Latest Woodworking Project

There's an expression I heard growing up that sticks with me:

If you want to have nice things, you better learn how to make nice things.

Maybe less true in my line of work with the rise of vibecoding solutions like Claude Code, et al... But even so, woodworking has always been a fun distraction for me.

I've made 3 of these keyboard + trackpad trays so far – one for every new keyboard. They're heavy, and I didn't carve as much of a countour into this one as some of my previous iterations, but I kinda like the hefty weight.

The reason I like these so much is because it lets me recline in my desk chair and put my feet up. Or take my laptop outside and work from a hammock + side table. I am literally typing this right now with my feet up.

Every time I do a woodworking project, large or small, I think of something my dad is fond of saying:

The difference between a hobbyist and a craftsman is a craftsman knows how to hide his mistakes.

I wouldn't be so bold to call myself a craftsman, but I make enough mistakes that I have gotten pretty good at making them look intentional.

If I were to do another of these, I'd buy a new router (mine is broken after 7 or 8 guitars, not sure why but it won't hold a bit and that terrifies me) and do all the initial cuts to shape the cavities and the contour for the palm rest on the router table. The result would be straighter lines.

As it stands, I put a router bit in my drill press and moved the piece to the bit. After I outlined the initial keyboard cavity, I used a forstner bit to remove most of the material from the cavity, then smoothed out the bottom with a router bit. Probably a relatively unsafe way to do it, but after 3 of these I still haven't cut myself so... YOLO.

My cut-by-hand approach resulted in a few not-so-straight lines. Everything fits and it looks good enough to the casual observer, but these are the sort of errors that'll bother me until I finally break down, buy a new board, and try again.

I fixed some of the more egregious errors by adding a "finger cutout" to more easily remove the keyboard or trackpad. I shaped those with a dremel so the mistakes don't immediately grab the eye. All told, I think it came out pretty well.

I used a few coats of wipe on poly as a finish, which warmed up the cherry quite nicely. I've been using this tray for a few weeks now and am really enjoying it. Maybe one day I'll get a CNC machine and start an etsy side hustle.