Black Desk, Part 2

Black Desk, Part 1
Black Desk, Part 3

Just a minor update here.

I got a detail shot of the leg "carving" with the two coats of Minwax Waterbased Stain in Onyx. I didn't realize there was so much dust on there when I took the photo, sorry.

The white wood is some 3/4" x 1 1/2" curly maple. I found that maple at Lowe's in the common maple rack. I need to go back and find another one for trimming the top of the desk. They only had one in the entire rack.

It is attached with 8 1/4" dowels, and a small bead of glue along the length along with the glue in the dowel holes.

I have found that the use of dowels signifigantly improves the strength of the joint, in addition to making alignment much simpler. While I don't doubt that a biscuit joiner would also make the alignment simple, there is a massive price difference.

• Dowel Centers: $2 for 10
• 1/4" dowel: Free if I cut my own with a plug cutter, or 40c for two feet.
• 1/4" drill bit: Comes in every set of drill bits I've ever purchased. So I have plenty.

This last photo is the maple clamped to the bottom shelf. The clamps were more for drawing the dowels into the holes than for actual clamping. But I'll take the clamping as a bonus!

Once this is dry, I'll put some pieces on the sides of the shelves, then I'll apply the finish.