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I am trying to build a desk for the home office area in my attic room. I would like to make a long wall-to-wall desk by gluing together a few big solid wood planks. The total length of the desk should be around 3.6m. However, I cannot bring into my attic planks of that length because they wouldn't fit through the staircase. The longest planks I can manage to bring inside are around 2.5m. Therefore, I am wondering how I can build a 3.6m long tabletop with planks of 2.5m or smaller. Moreover, I would like to build everything with glue alone, that is, I would like to avoid any joinery work, mainly because I don't have the right tools. I know that end-to-end gluing of planks doesn't work, so I was hoping to arrange planks of different sizes as shown in the sketch below, and rely on the edge gluing (in orange) to hold the structure of the table together. The final table would have a total of six legs, one on each corner of the table, and two middle ones evenly distributed along the length of it.

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Since I have little experience with woodwork, I would like to ask the experts here, if such a structure is likely to hold solid. The intended use of the table is a desk for studying/working, so it would not need to support large amounts of weight.

Many thanks!

Julen Simon Pedernales
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  • Welcome to StackExchange but we have numerous prior Q&As here that answer your basic query. Your proposed plan is technically doable (and if done right very strong), but I suspect it will be basically impossible for you because of the tools required to put this together. Plus remember if you make it this way it can't ever leave the attic. I would suggest you do this like beds are made — with the understanding that the whole thing is too large to move through doors in one piece, so by necessity it must be built in such a way that it can be assembled and unassembled (AKA knockdown or k/d). – Graphus Dec 08 '22 at 14:48
  • @Graphus thanks for your comment! I have clamps, glue, and an electric sander. I will purchase already flattened planks, and hope that any required additional flattening can be achieved with the sander. Would you find that insufficient? I am sorry but I didn't see any previous questions regarding the joining of two large planks as in my scheme. Other related questions were focused on how to assemble smaller planks in the style of a butcher block countertop, which was not exactly my concern here. – Julen Simon Pedernales Dec 08 '22 at 16:36
  • The heart of your query here is "I would like to build everything with glue alone... I would like to ask the experts here, if such a structure is likely to hold solid." So essentially this asks if edge joints, made with glue alone, are strong enough and this is what has been answered here multiple times in multiple ways — the answer being yes. if done well edge joints actually end up stronger than the wood itself. – Graphus Dec 08 '22 at 17:00
  • The part you haven't asked about is how to get this done. This is also covered numerous times and the basic issues are that you probably don't own enough strong clamps with capacity >700mm (you need perhaps 8), plus additional clamps to help with keeping the panel dead flat, and without steps (which are surprisingly hard to sand out so you 100% want to avoid if poss). Even if you buy planed wood there's no guarantee the edges will be exactly 90°..... and all of them need square edges, both sides, not just B2, in order to give you the freedom to pick either face to be the top. – Graphus Dec 08 '22 at 17:14
  • @Graphus many thanks again for your comments. The clamps will not be a problem, I will borrow them from a friend and they will be enough. To keep it dead flat I plan to lay weights on top of the joints. I will have the planks made to measure by a local provider who will have a scheme of my project, so I hope he can guarantee the required squared edges. Btw, my question was, of course, not about whether edge joints made of glue are strong in general, but rather about a specific configuration where the planks are not glued in parallel, but displaced w.r.t. each other. This was not obvious to me. – Julen Simon Pedernales Dec 08 '22 at 17:27
  • It's because the edge joints are so strong that the end joints become essentially irrelevant (especially if the expected loading is typical for a desk, as you indicate it will be). But, look at the update to this old Answer. This is not to say you must have perfect ends and glue them together really well, that shouldn't be needed.... and the clamping would be, ah, difficult :-) – Graphus Dec 08 '22 at 17:47
  • That is indeed very interesting! Thanks :) – Julen Simon Pedernales Dec 08 '22 at 18:19

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