Remember the wicked Oeben mechanical desk we showed you back in November? If you don't, let us refresh your memory:

In the original post, we expressed our hope that someone like Brian Grabski would take a crack at recreating the 18th-Century masterpiece. Grabski's a little busy running his own business, but unbeknownst to us, another craftsman had actually decided to recreate Oeben's work.

John J. Leko is an Alabama-based woodworker and furniture builder, a graduate of the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, and is currently pursuing a Fellowship at that school. Last June he had an opportunity to study Oeben's original mechanical desk at L.A.'s Getty Museum, and he's decided to reproduce it for the Fellowship:

His instructors might have said "No," but the Kickstarter community said "Yes": Leko's met his $6,000 target and there's still nine days left to pledge.

Speaking of days, several hundred of them will go by before this fiendishly-complicated project is complete. Leko's anticipating the sheet will come off by July 2014.

Thanks Steven!