x-no-archive:yes
Thinking about atempting to copy one of these to build for my sons
room.
http://www.furnishingsontheweb.com/NoFrame/Items/027123nf.html
Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of? Would it be strong enough
to hold the metal bed frame?
How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
match the rest of the bed.
Also, been re thinking the free wood idea. (My white oak). WOuld it be
batter to buy red oak boards from home depot or something? Is white oak
hard to work with and stain? Seems like in the back of my mind there
was something I read about white oak staining unevenly. Not sure if
that is true.
On the bed I would mortise and tennon all the board attached to the
posts and glue everything real good. Planed on making the frame out of
angle iron and welding togther.
Thanks for your help!
x-no-archive:yes
Wife wants a light oak stain for the sons room.
Can simply gluing the top sill to the hollow post be acceptable? What
if I mortise and tennon the posts?
What I meant was I cant find white oak posts.
Can you tell if this wood I have is white oak:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ashleedalton/album?.dir=7d65&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
No one can give me a definitive answr.
Also, as you can see those boards are not long enough for my sill
plate. How can I get by that?
Thanks!
dadiOH wrote:
> stryped wrote:
>
> > Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the edges of the plywood
> > and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of?
>
> Yes. But the ply edges would show. A better way is fasten inset glue
> strips along both inside edges of two pieces and glue up all four pieces
> so there is a square, empty area along all four edges...then fill the
> empty part with solid wood.
> ___________
>
> > Would it be strong enough
> > to hold the metal bed frame?
>
> Yes. It would hold up100s of them. Maybe 1000s.
> ____________
>
> > How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
>
> One way...put a wood plug in the top of each "post" and screw to that.
> Or let the plug or portion thereof stand proud and glue into a mortice
> in the top piece.
> ____________
>
> > The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
> > match the rest of the bed.
>
> 1. Lumberyard
>
> 2. Make your own by gluing up thinner boards
> ______________
>
> > Also, been re thinking the free wood idea. (My white oak). WOuld it be
> > batter to buy red oak boards from home depot or something?
>
> White oak is a much nicer wood than red. YMMV
> _____________
>
> > Is white
> > oak hard to work with and stain?
>
> White oak is a nice wood to work with as long as you have sharp tools.
>
> Why do you have this fixation on staining? Why use nice wood then cover
> up its natural color with <ugh> stain?
>
> --
> dadiOH
> ____________________________
>
> dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
> ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
> LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
> Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
>Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
>and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of?
If you do that, you'll see at least part of the plywood edges. You
could miter the four sides, but that will be tough to get perfect, and
the corners will be ultra-delecate. Usually, people lightly chamfer
the corners of posts like that to prevent them from denting. You
wouldn't be able to do that in this case. If I were to make this, I
would do one of these three things:
I would go out and buy some nice quarter-sawn white oak and resaw them
down to 1/8" thick boards, then cut some birch ply and but joint them
in the corners with biscuits, then glue the oak veneers on.
Or, I would just build the posts as you desribe out of 3/4" oak boards,
but miter them somehow, maybe with one of those cool router bits that
make interlocking miters.
Or I would glue up some 3/4" boards to make a larger board. In this
case, you could also veneer some 1/8" quarter-sawn to the sides that
don't have the medulary ray patern. That would also hide the fact that
it's a glue-up.
>Would it be strong enough
>to hold the metal bed frame?
I think a plywood box would do just fine assuming you can anchor the
bed hardware securely.
>How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
Biscuits? That would attach it securely and avoid screws or something.
Or you could just screw though the face, counter-sink them, then plug
the holes with something that looks nice, like ebony squares or just
plain oak plugs. Then endgrain of the plugs will stand out and make a
good accent.
>The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
>match the rest of the bed.
Any hardwood lumber supplier could probably find 8/4 or 12/4 oak, but
that would be ultra expensive. And if you were trying to get the cool
quarter-sawn pattern, you would only have it on two sides. Option 3
above would fix that.
