Ever been in the back seat or even passenger seat trying to do homework, paperwork, or even just eat? With no flat surface to complete these tasks you are forced to wait until you have reached your destination. Well I have the solution for you! It even includes storage compartments, and a compact design to fit just about anywhere under a bed, car seat and and more! My idea is the "Lap Desk"

Here is the technical drawing of my idea for the lap desk. It will be able to take a part and take up half the space it will take up while its together, Making it perfect for car rides and small spaces.

Step 1: Picking Materials

Originally we thought of the lap desk out of maple, but that type of wood is very heavy and dense making it hard to cut. Although maple would be stable it would make it heavy. So instead I decided to use Poplar, although may cause impressions in the wood if you write on it it will look better and will be a light weight. there are also ways around this problem if you seem fit.

Step 2: Getting Materials Ready.

The original board that I used was 13" wide and around 11' long. This was a perfect amount of wood for all the parts I would need

Step 3: Measuring It All Out

So get the box to fit together perfectly you have to do a dado joint. This will ensure that the box will fit together cleanly and all the sides will be flush to each other. This will also ensure that the box will be strong enough to be able to bounce around in the car and fall off someones lap.

Step 4: Dado Blades

To get the right sized cut I had to use the Dado blades to make a joint that would be sturdy enough not to break over the motions that happen in a car. The dado joint gives me all the strength I would need, with the cut that was being made it would make it so the joints would have two flat edges that glue connecting them instead of one.

Step 5: Dado Joint

For the dado joint we cut a 1/2" wide by about 1/4" deep into the boards on all the sides where I wanted it to connect.

Step 6: Making the Boxes

When the Dado joints were all done being cut out I continues to glue together the box. Tfrying to get it as close to flush on all sides as possible, so I don't have to do them again.

Step 7: The Buckets

After all the Dado joints were cut I glued together the box that would soon have a lid.

It is enough room for a phone and pencils and maybe even a snack if you want to.

Step 8: Box to Top

Once you cut out the top part and the bottom box is glues all together you have to glue the two parts together to make the half of the desk. You do this twice to both sides and then you are only a few steps away from it being complete.

Step 9: Almost There!

Once the two pieces are glues together just how you would like the only think you have left to do is to make it so the two parts mesh together well enough for it not to move when being used.

Step 10: Conecting the Two.

My way of putting the two parts together was to make dowel pressure joints. So I measured about two inches in from each end and put a mark in these two spots as well as in the middle of these two parks. Next I measured into the middle of the 1/2 board on all the lines and made an X. If don't exactly the same to both sides the two pieces should mesh perfectly and be flush on the top. Even if there are any mistakes the imperfections can always be sanded down to be soothe! For the lids to the buckets I cut two pieces to fit and then cut a small triangle out of one corner of each for someone to grab and lift the top out of. Once everything was done I tried to sand down all the edges and corners so that they weren't sharp and rough. This was the last touch to my project. Staining and painting is up to you.