Anybody make Knock Down furniture?

Only recently...

John in NM

I made a table for a Rigid spindle sander that I was moving around a lot between two houses. Made of baltic birch with removeable legs, held on by 1/4" bolts through the legs into T-nuts set in diagonal braces glued behind the table skirt. It worked well enough, though it wasn't an elegant solution.

Once I stopped moving this table so much, I glued the legs on - I'm spoiled by the lack of wobble in a properly made M-T table. Probably if I made another of these I would use a reinforcing block at the top of the legs. That would fix the weak spot where the legs are mitered and the through bolt pushes on the miter, and it would also provide a place to use something nicer than a bolt through the leg - screw in a hanger bolt and use wing nuts underneath to pull the leg tight into the skirt.

I also made some light duty work tables out of 24" closet doors. These were stiffer, but they were a lot more trouble to make and the legs are more bulky (fir 4x4's, dried and cleaned up to 3 1/4 or so). Legs won't always pull in square to the skirt the way I did it, but that is probably due to it being really hard to thread an insert into douglas fir and keep it square. The harder rings in the fir tend to interfere with the insert's desired path. Use some nice poplar or pine and the inserts (or hanger bolts) would behave themselves. My only substantial complaint with these tables is that the outer skin on those cheap doors is so thin. Not a heavy duty work table, but still useful.

Re: Anybody make Knock Down furniture?

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Campaign furniture. It was designed and intended for this very purpose. In recently years, there has been one or two books by Chris Schwarz on this subject. Check out Lost Art Press.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Make it modular not Ikea

Mike L

After being the Navy for 20 years and moving around a lot, I found the best things to help me move where.

Modular simple and light.

Modular make the drawer base case by itself, then other side could be legs or another drawer base (think kitchen cabinets). The back should slide in between if you have one and the top removable. That way it can be carried by one person in three separate trips. Use Baltic birch but surround it with a good hardwood.

Just because it is movable does not mean cheap.

Re: Anybody make Knock Down furniture?

Brian Holcombe

I did recently, I used Torpedo SCIS from Glaser bolt:

https://www.glaserbolt.com/torpedo/resources

These are excellent, best fasteners of the type that I have used.

Re: Another Fastener Option

William Duffield

https://www.festoolusa.com/company/news/domino-connector

Re: Another Fastener Option

Barry Irby

Good Idea, except that I have the 500 Domino and not the 700. For what it would cost to upgrade and buy the fasteners, I could buy him a nice desk. Hmm...

If you want to go all out over-the-top

Ian Neuhaus

you could always use Lamello's Invis Mx2 invisible fittings

http://www.lamello.com/product/bohrenfraesen-verbinder/invis-mx2/

Your son would only need a cordless driver to assemble or take the desk apart.

Re: If you want to go all out over-the-top

Barry Irby

Thanks, sent them an E-mail. Wondering what it costs.

Re: Another Fastener Option

William Duffield

Sorry for the wild goose chase. When I last looked at the fasteners, I hadn't paid attention to which Domino they fit, because I had both machines. Since then, I sold the smaller DF500, but I'm not sure that was such a wise idea. Although the DF700XL with the Seneca Woodworking adaptor will cut mortises for all the Domino tenon sizes, there are still some smaller work that is more inconvenient to do with the larger machine, especially working with the smallest tenons in thin stock.

Re: If you want to go all out over-the-top

Rum

Starter kit is around $500

http://store.swissinvis.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=45

Connectors in the 20 count look to be close to $6-10 each depending on the size

http://store.swissinvis.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3

Amazon also appears to sell most of the kits at a healthy markup https://www.amazon.com/Invis-6100300-Mx2-Starter-Kit/dp/B00LEVLE0Y There might be someplace cheaper (no affiliation except through a quick web search).

Re: Anybody make Knock Down furniture?

TomD

I have mainly used 3 techniques, and I also find that for across town moves even the simplest KDs get left set up. The idea of modular makes sense, but if you want to get back to flat pack, you need some fasteners.

Two of the techniques I have used are well known: Wedged tenons, and those L cleats for holding table tops on.

If wanting a fastener, I always use epoxy bonded hardware. By far the strongest, very simple, and it can be fast in a home shop sense since you are living with it, and not normally pushing an assembly line. In a shop setting, you would need something like a UV resin to make it go fast. So say you want two fasteners to hold something together, you drill a hole that is 50% larger than the fitting, and just bond it in with good epoxy. It is how they mount windmill blades. You get 100 percent accuracy with very simple tools or jigs, and when it comes to assembly, you get a stud that just passes through a hole, and is captured with a nut. That is probably the biggest problem. Doesn't work as well in flat sheet goods if you are capturing a threaded insert. The hole would be too big. So there I would probably use some purpose built hardware if a flush surface mount was require in ply edges. Come to think of it for the loads one would anticipate, you can pore a slug of epoxy and drill and tap it, and then run in a KD hardware bolt that way - We aren't anchoring in a storm here.

https://epoxyworks.com/index.php/hardware-bonding/

This is an article I remember from when it came out. Now a trend. Highlights how fickle the market for computer furniture can be. Well it is the opposite I suppose in that this is a design principle that is still appreciated.

https://epoxyworks.com/index.php/a-dual-level-computer-stand/

I have never made a computer desk since the form factor of computing changes so fast. My current desk top is on a KD trestle table. My netbook is on the arm of my sofa, and the way that works since the arm is narrow is that there is a shaker pedestal table that looms over the arm of the sofa, and I have a piece of plywood that rest between the two, and provides a reliable platform for the netbook. I really should do something nicer, but what I have works so well, that I have been lazy. Certainly knocks down.

Re: Metal

TomD

I had a quick look at the units IKEA sells, and they are mostly metal bases and wood look tops. Reminded me that 3 of my recent pieces of shop furniture were all welded steel. I haven't gone over the the dark side, but one has to admit that metal is lightning fast to assemble, cheap, and has advantages in the knock down space. As the kids say.

If you look at US guys who have made a fortune in woodworking, at a level where it would still be interesting to guys like us, Bob Taylor would have to be near the top of the list. Bob also gives back to his "peers" by attending shows, talking to anyone who walks up to him, and for a time he wrote some articles on shop set-up for Guitarmaker magazine. One of his main recommendations at that time was to run not walk to the welder shop. And it is true that some capacity in simple metal working is an enormous help to people who work wood. You see the same ideas in the Mythbusters shop. Personally I love making things out of wood that probably should not be made of wood, but it is hard to deny the sense of using metal. For less than domino, you could get set up, and projects like this (the base with knock-down joinery) would come together in an hour. And it is the look people are sometimes looking for.

Also, if you wanted a timber look in say a KD trestle base, you could easily manufacture metal plates that look good, with or without welding. Or using epoxy joinery, but we already went there.