The Latest From The Workshop. Part 2

 This second piece was a more complicated task. It was also in far worse condition. It suffered from years of abuse as well as some poorly executed previous repairs.

As can be seen below the finish was all but gone and there were numerous stains and splits in the wood.

The pulls on the side drawers were about as cheap and featureless as could be imagined

 Those on the other drawer were missing entirely. In short there was nothing that set this piece off or gave it any visual appeal. 

Fortunately the rolltop itself still worked fairly well with only some minor sticking. When I disassembled the top from the base the canvas strips on the back of the slat sections was still intact. They was a big of fraying of the edges but there was no evidence of cutting or dry rot. Not having to replace them was a great relief. The refinishing it then became just a matter of careful manipulation while sanding, re-staining and polyurethane finish.

Where the vanity had been made entirely from pine the desk was made entirely from poplar. Even the side, center panels and back were made from single pieces of 3/16" poplar. The edges of the side and centers there were edge reliefs on both sides to fit into 1/8" slots in the legs. 

Unfortunately for me, unlike the vanity table most all the joints were glued as well as nailed together. This made made disassembling of the base a slow pains taking task. 

 One of the panel edges broke off completely necessitating both having to fashion and carefully glue up a replacement edge as well as having to chisel out the broken edge from the slot.

Two of the drawer supports were replacements were made from pine and both poorly made and poorly attached. These I replace with poplar. The finished drawer slides were all lined with strips of UHMW so that everything moved with ease.

The back panel was to far gone once I got it disassembled. One corner was missing and it had several splits that were beyond repair. This was replaced entirely with some  5mm plywood.

The other parts that had to be replaced were the side panels of the two main drawers. The original's dato joints broke apart when disassembled. These were replaced with 1/4" plywood. The original sides were to find a recycled use to be seen in part 3.

The pigeonholes inside the desk were very plain and non-descript. This I addressed by fabricating  a small drawer to make it more useful and eye appealing. 

The pull was made from a hollow wood button that was drilled out for a screw and covered with a small disc  and then painted. This design was also used in the other drawer pulls.

As with the vanity all the parts were sanded with increasing finer grit and finished with 1500 grit before reassembly, staining and finishing with polyurethane. The main desk and rolltop were finished sperately before being reassembled. 

All in all it came out very nicely and will make a nice side table until my grandneice gets older and starts school.