The first step in any project is always lumber selection. This desk will be built with a batch of air dried walnut that is all cut from a single tree. Coming from the same tree, the color match on the boards will be as good as it gets and I can make my selection based on grain and quality. The highest quality boards with the straightest grain is set aside for the desktop. The priority for the rest is based on the visibility of any given surface in the finished piece. The sides of the lower case are the most visible pieces after the top, then the legs and sides of the upper case, and so forth. 

Before cutting anything, I always mark out my pieces. This allows me to select the best piece for each component. I will mark the pieces out oversized for now allowing extra material that will be cut away later. 

Each piece is rough cut to length at the miter saw, but this can also easily be accomplished with a jig saw, circular saw, or had saw. 

Each piece is jointed on one face and one edge at the jointer. 

The second face is planed down, and the pieces are brought down to thickness. 

The final step in material prep is to cut the pieces to rough width. In this case, I am leaving the pieces a little wide until after the panel glue up. 

After finding the best layout and grain orientation for the panel, reference lines are marked for the location of the biscuits. 

In order to eliminate gaps between boards, each set of adjacent boards are folded together like a book and their mating edge is run across the jointer with both pieces still held together. By folding them in on each other like a book, any difference from 90 degrees that the jointer fence may have will be offset on the second piece. 

Once the edges are in good condition and gap free, the biscuits can be cut in. This is done purely for alignment of the boards and can be done with biscuits, dowels, dominoes, or not at all. 

I like to use these panel clamps for panel glue ups whenever I can since they do a great job keeping everything flat. I will use one on each side, and fill in with other clamps as needed. I find that they work best if they are also clamped to the boards  along the sides. 

After the glue up one edge  of each panel is cleaned up with a circular saw. This will provide a good reference surface that can be run against the table saw fence. 

The second edge is then cut at the table saw. 

The panel is made square and cut to size using a cross cut sled on the table saw.

The panels are all cleaned up with a couple passes through the drum sander. This is not a necessary step, but it does help if you are able to do it. 

Before laying out any of the joinery, each piece is labeled with its location and orientation. This just helps to keep all of the many similar looking pieces organized, and also identifies the outside surfaces of each panel so that joints aren't cut backwards. 

I use a marking gauge set to the thickness of the pin boards to mark all the way around the tail boards. This is only done on the tail boards at this time. 

To make things a little easier, I use a dado stack to cut a shallow rabbet on the inside surface of the tailboard joints. I use the mark from the marking gauge to set the distance to the fence. 

The next step is to determine the best size for the tails. I do this by walking a pair of dividers back and forth across the end of the board. This takes several attempts before I can find the exact right size. Small adjustments to the dividers make a big difference when you are walking them across a dozen tails. On the final pass I make sure to leave a mark each time the dividers "step". 

Next, I will use a marking knife to extend the line across the end of the board. You can also mark this with a pencil, but a knife line is much more accurate. Fortunately, if these cuts aren't as accurate as you want, it won't matter once you transfer those marks to the pins as long as your cuts are square. 

I use the 1:8 side of a dovetail guide to bring the lines down to the shoulder established with the marking gauge. I always make sure to also mark my waste so that it is clear where I should be cutting. 

I prefer to use a Japanese style dovetail saw to cut dovetails, but this is strictly personal preference. The key to cutting a good joint is to take it slow, pay attention to your body mechanics, and don't try to push the saw down. Let gravity do that for you. I also prefer cutting inside the waste side of the line and cleaning up the cut with chisels later. I like the cleaner surface you get from a chisel versus saw marks. 

The bulk of the waste is removed with a coping saw. 

The waste on the ends is cut off with the dovetail saw

The remainder of the waste is removed with a chisel. Depending on how close to the line the waste was cut, this can take some time. You can't be too aggressive with the chisel. I always work my way back to the shoulder mark in halves. I try to place the chisel halfway back, then half way through what is left, and so on, until I can't help but to be on the scribe mark. I also only chisel down half way through the board. 

With one side cleaned up, the board is flipped over and the process is repeated on the other side. This side is made easier wit the shoulder cleanly established by the rabbet. 

The final bit of waste is removed across the inside of the tails by very slowly paring back to the knife marks. A backer board is necessary to prevent the grain from blowing out on the back side.

After all of the tails are cleaned up, the shoulders on the pin boards can be scribed by setting the marking gauge to the thickness of the tails. Then the tail pin board is placed in the vice and the tailboard aligned on top. The rabbets also help here by providing a hard stop registration against the board. Once the boards are properly aligned, the tails can be marked out on the pin board. This is once again done with a knife for precision. 

The pin marks are then transferred down the sides to the shoulder scribe line with a small square.

Here you can see how clearly I mark my waste before cutting. I will repeat the same process as with cutting the tails, except that the important thing here is to cut straight down. I will also cut on the waste side of the line leaving a little bit to be cleaned up with chisels later. 

Just like with the tail boards, the waste is cleaned up with chisels.

After the joints are cut I always dry fit each joint very carefully. I tend to cut my joints a little tight and very often find spots that need to be cleaned up. If I drive the joints together too hard, the boards can split relatively easily. 

And finally, a dry fit of the entire lower case!