Well, I have been working on my lab desk/work bench, so here is an update.

This coffee table was my first attempt at serious carpentry. I used a lot of my dad's equipment, and I worked on it over a longer period of time than the lab desk/work bench I am working on now.

Coffee Table picture #1


Coffee table picture #2

With the coffee table, I used biscuits and made the top out of 1 x4. Since that was a lot of work and I noticed that Home Depot had 24 x 48 x 1 and 24 x 72 x 1 on sale, I figured that I would save myself some trouble this time. The coffee table was made out of Poplar, but I choose Pine for the lab desk/work bench becuase it was cheaper and was available in the sizes above. I don't know if that is going to come back and bite me because Pine is a pretty soft wood. I am using some 2 x 1 to stabilize the table. I placed them all the way around the table as well as one in the middle. I don't know how much stability this will add, but I think it will help it to look a little better.

Here is the Dewalt Biscuit cutter that I "lifted" from my dad when we went home for Thanksgiving, haha. (I used this one and a smaller biscuit cutter for the coffee table.)

This is the 4 foot piece. I did not have any clamps at the time so I just put the 6 foot piece on top and a lot of heavy stuff. I was not very happy with the results since there were a lot of gaps between boards, and it just did not look at good as I thought it would. So when I did the 6 foot piece, I bought some clamps. I guess the wood quailty is not very good or maybe I should have sanded the wood down. At any rate, the results were marginally better with the 6 foot piece than with the 4 foot piece.

The plan is to make an "L" shaped desk. Orginally, I was going to have it be a symmetrical "L", but I don't have room for that in our office/lab room. So I am going to have to lay it out so that the desk will be 8x4 on the outside and 6x2 on the inside. Hopefully, that will work out.

I am going to set up an Instructable. I am hoping that I can get some good ideas for constructing the legs and also for attaching the two desk/bench sides together without a leg in the middle of the "L".