How to Build a Tilt Top Drawing Table

Prop up a clipboard at varying angles until you find the slant that is most comfortable for you. Measure the angle of the clipboard with your protractor. With your elbow protruded at its typical angle when drawing, measure from the tip of the elbow to the center of your chest, then double that measurement -- the table surface should be wide enough you can rest your elbow on it while you work. Measure the vertical distance from the floor to your belly button while you sit at a comfortable height -- that measurement will be the height of the bottom edge of the drawing table surface.

Take out a graph pad and decide on a ratio of real measurement units to graph squares. Take your vertical measurement of the ground to your belly button and divide it by the conversion ratio to obtain a graphed vertical value. Trace a horizontal line near the bottom of the page. Starting from that horizontal line, trace a vertical line upwards to the length of the graphed vertical value. The top point of the vertical line represents the bottom lip of the table. Reproduce the slant of your clipboard, drawing a straight line reflecting that angle from the top point of the vertical line to the edge of the page. Measure out a distance that will translate to a desirable real-life length for the table surface and erase the remainder -- that is the side view of your table top. Draw two pairs of vertical lines, equidistant from each other, coming from the bottom of the table surface to the ground line. Slightly above the ground line, draw another set of parallel horizontal lines representing a stabilizing stud. Draw a front view of the table, reproducing the heights of the ground line, stabilizing stud, low point of the table surface and high point of the table surface. At the ends of the front view stabilizing stud, draw a vertical line to the converted width of two inches. Draw the width of the table slightly wider than your elbow span measurement.

Convert the measurements of the drawn studs into real-world length -- measure the long sides of the table legs. Pair off the two sets of studs and cut them to the lengths of the leg measurements in your drawing. Pair off a third set of studs and cut them to the length of the side stabilizing studs plus 12 inches. Cut a seventh stud to the length of the stabilizing stud in the front view drawing of the table. Pair off the two back-leg studs and the two front-leg studs, stacking them on top of each other. From the top right corner of each stack, reproduce the slant of the table in pencil. Cut along the lines.

Lay a long leg and a short leg side by side, their square ends even and their slanted ends facing in the same direction, and set a stabilizing stud flat atop them at the height prescribed in the side view drawing. Nail the stabilizing stud in place with four nails into each leg. Do the same for the other long and short leg, except with the slants facing in the opposite direction. Set up the two leg pairs with the stabilizers to the inside. Center the final stabilizer between the two side studs with its narrow edge on top; attach it to the side with four nails at each end, driven through the side pieces into the ends of the middle board. The array of legs and stabilizers should look like an "H" if viewed from the top.

Cut your plywood board to the prescribed length and width based on the drawings. Nail the 1-by-1 board at regular intervals along the bottom edge of the table, as a lip on which to rest pens and pencils. Lay the plywood piece flat along the slants of the now-upright legs and nail it into place. Sand the top and edges of the table in tight, circular motions until the surface is smooth to the touch.