Where to look for a Wooden desktop

[JimBuck]

Hey DIYers....I've got a question that hopefully you can help me out with. I am building a Walldesk for my apartment. I am looking for a good place to buy a piece of wood for the desktop. The wood would need to be at least an inch thick and approximately 60" length with a depth of 17". I plan on staining the wood a matte walnut finish. Here are the mounting brackets I plan on using. I've looked into countertops but they seem to be significantly more expensive than what I'm after. Any advice on lumber sources for a budget-minded builder would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

[hydro]

First off, how much do you plan on spending? That sets up what you can buy to make the desk top out of.

Now 17” X 60” is kind of an odd size to find a ready made top, so you will probably have to cut something down. What tools do you have? Table saw? Personally, I would not make the piece any thicker than ¾”, but I would laminate a build up of 3/4“ stock about 2 inches or so in from the edge. That way it looks like it is 1 ½” thick. Countertops are often made this way. Once the build up is there, you can glue a strip of solid wood for edging and rout a decorative profile if you like.

Here are some ideas you can check out:

1. In Golden Valley, Room & Board has a surplus store. You may get lucky and find something there that you can trim to fit.

2. Try local cabinet shops to see if they have a drop (cut-off) that fits your size requirements. They may be willing to cut to size for a charge.

3. Commercial furniture dealerships often have loads of used work surfaces and normally just discard them. They are 1 1/8” thick and are laminated with bland colored p-lam. You can cut them to size and add wood edge strips as above.

[JimBuck]

Hydro. Thanks for the response. I'd like to keep the cost of lumbar under 75. Sorry if I was a bit too general with specifics. The ideas you have mentioned was just what I was looking for. I'll be visiting some cabinet shops this week.

[Tom7227]

How about trying to find a used solid wood door at one of the recycling places? A friend just picked up two at a LifeTime that was being remodeled.

[Surface Tension]

How about 3/4" MDF and make an outer band from oak. Varnish the oak and paint the MDF a matt black or do a tortoise shell. IMO the contrast would be much more appealing then a slab of wood.

In the locations of the brackets fasten a strip of 3/4"x 3 1/12" pine under the top with glue and 1 1/4 screws.

The band against the wall won't have the radius and its depth will be less to account for the brackets.

[FishLocker]

Possibilities to check out...

1) Call every lumber desk in the area as there are mistakes made and Menards and Home Depot (pretty much any lumber yard) will have a Bargain Area with the miss measured/colored etc. counter tops at very reasonable prices. (have to call each store individually though as they usually do not show up on inventory)

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2) Habitat for Humanity has a Re-use store that sells all the donated stuff they cannot use. They sell these items to make the cash needed to buy what they actually need. Good cause and good prices.

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3) There was (do not know if there still is) a recycled building material store off of Hiawatha (west side) just south of 94. They recycled antique stuff as well as new from demolitions etc. They have almost anything that can be salvaged out a house. Usually pretty reasonably priced.

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4) I agree that a solid core door would be a pretty good option. They can be had pretty cheaply at the Bargain Area of lumber yards as well...usually one side is intact and one side scuffed up. Difficult to find without panels though.

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If you are short on room in your apartment and only want it available when you are working, there are fold away desk brackets that allow you to fold the desk down along the wall when you are finished working. I used these in the office part of a mobile work shop. Worked great for eyeing blue prints and folded out of the way when we needed the room.

Good luck JimBuck!

The FishLocker

[Redlantern]

Check out Youngblood's lumber in Nordeast. They have an immense selection of all kinds of different woods. You stand a better chance of finding a 17 inch wide board there than at Menards or Home Depot. Of course glueing two boards together ain't that tough. Got any friends that have kids in woodshop? Take advantage of them having a planer and drum sander to use.

[Alagnak]

A 17'' wide piece, if you were to find it at YB or two pieces glued together is just going to warp and cup with humidity changes and look like chit. You need to cut down the pieces to a minimum of 4-5'' wide to re-glue, and as was mentioned it would be your best bet to do even smaller strips. The joints are much less noticeable if there are many instead of 1 or 2 joints anyway.

If you are going to paint or stain it dark anyway you can go with a cheaper softer wood and this can be made pretty cheap. Like someone mentioned- if you can't find a pc to cut down, talk to a local wood shop at a school and one of the kids that might not have a bunch of money for projects could probably do it for you to have an additional project to be evaluated on. We do this for plenty of community members and staff throughout the year for projects inside and outside the building.

[FishLocker]

Alagnak, I love the idea of giving a kid the opportunity for an extra credit project. I will have to see if they allow that here in town...great idea.

[Alagnak]

If they don't have time, I'm a catfish jump across the river from you so keep that in mind.

[PurpleFloyd]

I build cabinets for a living and my opinion is that you will look much harder to find a piece of solid wood for that price than many other options.

If cost is the number one thing I will tell you what I would do. Go to the local Menards and buy one of their 8' sections of pre made countertops which they sell for under 50 dollars.Since they are 25.5 inches deep you will need to find a buddy with a table saw and have them rip it to 17 inches and cut it to length. Then the backsplash can be cut off of the leftover section and set on the countertop to hide any irregularities in the wall if you have any.

Suggestion 2 would be to ask one of the cabinet shops if they have a left over piece of plywood that you can buy from them. They could cut it to size and you can then nail a solid piece of wood to the front to hide the edges, sand and stain.

Suggestion 3 is to look for a piece of melamine in a pattern you like and use that. Good luck.