>Also, been re thinking the free wood idea. (My white oak). WOuld it be
>batter to buy red oak boards from home depot or something? Is white oak
>hard to work with and stain? Seems like in the back of my mind there
>was something I read about white oak staining unevenly. Not sure if
>that is true.
As far as working is concerned, I doubt white would be any different
from red. (although I've only ever used red). Just make sure you use
the same type for the whole bed. I wouldn't by anything other than
plywood from home depot. You'll get a far better product for less
money if you buy rough-sawn lumber yourself, even if you get them to
plane and joint it for you.
I think oak stains nicely and easily. It is open-grained though so if
you're after a glass-smooth finish, you'll have to fill the pores. If
it were me, I would go after a mission type finish and use quartersawn
white oak.
>On the bed I would mortise and tennon all the board attached to the
>posts and glue everything real good. Planed on making the frame out of
>angle iron and welding togther.
mortise and tennon the foot board to its two posts. The same for the
headboard. For the rails, make them out of oak to match and buy bed
hardware from lee valley or somewhere similar. You'll be able to
disassemble the bed, the hardware is hidden, and it;s plenty strong.
It's an ambitious project for a beginner. But you can do it. Go slow.
My first project was a 3' diamter table for the little kids to eat at
in the kitchen. I made it out of poplar with bench top tools and set
16 tiles with fish on them into the top. Painted blue. The family is
still using it and they think it's great. Every time I look at it, I
see all the mistakes I made.
The second project I made was a canopy bed, painted pink, made from
s-dry cedar. It didn't warp and turned out great. My only mistake on
that one was that I cut these keyhole shaped things in the posts and
used nuts and bolts to secure the rails to the head and foot boards.
Eventually, they worked loose. To hold up the mattress and box
spring, I screwed a 2x4 to the rails. The screws pulled out of one of
them. If I were to do it again, I would use the bed hardware instead
of the bolts and probably route a dado down the rails, then put a
piece of wood in teh dado as a shelf for the box spring.
brian
>No one can give me a definitive answr.
It's real hard to tell in person, even harder from pictures.
>Also, as you can see those boards are not long enough for my sill
>plate. How can I get by that?
You could try to cook up some sort of interesting joint. Or maybe some
decroative piece in the center or something. You won't be able to hide
it though. I would go out and gets boards that are long enough from a
lumber yard.
brian
x-no-archive:yes
Thinking of purchaseing a small table top planer and jointer.if I have
to plane/joint all this lumber, would the planer last? (Or jointer).
How often do you have to change blades in those things?
By the way, I am a newbie to woorworking. If I decide to just use solid
wood wood to make a box for the posts and just use glue to glue it
together with a dado, is that acceptable?
Also, how do I tell if my lumber is quarter sawn and what are the
advantages of that?
Thanks!
Leuf wrote:
> On 8 Feb 2006 07:07:39 -0800, "brianlanning" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >>Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
> >>and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of?
> >
> >If you do that, you'll see at least part of the plywood edges. You
> >could miter the four sides, but that will be tough to get perfect, and
> >the corners will be ultra-delecate. Usually, people lightly chamfer
> >the corners of posts like that to prevent them from denting. You
> >wouldn't be able to do that in this case.
>
> You could wrap the plywood with 3/4" oak, get quartersawn for 2 sides
> and flatsawn for the other 2. If you have a good color match and put
> the joint on the quartersawn sides it should be hard to spot the
> joint, and it'll be a lot easier than trying to miter the corners.
> You could then do whatever edge treatment on the corners you like.
> You can probably even skip the inner plywood. But you're probably
> going to have to go to a real lumberyard to get the quartersawn
> anyway, unless you get lucky in the home depot stacks, so if they have
> a suitable post you may as well save yourself the trouble.
>
> In the picture in the link it doesn't look like they are solid posts
> to me. You can see the post on the right has flatsawn grain which
> doesn't go all the way to the right edge, so my guess is they used
> butt jointed flatsawn wood in the original. It could be an illusion
> from the compression of the image though.
>
>
> -Leuf
x-no-archive:yes
I am new o this. WHen you say top coated to you mean a clear top coat,
such as polyurathane? How does white oak look like this?
