutterhead until all the boards were flat and had the same thickness (1 inch).

With all the boards milled to their final thickness, the last step is to rip them to their final width at the table saw, running the jointed edge up against the fence. I won’t lie, getting big boards perfectly square left me a little frustrated when I realized that there were gaps in my joints. Nevertheless, after flipping a few boards around, I managed to close most of the gaps and get a decent fit.

Alright, it’s time to get these boards glued up! After feeling how heavy each of these boards was, I quickly realized that once this desk top was assembled, it would be really heavy. So instead of figuring out a way to carry it up two flights once it was all done, I decided to assemble it directly in my home office.

Glue Up Process

All right, so here’s my glue up process in a nutshell. First I apply a thick bead of glue to one edge on 4 out of my 5 boards, getting full coverage using a glue brush. You don’t need biscuits for strength, but if you like them, they can help with alignment.

I can now lay my boards flat and start closing the parallel clamps without tightening just yet, just a light twist until they start to bite.

I’ll then add some mini F-clamps to both ends, using one per seam. This will make sure the boards stay aligned and flat. Again, I’m not really tightening at this point. I can then go back and start tightening all my clamps, checking that each board stays flat and the seams look good.

Now it's time to let this dry, but I won’t go too far just yet.

After about 30 minutes, I can come back to scrape off the glue while it’s still soft. I finally found the perfect tool for this. It’s a razor blade scraper but with plastic blades that won’t damage the wood! In the past I’ve tried wiping off the glue with a wet rag. I’ve also tried waiting until it dried and using a chisel. Ultimately I got really frustrated with both of those methods.

Now comes the fun task of sanding, starting with 80-grit to remove any remaining glue and get it nice and flat. This process takes time, so don’t rush it.

With the both sides now flat, I’ll pause the sanding at this point to work on shaping the desk. I finally get to try out my new track saw to square off the ends and trim the desk to its final size. Of course, if you don’t have a track saw, you can also use a circular saw with a homemade guide rail.

Next I’ll use my trim router with a small round over bit on all the edges. I’m rounding over the edges ever so slightly, just enough to knock off the sharpness and break the edges. You could also do this with a block plane or even just sand the edges.

Alright, time to get back to sanding. From 80-grit, to 120-grit, then 180-grit and finally 220-grit.

I’m going to finish this top with Osmo Polyx-oil but I first vacuumed the entire room to avoid dust contamination. Then I can wipe down the desk top using a tack cloth to catch any remaining dust nibs.

I’ve seen different methods to apply Osmo either with a roller or a pad, but I want to try using a plastic card spreader. It takes a little getting used to, but ultimately I find that it’s really easy to spread the finish around in a thin even coat. Next you’ll want to wipe up any excess with a lint-free cloth. When I was done, I used another clean Osmo easy pad to wipe down the top again. I applied 2 coats to the bottom face, let it dry, then flipped it over to work on the top face.

Ever since I started planning this build, I’ve questioned whether or not I would attach the top to the base cabinets. Now that it’s built, I’m not sure that’s really necessary. That being said, I figure if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it. I’m going to screw the desk top down from inside the cabinets, up into the desk. But if I just drive in screws without allowing for wood movement, the desk top will most likely end up cracking over time. So instead, I’m going to make elongated holes at the back so the screws can move with the wood when it expands and contracts.

All that’s left is to get the top back into position, drive the screws and this desk will be ready to use. I’m so excited to finally have a big desk with plenty of storage, where I can store all my audio & video gear and work on editing my videos.

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More from DIY Montreal:

• Office drawer cabinets (desk base)
• Plywood painting & finishing
• DIY bar stool