What would be the proper way to do something like this? I've made a couple desks myself, but I've never been able to figure out a good way to do joints.
Dovetail and pin it all old style. A good rule of thumb is to not rely on friction for primary load bearing (e.g. nails in tension are bad but nails in shear or a peg being held in by friction are fine).
That said, a plywood deck that is glued and screwed down like a subfloor pretty much absolves all sins.
Dovetails are easy if you have the right tools. But that's a $100 minimum investment, so you're going to want to have multiple projects in the works to really make the investment worth it. Doing them by hand is completely possible, it just takes a lot of time and practice to get right. Mortise and tendon or lap joints are much easier to do with hand tools and are a staple of classic wood working. Plus they are really forgiving. Took off too little: grab some sand paper; take off too much: add more glue and sawdust.
For most projects, glue & screw is fine. It's cheap and low effort. I use it in every utility project because speed > looks. I've never tested it, but I'm pretty sure that connection would be stronger than the wood itself.
throwaway0a5e|5 years ago
That said, a plywood deck that is glued and screwed down like a subfloor pretty much absolves all sins.
mywittyname|5 years ago
For most projects, glue & screw is fine. It's cheap and low effort. I use it in every utility project because speed > looks. I've never tested it, but I'm pretty sure that connection would be stronger than the wood itself.