Also, that wood I recieved for free was from a florring company. It is
rough cut wood before being cut and planed. (But has been kiln dried).
I think I heard it was either number one or two. Would it still look ok
top coated or stained? What if I had to buy some wood that was FAS?
would the two different typed look good together?
Thanks!
>Thinking of purchaseing a small table top planer and jointer.if I have
>to plane/joint all this lumber, would the planer last?
Bench top planers are fairly good. Benchtop jointers are really bad.
For both, you'll want dust collection so make sure there's a hood. For
the smaller machines, a shop vac would probably work. I used both
without dust collection and was able to get by. One of the planers
comes with a fan I think that helps with chip extraction. The delta
benchtop jointer is a good example of what not to get. You'll have a
hard time jointing anything longer than about 4' with it. Instead, I'd
get one of the floor standing jointers from grizzly. The longer the
tables the better.
>If I decide to just use solid
>wood wood to make a box for the posts and just use glue to glue it
>together with a dado, is that acceptable?
You could rebate (pronounced rabbit) the sides, a dado would be down
the center of the board. Yellow wood glue would work just fine.
Technically, you don't really need even the rebate. Since it's long
grain to long grain, the joint would be plenty strong just with glue
assuming the boards were flat and you clamped correctly. The boards
will move around on you that way though so it will be hard to keep them
flush. Most people use something like a biscuit jointer to help line
things up. You could also cut square end blocks to help hold things in
alignment.
>Also, how do I tell if my lumber is quarter sawn
Look at the end grain on the boards. If they're curved like a happy or
frowny face, it's flat sawn. If the grain lines go (mostly) up and
down perpendicular to the face of the board, it's quartersawn.
>and what are the advantages of that?
Generally, in any wood, quartersawn wood will be more stable. Flatsawn
wood has the tendancy to cup. If you look at the smily-face pattern in
the end grain, the end of the board will make a frowny-face pattern
down the length of the board. The amount of cup will vary by species,
tree, humidity, and moisture content. Quartersawn white oak is special
though in that it makes these light colored stripes that run roughly
across the grain on the face of the board. The picture of the bed you
provided looks like the mission style (although with the wrong finish)
which was famous for using this type of wood. Go a google search for
mission style furniture or medulary (sp?) rays. You'll see what I'm
talking about. The side of the boards don't show this, only the face,
which is why a solid 12/4 post or glue-up would have that pattern only
on two sides. Red oak doesn't have this ray pattern. Quartersawn wood
is generally significantly more expensive that flatsawn wood since
there's more waste for the lumber mill.
brian
You could screw through the bottom of the feet into the 3/4" boards on
the post. You could also make a plywood square to fill the hole at the
end of the post. I would use pocket hole screws to hold it in place.
Then you could screw through the foot into that. Or, if you have a
biscuit jointer, you could put biscuits in the bottom of the post and
the top of the foot, then glue it in place. Or you could put a
glueblock inside the post near the top of the post, the run a bolt
through the foot. If you glue right to the end grain on the bottom of
the post without a dowel or biscuit or something, the end grain will
soak up the glue before it dries starving the joint. I think the
chemical reaction in the glue doesn't work well with end grain also.
Anyway, the end result is that the joint will be really weak and the
feet will break off easily.
If it were me, I'd opt for the glue-up of 3/4" boards. That way it
would behave like a real 12/4 board when you go to cut the mortises or
install the bed hardware. It will be a lot heavier though which is
good or bad depending on your perspective. If I were concerned about
the medulary rays, I'd cut a 1/8" veneer and glue that to the sides.
I'd probably put the foot on with biscuits or maybe a short tennon.
brian
x-no-archive:yes
Having a hard time understangin. I am talking about how the horizontal
long pieces the slates go into. How will that board attach to a hollow
corner post? Typically these are tennons but that wont work into the
side of the hollow post, right?
brianlanning wrote:
> You could screw through the bottom of the feet into the 3/4" boards on
> the post. You could also make a plywood square to fill the hole at the
> end of the post. I would use pocket hole screws to hold it in place.
