The Most Expensive Desk We’ve Ever Made

Hey everyone it's Dylan and my father from The  Black Forest Wood Company and we're back for   part three the final installment of our Salt Lake  City series and I think we've left the best for   last we're doing the desk today oh my gosh that's  a piece of work there's a lot of components that   are going to go together with that everything  has to fit just perfectly Jon and Jack have   masterminded the whole construction of this  our team Ibrahim with the design dealing with   working with the customers you wait you guys so  this desk is probably one of the most intricate   projects we've done to date in our shop um first  of all, it featured this incredibly large slab of   Bastone Walnut and some of you longtime Watchers  on our Channel might remember this tree from the   Joe Manganiello project so Joe actually picked  a slab from this same tree it was a little   bit larger but he used it to create his custom  Dungeons and Dragons table and we'll put a link   here if you guys want to go watch that this  client instead is going to turn one of these   slabs into a deck desk so we're getting ready to  start on this massive bathstone Walnut desk and   what Ibrahim is doing right now is just capturing a  photo of it uh so that he can import that into his   rendering software and actually do an accurate  layout of this slab so that's what's happening   right now and then we'll go over to Ibrahim's  computer screen and kind of show you that process so now that Ibrahim has  the rendering complete and we know exactly where   we need to cut this slab we can Mark our lines  out on it and begin using our saw to break down   all these pieces part of what's so unique about  these slabs is that they measure in at over 9 ft   wide at the widest point which means that we don't  have to add any extra pieces to yield this piece   we usually do this before we flatten the slab so  that we can ensure we get maximum thickness out of   all the individual components especially with  this slab being 8 ft wide in the widest point   if we were to just try and flatten this in one  shot number one it wouldn't really fit on our   CNC machine but if it did what would happen  is you'd likely lose most of your thickness   and you'd start off at this 3-in thick slab  and probably end up with something around an   inch and a half whereas with us cutting off all of  those wide sections of the slab it's much easier   for us to get the maximum thickness out of these  pieces and then once we have everything flattened   on our CNC machine we can get the slabs lifted  upstairs and begin lifting them into the mold   another reason that you can see it's important  to get the slabs completely flat before we do   the pour is so that they sit perfectly flat in  the mould and that we don't get any resin that's   going to leak beneath those slabs something else  you're going to see here is that this mould is kind   of strangely shaped it's not really your typical  rectangular mold and that's because we are going   to be waterfalling all the different sides of this  desk and of course as always we're using our Black   Forest Deep Resin for this pour and even though  these slabs are almost 3 in thick we're able   to do this without any issues of overheating or  cracking and then something else similar on this   job to the Joe Manganiello project is the resin  colour some of our clients have begun referring   to this as the Manganiello blue and that's exactly  what we're doing here we're pouring it as a base   layer about half an inch thick and we're going to  let this partially cure before we come along and   pour our final top layer and there's there's a few  ways you can go about doing these base layers you   can do what I just described and let it partially  cure or you can let the layer completely cure and   then sand it before pouring your top layer both  of them work completely fine but you can get   some really interesting effects created if you let  the resin partially cure, because it's still soft   enough where the the weight of that top clear  layer will begin to deform that base layer and   create these extra ripples in the resin so you  probably will be able to see this later in the   video when we get some close-ups but it's a really  really unique effect that we've been offering on   much more of our pieces and then after 7 Days  of curing in the mold we can begin demolding   this piece our mold construction is pretty simple  it consists of MDF that we've coated in Tuck tape   and as you can see that pops off quite easily  once the resin's cured and then we also have a   bead of silicone that goes around the inside and  outside of the mold just kind of as an insurance   policy so we don't get any leaks and then given  the size of this piece it's extremely heavy so   we've got just about all Hands-On deck to get  this thing safely moved around and now it's time   to get it back onto the C andc Machine to flatten  this massive pore and here's a great shot of that   t-shape I was mentioning so the side of the desk  closest to the forklift is going to be the top   surface and then the two T's or the narrow parts  of the te are going to fold down to be the ends   and then that other part that chuts out is going  to be the back if that made any sense at all and   here we're taking that excess layer of resin off  the top of the piece from a resin pore we