I just picked up this same (looks identical) desk with a matching, larger desk. I am in the sanding phase currently. I plan to make my own furniture wax with the bees wax I have.
You can heat your wax with a heat gun it will apply nicely, just be careful not to set yourself on fire. if you have a little portable stove single burner you can heat your tung oil or lindseed oil in a little pot to about 100degrees, just be careful again not to set yourself on fire.
Yeah I was trying to apply when the temperature in my garage was between 30 and 35 degrees F. Not the best temps to be applying any finish, but I needed to use a little heat. I ended up goiing over everything with a clothes iron of camera, which helped a lot, just had to be careful with it
do ALL of us have this desk? mine is used as a bench for jewelry work. someone I worked for a couple years ago has TWO of them in their barn. I'm in Ontario, Canada.
Haha I have had the same thought. There must have been quite a few made a distributed. I even found the drawers from one of these a week after I picked this desk up
Found one, identical, in the second-life shop in Mechelen, Belgium, for €20, did some work on the drawers and put a sturdy top over the existing one. My daughter now uses it as workbench for woodworking and carving. It does not move an inch!
heavy grade 35mm plywood with 20mm pine sideplanks. this way it sits snug over the original top without having to screw into it. Compliments for the nice review!
I can't believe it... I am watching this on my computer which is on top one of those desks... not a similar one, but exactly the same... and I live in the southern part of Brazil.
Wow! That's pretty incredible! They seem to have been very popular and well-distributed! Does yours have a Hoosier Desks Stamp inside the middle drawer?
Nice restoration. I have been woodworking for 45 years. I can sure relate to your comment about sanding! I do some restoring too and have found that starting with a carbide scraper is a huge help. It removes a thin layer of finish and makes for quicker, easier sanding.
Nice! Yeah I bought some cheap scrapers and they got dull very quickly. I loved them at first and then realized cheap scraping cards don't last... Maybe I should invest in some higher quality scrapers
Very similar to my desk. Solid oak with an internal locking mechanism activated by the center drawer. Now I can see what it might look like refinished.
Mine had the internal locking mechanism as well, I just removed it without including it in the video becuase it was malfunctioning (it wouldn't unlock the bottom left drawer). I think this is a mahogany veneered desk (my wood identifying skills need work) so some of the pieces weren't the same wood. The oak would probably all be oak and not be two toned, which would look great!
My 6th grade teacher had a desk like this. 11 years later, I had my first teaching position and had a desk like that. I taught for 35 years and this kind of desk would pop up occasionally at different schools I worked in. Your work is very good. Thank you for the video. I know it takes time to get a video ready to be uploaded.
Great question! I wanted to find a use for these pieces that I scavenged from some old drawers. Takes more time, but I love making something new out of something thrown away!
Hi and thanks for commenting! I don't consider a coffee table finished until I stand on it and move around a bit to see if it remains stable and so far none of the tables I've made like this have failed the test. It definitely would be more stable with brackets, but I try to use as little new materials in my builds as I can manage!