> Then you could screw through the foot into that. Or, if you have a
> biscuit jointer, you could put biscuits in the bottom of the post and
> the top of the foot, then glue it in place. Or you could put a
> glueblock inside the post near the top of the post, the run a bolt
> through the foot. If you glue right to the end grain on the bottom of
> the post without a dowel or biscuit or something, the end grain will
> soak up the glue before it dries starving the joint. I think the
> chemical reaction in the glue doesn't work well with end grain also.
> Anyway, the end result is that the joint will be really weak and the
> feet will break off easily.
>
> If it were me, I'd opt for the glue-up of 3/4" boards. That way it
> would behave like a real 12/4 board when you go to cut the mortises or
> install the bed hardware. It will be a lot heavier though which is
> good or bad depending on your perspective. If I were concerned about
> the medulary rays, I'd cut a 1/8" veneer and glue that to the sides.
> I'd probably put the foot on with biscuits or maybe a short tennon.
>
> brian
Ah. sorry, i misunderstood. Yeah, it would make the mortise situation
a little less than ideal. I think it would work, but you'd only have
the bottom 3/4" of the tennon glued with the rest of the tennon hanging
in mid air. Chances are, this would be enough. But it would be safer
to glue up boards and have a solid post. Alternatively, you could get
a small oak block, sized to fit, and glue it inside the post right
where you want to put the mortises. That would work well.
How are you going to cut the mortises for the spindles?
brian
I'd say one set of knives will easily get you through the project
unless you hit a nail or otherwise nick the blades. I sold my bench
top jointer before I ever changed the knives. I'm also still on my
original set of planer knives. I've done maybe four projects with
rough sawn lumber. I've been doing a lot of casework lately with
plywood so no planer useage.
It's hard to say how many boards you can send through since it depends
on the length, width, harness, grittiness, knots, luck, and other
factors. I wouldn't worry about it for a few projects at least. Many
people have considered the cost of rough-sawn vs s4s while also
considering the cost of new blades or sharpening. Suffice it to say
that it's easily worth it to plane your own rough sawn lumber.
Especially since you also get the abiity to fine-tune the thickness of
boards. Also if you resaw, you'll want to run the resawn boards
through the planer afterwards assuming they're not too thin. And you
can correct boards that cupped, bowed, or warped after the lumber yard
planed them. You can also end up with thicker boards. Some mills will
take 4/4 stock and plane it straight to 3/4". If you got that same
stock and it was relatively flat already, you may end up with boards
that are 7/8" when you're done. You could also resaw them in the rough
to reduce waste.
Number 2 refers to how many defects there are in the wood like knots or
checks or weird grain. If you like the looks of the wood, use it. Who
cares how they graded it. It will have virtually no affect on the
planer unless you hit a knot.
The machines will probably come with high speed steel knives, which are
sharper but dull faster. You can get carbide blades for most any
machine. They're a lot harder and will stay slightly less sharp for a
lot longer, but are more expensive. Of course, if you hit some metal
or grit, all bets are off regardless. I decided to stay with hss
knives and get the planer knife jig for my tormek which I haven't tried
yet.
brian
x-no-archive:yes
I am new to this and have never cut a mortise. Was thinking of using my
router table and a straight bit.
What do you think?
I like the idea of all the boards glued togther but I dont have alot of
equipment yet and am afraid of not getting the boards exactly right in
the width which would not look right makeing a solid post. Not sure
though.
brianlanning wrote:
> Ah. sorry, i misunderstood. Yeah, it would make the mortise situation
> a little less than ideal. I think it would work, but you'd only have
> the bottom 3/4" of the tennon glued with the rest of the tennon hanging
> in mid air. Chances are, this would be enough. But it would be safer
> to glue up boards and have a solid post. Alternatively, you could get
> a small oak block, sized to fit, and glue it inside the post right
> where you want to put the mortises. That would work well.
>
> How are you going to cut the mortises for the spindles?