do get   asked quite often on why we do that extra layer of  resin and it's simply because it allows us to fill   in all the cracks and voids in a single shot uh  for us being a large production facility labor is   one of our most expensive costs so if we're able  to cut down the time we need to spend doing fills   by spending a little bit more on epoxy it ends up  being more cost-effective for us in the end so as   you can see we've cut one of those large sections  off our resin pore blank and now we're sending it   through our thickness sander something important  I want to mention here as a little tangent is that   we're going to be getting a brand new thickness  sander in a couple months coming from SCM it's a   54in wide helical planer sander so the first head  is the helical planer head then it has two sanding   drums and then a sanding platin and it's just  something we're really excited to have showing   up here in our shop soon and then from there it's  over to the SCM panel saw as you guys can see we   love SCM we've had this saw for about 20 years  and now we're beginning to cut these blanks down   to their size so that we can cut the 45 de angles  on them so before we go ahead and cut those 45°   angles we do get them cut to that rough size  essentially that they need to be so here you can   see the boys are cutting off one of the legs from  the top component and then once we have our four   components the top the back and the two legs we  can then set the saw to the 45° angle to make   those Final Cuts for the waterfall joinery and  to secure that joint we're using our Fest tool   Domino to add some tenin in there this helps with  the line but on a 45° joint like this it does help   with strength as well if you were just doing a a  90° Edge joint The Dominoes really only help with   alignment they don't do much for strength but  being that this is the 45 it makes a difference   here and as you can see we're putting wood glue  specifically Titebond 3 over the wooden sections   of this lamination and then our coat thin epoxy  over the epoxy sections and that's primarily for   Aesthetics because if you were to put wood glue  over the whole section of this and we have that   clear resin obviously that would not look very  good in the finished product so firstly what we   did was glue the back on and we had to actually  let this piece cure in place before we could put   our sides on because it was going to act as kind  of a a jig or a straight edge for us to line up   these sides so we did our first test fit and  then it's the same exact process for this side   lamination where we're doing tight bone three  on the wood and then our coat thin on the epoxy   sections and for a lamination like this because  it does involve epoxy typically we're leaving it   in the clamps a little bit longer than usual so  something with just wood glue we might take out   the next day but this we're leaving for usually  2 or 3 days just so we can be sure everything's   perfectly cured one of the most labor intensive  parts of the process is sanding up this entire   piece now something my dad always says that's  kind of funny is if you don't like sanding you're   probably not going to like woodworking because  it consists of about 50% of woodworking is just   sitting there with your sander so you kind of  have to get comfortable and in love with this   monotony that that sanding is but to prep these  pieces uh we take them up to 320 grit using our   Mera Sanders and we're also being sure to clean  out any of that extra epoxy that's left in the   corners from the lamination and something we began  to realize at this point which we knew was going   to happen this piece is getting very awkward  because of the weight and shape of it it's no   longer got that big footprint that it did from the  resin pour so we can't get as many bodies around   the outside of it and it's just it's not that easy  to move around and now we can begin working on all   the cabinetry that's going to sit beneath this  desk so something that we did here for a detail   on this that I really appreciate is we matched  all the exposed panels in Bastone and walnut   to go with the slab that's used in the top resin  pore and they are coming from the exact slab used   in that pour some of the Interior components on  the cabinet that you're going to see that aren't   visible from the outside we did use Canadian black  walnut because we didn't quite have enough of the   Bastone Walnut from this single slab to yield  those components but in the end it all goes   together very beautifully as you'll see and here  Jack's using the biscuit joiner to glue up some   of the components for the interior parts of the  desk and again kind of similar to the Domino this   is purely for alignment it doesn't do anything to  add strength to this lamination we just want to   ensure that after the glue up we're going to get  our maximum thickness out of these panels because   even though you don't need the biscuits for  strength what can happen is if you do a glue-up   without them and you're even out by a millimetre  or 2 millimetres on either side that can result in you   losing thickness on your components and then  ultimately having to rebuild new ones if it   doesn't work with your design and then it's back  through the thickness Center and from there we'll   move on to our dovetails another nice feature that  we like to add