All of the Above

Thanks to being the last student to finish my chiseling/hand-sawing project last night (slow but tidy!), I got plenty of time with the Instructor to review my project ideas. I said I was worried that the shelves might be too simple while the desk might be too complicated.

Pish tosh! They are both entirely reasonable! Reasonable and exciting! And, I am going to attempt to do both!

One of the great things about the shelf project, noted the Instructor, is the opportunity to carve many angled mortise-and-tenon joints. Could anything in the world sound more severely artisanal than that?!

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tending-to-mortiseandtenon-joints.html

I suggested that perhaps I could make the project more challenging/interesting by using reclaimed lumber for the shelves. The Instructor offered the brilliantly outlandish idea of raiding the demolition site of the old Howard Johnsons on I-85 - approximately a half-mile from our house, and the hotel where my in-laws first stayed when visiting us in Durham. There is an awesomely awesome photo gallery of this poor old hotel here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rollertrain/sets/72157624348334809/ and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rollertrain/sets/72157624364972799/

Photo by Libby Lynn via Barry Ragin's Dependable Erection

Let the ransacking begin!

One of the fun/mind-boggling things about the desk project will be turning legs for it. Evidently it's going to require 48 linear feet of 2x6 construction lumber to turn four 30-inch legs. How? Why? Beats me! I do know we'll be cross cutting them, gluing them together, and turning. This must waste a tremendous amount of wood.

The desk is also going to involve rabbets and dados, which along with mortises and tenons are  smarty-pants sounding woodworking words that I now understand! Jointery is only for the very smart, srsly.