[196mary]

Hi, does anyone knowif its possible, or has anyone tried, cutting a jonas desk? I have a space that I want to put a desk into and like the look of the jonas desk. It will also match the other furniture. I want to cut it along it's length and width about 20cm of each), but am not sure if it's possible. I know a lot of ikea furniture is hollow, but is there any way of telling, other than drilling a hole into it? Obviously I can't do that because I don't have one yet. But I don't want to buy one and then find it's not possible.
any help would be aprreciated

[Chuck]

The Jonas desk is made of the dreaded honeycomb material, which makes cutting it not a good idea. As you probably know by now, once you get past the outer couple of inches, you are into the hollow part of the desk - your 20cm deep cuts will remove all of the solid material from those two sides.

[196mary]

oh darn! Been looking in the latest catalogue and spotted a malm dressing tabel. I suppose that's the same honeycomb centre (sounds like a candy bar!) I was wondering how it could be possible to make it work. How about filling the hollow gap with a slab of wood/ply/mdf. I might not get the exact shape needed, but if I could get it so the filling is near the top side of the desk, and the side I chop off, then maybe it would turn out to be more solid than originally. Just a thought.

[Chuck]

If you can find the right material (size, type, etc.) there's no reason why you couldn't "fill" the honeycomb. I once made a coffee table out of a hollow core door, which I cut in half width wise, and then cut notches into two of the edges so I could criss-cross them and make an "X" - I took a piece of 1x3, ripped it to the proper width, glued it into place, and 28 years later,it still works.

Just make sure to use a shape saw blade to cut the table top, as this will help minimize the splintering to the finished aside.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

[196mary]

Hi chuck,
well I pulled out at the last minute. I went to my local store to pick up a jonas desk, but saw that in the bargain corner ( damged, incomplete and returned items) they had a much sturdier looking desk with the top made of solid wood (down from £60 to £12 - double each for dollars.) There was a damaged edge to it, but that was the edge I was going to have to cut off anyway, so I'm well pleasesd with the whole deal.

Back to filling honeycomb - I have an old expedit/lack style bookshelve, and it's going to be removed to make way for the desk. I thought I might put into into the garden shed and use it to keep tools etc on. Now I know it can't take the weight, but I might try sliding a strip of plywood into it and seeing what happens. That way the finish is not too important (who has ikea furniture in their sheds/workshops!)

Has anyone considered pouring something into a honeycomb centre to fill it up. What would happen you you filled it with expanding foam, or maybe cement. You would essentially be using the shell as a cast. It would be much more solid, and you could drill and sink in plastic plugs for screwing the parts together. Just an idea.......