on all of our drawer components are   dovetail joinery we do have a Dov tailer that  allows us to do this but don't hate on us we   are capable of doing handcut dub Tails actually  that being said Jack I believe one The Regionals   for the skills competition that's like a it's  basically a woodworking trades competition here   in Alberta and that's Jack right there so he's  very good at hand-cut dovetails it's just in our   shop and because of the amount of components  we have we use the dovetailer once we have all   the dove Tails cut then it's over to the saw stop  to put a little dato Groove in the bottom just to   accept the bottoms of these drawers and once all  the joineries cut on these drawer boxes then it's   time to go ahead with the glue up and same as the  wooden components for the desktop again here we're   using Titebond 3 now something I want to mention that  we've kind of switched to recently that we maybe   should have known before is in our drawer boxes  for the bottoms, we used to do solid which you   can do but we notice that you kind of get quite a  bit of expansion and contraction obviously and in   order to combat that you have to leave them quite  loose which then causes kind of this rattly drawer   construction so we have switched to a Plywood  And veneer construction for our door bottoms   don't worry that's as much plywood and veneer as  you're probably ever going to see us use in our   shop we're sticking to solid we just want to make  sure that for the longevity and proper function of   these drawers we're using the plywood construction  and then once we've got all the drawer boxes glued   up it's back over to the saw stop to cut them  to our final size so we just make four Cuts   here right we spin it around and cut each Edge  until we get it down to its final size and then   once our drawers are cut to their proper sizes we  can begin to install the hardware that's going in   here so we like to use Bloom we've used that for  a number of years now uh we're we're not sponsored   by them although we would really like to be Bloom  if you're listening uh we just think they make   really great hardware and what John's doing here  now is drilling out the threaded inserts that are   going to go into the desk itself because that's  how we're going to attach these cabinets that are   going to go beneath the desk we're not going to  glue any of these cabinets in primarily because   this desk is already heavy enough as is and it  would be nearly impossible to move if we glued   or permanently fastened anything in and it's also  going to make it a lot easier for the shipping   and setup process when we take this down to our  client's house in Salt Lake City so we get those   boxes attached with threaded inserts which are  from rampa and we do sell those on our website if   you guys want to check those out and then John's  just lifting the drawer boxes in and then if you   remember from the rendering not only does this  piece have the resin and Bastogne walnut on the   top back and sides it also has it on the front  side of the desk where there's two giant doors   and a drawer so what you're seeing us do right  now is thickness those on our sander cut them to   size on our panel saw and from there we can begin  installing the hardware on all of our cabinets we   like to use Tectus hinges again not sponsored  but we would like to be primarily because of   their high capacity we can put these big heavy  doors that we're used to constructing on these   hinges without having to worry about overloading  them but number two something else really nice   about them is they have a lot of adjustability  so in the case that any of these doors move we   can give our clients advice on how to adjust  these hinges and have the do still function   perfectly and you know in all transparency it is  something that can happen we're kind of taking   a risk here by using these big solid wood pieces  for doors like this and it it may break a lot of   the traditional rules uh but fortunately with this  style of construction we've had very good luck so   far and then when it comes to Hardware on the top  of this desk, the client went with a really minimal   approach which I think was the right decision he  decided just to have one wire grommet in the back   right corner and it's a little metal insert that's  just going to allow his cables to come up for his   computer and I think that's about all he needs on  this desk anyways another standard detail we like   to add to all of our pieces is a 2mm 45° bevel on  the outside just enough to soften the edge but not   so much that it creates something that becomes  a feature on its own we still want to maintain   those really sharp lines um but not create  something that's going to be awkward to sit at   and then it's off to our finishers to app apply  the two-component acrylic urethane to this desk   this client did want something that was going to  have maximum durability and that he wasn't going   to ever have to worry about doing any maintenance  on and given that this isn't going in any kind of   commercial setting where it's expected that it's  going to get crazy damage and he's just going to   be personally using this as his home office desk  the acrylic urethane is the perfect way to go okay   so this is a very custom desk this client had a  lot of very specific requests that he wanted here   he's got a slide