Project - Stickley Style Writing Desk  - "Making the Top"

	Putting together the SuperStation has been fun, BUT, I have been itching to get into some real woodworking projects.    Well, the time is now! The SuperStation is all together and ready. I have been eyeing the Stickley Writing Desk. There are no plans to use, but the book does give some dimensions, and I can guesstimate the rest. In the cubbyhole section at the rear, I want to allow room for a laptop, and I will build in a modem/power connection — hopefully, invisible.    There will be no plans, but I will give the dimensions of components as I go.
Several weeks ago, I picked up some real nice white oak. Here I am looking at the lay of the boards for the top. The top will be 36" X 23". This is Mission Style, so there are no bread board ends or edge shaping other than to round over slightly the sharp corners and edges.    In measuring, I find that I have room to cut away some of the white sections. I would like to have the tight grain be dominant.
	I want to rip the table top boards down to size, so first I move the Incra TS III from the router table section to the table saw end. This takes about 7 seconds.
I lock the fence at the miter slot and make a quick check to see that the fence is square to the table. Can your finger detect a 3-thousandth's of an inch discrepancy? Probably not, but having checked this many times with my dial indicator, I find that double checking each time with a "feel" works. Fact is. the Incra TS III  has been "dead on" ever since I first calibrated the system.
	I am taking the ripping of this very dense white oak slowly. This is the first time that I have used the Exaktor Overarm Guard System. One thing I like right off the bat is its counterbalance mechanism. To a adjust to a board, you need only lower oo lift the guard. The dust collection seems to work well. Where I will really appreciate that is when I am cutting MDF and chipboard. Just think, no more will I be covered with all that nasty, coarse dust.
In addition to cutting a couple boards to gain better grain pattern, I trim all the boards of their rough sawn edges. Doing these cuts is really easy since the Incra TS III allows fine fence adjustment so easily.
	The sawn boards are looking pretty good, but I will run all the edges through the router-table-jointer. This dense, white oak will be a good test.