Curved desk

Here is a curved desk we are making, this will be a permanent install. 

That’s really cool looking. The frame doesn’t quite look inward sloping like the drawing though. Do you get “build exactly this” plans or do you get some latitude in the details?

Radius work… Always fun and challenging. Made even more so if the customer requires a solid wood face wrap at full dimension thickness.

Looks great !

khariV wrote:

7 hours ago, khariV said:

That’s really cool looking. The frame doesn’t quite look inward sloping like the drawing though. Do you get “build exactly this” plans or do you get some latitude in the details?

Its just the pic, its supposed to be square, no slope. What a pain getting the frame exactly the same as the CNC cut radius desk portion. We wrapped the inside with 2 layers of 1/4″ MDF. Carpenters get very little input, its always between the designer and client.

JMG wrote:

5 hours ago, JMG said:

Radius work… Always fun and challenging. Made even more so if the customer requires a solid wood face wrap at full dimension thickness.

Wow, I could not imagine how to do that.  This will get a combination of formica, bushed aluminum and birch veneer.

Its good you get to build some stuff that is a keeper. I would think it would be frustrating to know things get used for a quick shoot and then end up in the Hollywood boneyard or dumpster!

Looks fantastic. As all your stuff does.

Glad to see some of your great work is not for one time use.

Almost forgot. What is this being used for if you are allowed to say.

do you have to steam the panels then put them in a curving press to get them to the correct curve? or another way to put it is how to you get the curve in the panels?

more MDF haha

Atlas2000 wrote:

On 3/12/2017 at 11:25 AM, Atlas2000 said:

Almost forgot. What is this being used for if you are allowed to say.

A reception desk, I’ll know more after the install.

Jronman wrote:

12 hours ago, Jronman said:

do you have to steam the panels then put them in a curving press to get them to the correct curve? or another way to put it is how to you get the curve in the panels?

 

more MDF haha

Once we have the frame made we were able to bend 1/4in MDF for the inside, it was not easy, but we were able to glue it and staple it. There are two layers of 1/4 in on the inside. On the outer layer we used 1/4 in for the first layer, then 2 layers of 1/8 in mdf  before the birch veneer. The final layer of MDF was put on with contact cement, so nothing would show through the veneer.

Now its up the painters… In the second pic we stood it up to cut the final layer of MDF and veneer with a track saw to get a perfect cut. Normally we would just use a router, but the big PITA is its made in two pieces , so we needed at perfect seem where the two pieces will be joined. We stood on the old table saw to make the cut.

radius bends are tough to do to make it look uniform, looks like your dead on, nice job

SetBuilder wrote:

10 hours ago, SetBuilder said:

 

Once we have the frame made we were able to bend 1/4in MDF for the inside, it was not easy, but we were able to glue it and staple it. There are two layers of 1/4 in on the inside. On the outer layer we used 1/4 in for the first layer, then 2 layers of 1/8 in mdf  before the birch veneer. The final layer of MDF was put on with contact cement, so nothing would show through the veneer.

Curiosity; Do you not have access to a laminate backed wood veneer? Or is there an issue with expansion/contraction at the veneer joints that would cause any problems in using it? Or requirements of specific bookmatching on the veneers? I probably would have used two layers of 3/8″ bending grade ply inside and out and then used the phenolic backed veneer over that to span any deviations, after fill and sand. If the flexibility of the the glue is an issue, you could hard glue the laminated veneer to the outer face. The inner face would be too much trouble to hard glue and is generally trapped by the shape itself so contact glue wouldn’t generally be an issue there. Applying MDF seems like a bit of a pain, even if you are shooting for a paint grade surface…

and it wouldn’t fit in the elevator..

Ha ha whoops measure twice cut once more??


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It was designed by the client. No one thought to measure the elevator. 

Missed it by that much…. 🙂

JMG wrote:

12 hours ago, JMG said:

Curiosity; Do you not have access to a laminate backed wood veneer? Or is there an issue with expansion/contraction at the veneer joints that would cause any problems in using it? Or requirements of specific bookmatching on the veneers? I probably would have used two layers of 3/8″ bending grade ply inside and out and then used the phenolic backed veneer over that to span any deviations, after fill and sand. If the flexibility of the the glue is an issue, you could hard glue the laminated veneer to the outer face. The inner face would be too much trouble to hard glue and is generally trapped by the shape itself so contact glue wouldn’t generally be an issue there. Applying MDF seems like a bit of a pain, even if you are shooting for a paint grade surface…

Can you please send me a link on what you mean by  “laminate backed wood veneer” we should be able to source anything. Its pretty low humidity in LA so expansion / contraction is not much of an issue. No requirement about book matching veneer.  We use bender board (what we call bending grade ply) a lot, but were asked to use MDF if we were able to get it to bend for less prep time for the painter. But they can fill bender board to get a perfect finish, just takes a little longer. 

We did the inner face first so that we could attach the desk portion, with all screws hidden. If we skinned the outside first then we would of had to use frackers or something to support the desk. 

I appreciate your comments as I have only been working with Laminates and veneers for about a year now. 

@SetBuilder Just google “laminate backed veneer” and you will get plenty of links to manufacturers. Your local laminate supplier should also have a line on this item type as well. The fill & sand on the bending ply is just to level off any minor bumps or voids prior to lamination (not a complete fill), as the veneers available as standard are mostly applied to vertical grade backers. Sheet sizes should be available in most standard laminate sizes and probably available in custom size or veneer with minimum purchase restrictions. You can produce solid wood corner solutions if the phenolic backer edge line is objectionable to the designer. Otherwise it is applied using standard lamination processes. At butt seam locations, it is a good idea to use a magic marker on the substrate, that is a close match to the final color, so that if there is some minor shrinkage, the disparity in color will not be as noticeable. Markers can also be used with standard laminate seams as well. Nothing is worse than having a seam open up a small amount on a black laminate project to expose a light color back board when a black magic marker could have pre-colored the seam area leaving it almost unnoticeable if there was movement in that particular area. I worked in Florida where contractors routinely insisted on millwork being installed prior to the building environment being stabilized, even though the specifications stated otherwise. Movement in the installed product was one of the issues on call backs and punch lists at times and always used against you as the producer even though the contractor was the party at fault for violation of procedure. Complaining about it would just get you black-listed, so planning ahead to avoid the issue became a standard operating procedure.