out tray for his printer and  there needs to be an outlet right at the back   of this tray but then that would create a problem  in that if he slides this out it's going to unplug   the cable from his printer so we have a sponsor  for that docking drawer has sponsored this video   and they've supplied us with this really unique  cable management system for an extending Outlet so   it's on this hinged arm Jack is going to install  this into that hole and then there's a little hole   at the back of this tray where the head of our  cord can slide through and it's just going to   make for some nice organized cable management  for this client so thank you to docking drawer   for sponsoring this week's video and we'll leave a  link in the description where you guys can go pick   one of these up for yourself and now we can begin  packing up all of our components and get ready   for this delivery down to Salt Lake City which is  something I think we were all really excited for   because none of us had ever been down to that part  of the United States uh so it was kind of like a   little bit of a vacation for us at away okay well  we're here this morning at Salt Lake City Utah and   we're going to install this incredible package  that we brought down here for him beautiful day no the desk room where  is that with all the the mounts let get hang on we gotas  here okay straight up you're   going to fall off a l yeah there's  a step coming up coming up we got to okay one at a time get on this's wait you guys swing into the wall bit  of angle right here here we good we'll it so   set it down okay everybody's fingers out yeah  all right tip down nice slow yeah right all right your friends took your Tru yeah I shimmying  begins maybe there maybe there uh we can do it's just to get it to line up  okay right where we need [Applause] it set it down there you can get it  bolted in from there it all lines up so and he's not uh I will do that  right away let me get this one in place we all are uh hinges they're on the doors  oh they're on the doors yep didn't feel like   taking them off and putting them back on again  just wrapped them up really well and they were good come on you're not in on this side I don't think  yeah well maybe you are right I can feel it Mr Krabs sorry just I was expecting  unpacking to take a lot longer than it This is the finale everyone the desk is in it's in our client's  office, he was kind enough to let me sit in his   chair as our team makes faces through the glass  she didn't realize she actually but this is one of   the most-grand offices I've ever been in obviously  you can tell our client has a hobby that he's very   into and it's just so cool the way that he has  set this room up to display everything and then   clearly the centerpiece of everything is our  desk so to walk you guys through a little bit   of the function on what we built and what went  into this, on the left side, we have obviously   matching doors to go with the rest of everything  but we've got three drawers here that all have   Bastogne Walnut fronts and dovetailed sides  on them then we've got the pencil tray here   that comes out with a matching front and then on  the right we have our printer tray and I guess we   can thank our sponsor again now docking drawer  because they supplied this awesome Hardware to   allow the the outlet to plug in his printer  and that's got all the nice Bloom soft clo hardware and then of course the main feature on  this desk is obviously the way that all three of   these sides waterfall down so you've got your two  edges your back and I'm going to miss this piece   honestly there's some pieces that we just have in  the shop long enough and we spend enough time with   him that you kind of like develop this connection  in a weird way to an inanimate object but I think   we've all definitely formed a bond with this desk  so it's going to be a little sad to leave but   like I mentioned in last week's video this client  might have a spilled some chairs for that table so   maybe we have to make another road trip out of it  who knows and that is going to conclude our Salt   Lake City series again thank you guys so much for  watching all of these videos if this is the first   video from the series you're seeing you're going  to want to go back and watch us build the bed the   wall art the dining table and the two benches for  this client but if you've made it all the way to   the end of the series just a huge thank you to  you guys for sticking around in your loyalty   and I don't think I've mentioned it at any time  throughout this whole series but if you guys feel   that we've earned it with the work that we've put  into this please leave us a like on the video and   please subscribe to our Channel it really really  helps us out next we're heading off to Toronto for   another delivery so in a few weeks we'll be seeing  you guys there and thank you for watching

Channel: Black Forest Wood Co.

Views: 711,644

Keywords: Resin, Resin Pour, Epoxy, Ecopoxy, Wood, Resin Art, Resin Table, Resin Crafts, Resin River, Epoxy Table, Epoxy Resin Table, Epoxy Resin, Epoxy Resin Projects, Project, Black Forest Wood Company, Black Forest Wood Co, Black Forest, Black Forest Resins, Rich, Money, Expensive, Woodshop, Workshop, live edge, live edge slabs, calgary, canada

Id: WwJWxko3GXw

Length: 21min 17sec (1277 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023