>
> brian
>I am new to this and have never cut a mortise. Was thinking of using my
>router table and a straight bit.
>What do you think?
A lot of people use routers to make mortises. I have a mortiser which
I usually use although I'm considering making my own multi-router type
machine. If you use the router, you'll have rounded mortises, so
you'll either have to square the mortises to match the tennons or round
the tennons which is easier I think. You may want to do it the other
way around though. Clamp the post down and use a plunge router
freehand with an aux fence attached to the router.
>I like the idea of all the boards glued togther but I dont have alot of
>equipment yet and am afraid of not getting the boards exactly right in
>the width which would not look right makeing a solid post. Not sure
>though.
Do you have a table saw? You set it up once, then run all the boards
through. The width should be the same.
You could also make a sled that sets the width of board, then use a
flush cut router bit with a bearing to flush-cut all the boards. That
would make them identical also.
You should also cut the boards slightly wide, then run the glueup
through the jointer and planer again. That should make the sides
perfect.
brian
>I am new to this and have never cut a mortise. Was thinking of using my router table and a straight bit. What do you think?
A plunge router with a spiral upcut bit would be easier in my opinion.
Or using a drill press with a forstner bit, then chiseling it square.
I think I just saw a book with 12 ways to cut mortise and tenon joints,
or something like that, so there definitely is not just one right way
to do it. I'd strongly suggest getting a couple books on general
woodworking, power tool joinery, wood basics, finishing, etc., and then
posting here with more specific questions. It's difficult for people
to respond when a thread kind of turns and gets on a different subject
than it began, and after you've looked through some books, you can ask
questions here that would probably be more helpful to you, and you can
make more informed tool purchases. One good general book that I
strongly recommend is "The Complete Book of Woodworking: Detailed Plans
for More Than 40 Fabulous Projects" - the hardcover isn't available on
Amazon any more, but paperback is. This book really got me started in
woodworking - good background info on wood, joints, finishing, etc.,
and some fairly detailed plans. Tage Frid's 3-volume set is also
very good, and though it's expensive, it might be available at your
library. Definitely worth looking at.
Good luck,
Andy
>If that worries you the entire project is too much to undertake before
>you gain some experience.
I agree. It sounds to me like he doesn't have a table saw either since
that machine makes his worry trivial. Still, I made a twin sized
canopy bed as my second project with bench top tools. It was painted
though which hides a lot of sins.
brian
x-no-archive:yes
I have a very small bench top table saw, a delta miter saw, a small
ryobi router table. Thinking of buying a planer and maybe a jointer. My
problem is just lask of ecperience on alot of these. (I just got a few
of them)
brianlanning wrote:
> >If that worries you the entire project is too much to undertake before
> >you gain some experience.
>
> I agree. It sounds to me like he doesn't have a table saw either since
> that machine makes his worry trivial. Still, I made a twin sized
> canopy bed as my second project with bench top tools. It was painted
> though which hides a lot of sins.
>
> brian
x-no-archive:yes
But I need one straigth edge on the boards I have which I dont have
currently. Also, it is hard to cross cut the end of a long board.
brianlanning wrote:
> Even a benchtop table saw should be able to make repeatable cuts on
> boards mayb 4" wide and 3' long. I doubt you'll have problems with
> that.
>
> brian
>But I need one straigth edge on the boards I have which I dont have
>currently
If you get the jointer, use that. otherwise, a router with a flush cut
bit and something that's straight enough, like the factory edge on
plywood.
>Also, it is hard to cross cut the end of a long board
If you set your miter saw on the floor, I bet you'll find that the
table is 3.5" high, exactly the width of a 2x4 you can put under your
board to support it.
brian
stryped wrote:
> x-no-archive:yes
>
> I am new o this. WHen you say top coated to you mean a clear top coat,
> such as polyurathane?
Yes
___________
How does white oak look like this?
A pretty medium brown. About the color of the bed you linked to
originally. Try it and see, sand first. Or just sand a chunk and spit
on it.
