Shopsmith Forums

So, years ago my wife bought this shaggy, cheap roll top desk at a yard sale. Made of particle board and a fake wood grain finish. She has wanted me to make something nice out of it or it was going in the trash. Well, it's time has come. Eventually it will be all black with drawers added and painted in a Famous Baltimore style from the 1820s to 1840+. This was an era when painted, japanned black and decorated furniture was en vogue. But the Baltimore style is quite an American style vs Oriental.
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So first I had to bring the thing up to a reasonable style that would have actually been built. So, I had to add trim around the piece to mimic the way the desk was constructed. This is where I broke out some hand tools. Here is the profile.
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Simple enough and made with moulding planes and a stanley 45
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Here you can see where I added the trim to mimic the way the desk would have been constructed with the drawers and roll top added on. More on the top drawer addition in a minute.
You can see where the trim is placed around the piece, replacing the faux front trim that exisited before.
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Now that there is a frame of reference you can see the bank of 3 drawers that are added to the top. This was a normal style so I wanted to emulate it. I tore off the top from the first pic and then had to add the bottom of the drawer bank in its place. Problem was that the roll top needed to roll up into space normally left by the previous top. What to do but hog out the board with a stacked dado and plane it to final fit. Lots of work with the carriage makers plane (basically a large rabbet plane. This dado allows the roll top to roll up. Later, everything was biscuited into place and glued.
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Next up is the Shopsmith. To make the drawers I took some scrap 3/4 stock and ripped it in half. These are the box sides. I dado'd into these sides to hold the bottom. Used a huge fence but should have allowed a slot to drop in the guides. Oh well.
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Then passed these boards through the surface planer down to about 5/16.
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Here I didn't go through the drawer construction But I didn't use the most expensive materials. Simple pine with hardboard bottoms. The sides are let into the drawer front.
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What I am quite happy with is the tolerance around the drawer front. About a 1/32 all the way around. Again, back to the Stanley #5 on top for that. Lots of fittment with the plane and my workbench to try and plane the drawer into place.
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Stay tuned. Next up should be trying to turn the small brass knobs on the Shopsmith, painting and finally detail painting.

I really like this story! I'm so busy with work and commuting that a from-scratch project takes me months to complete. I might look at a "resto-mod" like this one, on a future job.

Glad you like it. The goodwill store and thrift stores are endless opportunities for resto mods. Let's see how the paint turns out. Next weekend should be paint!

thanks for the restore pictures and story. I look forward to see the end result. It's gonna be nice, I'll bet.

Mid week update. I went from construction to primer. So, once the drawers were planed to perfection and fit I then reattached a new cut 1/4 inch back. Here is a closeup of the biscuit. It has a narrow area to fit since I had to hog out so much material for the tambour to fit into.
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Followed by the treatment we have all done to our cars. Bondo'd the joint joining the new top section and the original base. Also some large dings someone put in years ago. Had to scuff the whole fake finish first before bondo to get it to adhere.
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And primed just like a car. Currently sanding with wet 320 to create a good slurry and then wipe off. Very smooth.
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Painting on Saturday weather depending. Going to shoot gloss black oil cut with mineral spirits to give it some open time. From there to painting the detail.

Saturday came and went but today I shot the black. Used gloss black oil thinned with spirits. Now, it's 66 degrees today and that's not exactly weather for fast drying time but it did leave the paint open for a bit so it layed quite flat. Problem was my gun when I first started shooting and it was a bit blotchy, got a bit of orange peel. Here's the painted unit. No flash because it just bounces light everywhere and the stuff is in the garage cooking by the heater.
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Closeup of a drawer. I'm please but this whole thing will be wet sanded down using 350+, detail painted then cleared. From the clear will be sanding from 600+ and finally polished.
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Here's an example of Baltimore painted furniture. Cool looking stuff and, since I'm just one city south of Baltimore, why not emulate a local tradition.
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So, I'm going to let this cure for a day or two then wet sand it. From there I'll drag it inside and set to the detail work.

holsgo wrote:Saturday came and went but today I shot the black. Used gloss black oil thinned with spirits. Now, it's 66 degrees today and that's not exactly weather for fast drying time but it did leave the paint open for a bit so it layed quite flat. Problem was my gun when I first started shooting and it was a bit blotchy, got a bit of orange peel. Here's the painted unit. No flash because it just bounces light everywhere and the stuff is in the garage cooking by the heater.
[ATTACH]14792[/ATTACH]
Closeup of a drawer. I'm please but this whole thing will be wet sanded down using 350+, detail painted then cleared. From the clear will be sanding from 600+ and finally polished.
[ATTACH]14793[/ATTACH]
Here's an example of Baltimore painted furniture. Cool looking stuff and, since I'm just one city south of Baltimore, why not emulate a local tradition.
[ATTACH]14794[/ATTACH]

So, I'm going to let this cure for a day or two then wet sand it. From there I'll drag it inside and set to the detail work.

Looking GOOD!:)