_____________
> Also, that wood I recieved for free was from a florring company. It is
> rough cut wood before being cut and planed. (But has been kiln dried).
> I think I heard it was either number one or two. Would it still look
> ok top coated or stained?
The grade of wood has no particular effect on how it looks when
finished. All it indicates is the quantity of clear wood that can be
cut from a particular piece. The lower the grade the less clear wood;
i.e., the more knots, splits, etc. One can save considerable $$ buy
buying lower grades unless lots of big, clear pieces are needed;
normally, that isn't the case.
______________
> What if I had to buy some wood that was FAS?
> would the two different typed look good together?
Again, grade has no effect on how it is going to look. There is
variation in how different pieces of wood will look even if they come
from the same tree; however, one piece of white oak will be similar to
another regardless of grade. BTW, unless you need two clear sides,
"select" is a better buy than FAS.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
stryped wrote:
> x-no-archive:yes
>
> Wife wants a light oak stain for the sons room.
Does wife have the foggiest idea of what white oak looks like when
topcoated but not stained???? Show her.
_______________
> Can simply gluing the top sill to the hollow post be acceptable?
No
_________________
> What
> if I mortise and tennon the posts?
Yes, same as making a plug into a mortice. Either way would reguire
considerable precision and you are probably better off by
gluing/screwing a piece of solid wood into the top of each post and
attahing the top piece with screws/glue into that.
___________________
> What I meant was I cant find white oak posts.
One can buy 12/4, 16/4 white oak. Or make it.
__________________
> Can you tell if this wood I have is white oak:
> No one can give me a definitive answr.
I can't either from the pictures but it looks like it. You can tell
yourself by putting some paint on an end...does the paint get sucked up?
Red oak. You could damn near drink lemonade through a piece of red oak.
_____________________
> Also, as you can see those boards are not long enough for my sill
> plate. How can I get by that?
Uhhhh...use two pieces? You could scarf them together but the grain
will never look quite right. Other possibilities...
1. Buy a couple of longer pieces
2. Make a bunch of short pieces all the same thickness & width and glue
them up randomly into one. It will look hodgepodge but a *planned*
hodgepodge. Not beautiful but not unattractive either.
3. Modify the Mission design a bit by adding another "post" in the
center of both foot and headboards. Make it bigger than the posts in
those pieces but smaller(?) than the end ones. Then cap the head/foot
boards with two pieces with a somewhat thicker piece the size of the
post in the middle. Ditto to a thicker piece above each outboard post.
IOW, make it look like the top rails go *into* the posts rather than
cover them.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
stryped wrote:
> Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the edges of the plywood
> and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of?
Yes. But the ply edges would show. A better way is fasten inset glue
strips along both inside edges of two pieces and glue up all four pieces
so there is a square, empty area along all four edges...then fill the
empty part with solid wood.
___________
> Would it be strong enough
> to hold the metal bed frame?
Yes. It would hold up100s of them. Maybe 1000s.
____________
> How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
One way...put a wood plug in the top of each "post" and screw to that.
Or let the plug or portion thereof stand proud and glue into a mortice
in the top piece.
____________
> The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
> match the rest of the bed.
1. Lumberyard
2. Make your own by gluing up thinner boards
______________
> Also, been re thinking the free wood idea. (My white oak). WOuld it be
> batter to buy red oak boards from home depot or something?
White oak is a much nicer wood than red. YMMV
_____________
> Is white
> oak hard to work with and stain?
White oak is a nice wood to work with as long as you have sharp tools.
Why do you have this fixation on staining? Why use nice wood then cover
up its natural color with <ugh> stain?
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
In article <[email protected]>,
"stryped" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thinking about atempting to copy one of these to build for my sons
> room.
>
> http://www.furnishingsontheweb.com/NoFrame/Items/027123nf.html
>
> Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
> and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of? Would it be strong enough
> to hold the metal bed frame?
I made a bed that was quite similar to this one last year. I put up
some photos of the process of building it here:
http://www.object-craft.com.au/~bgg/Bed-building-project
I wouldn't use plywood, beds get stresses and strains from all sorts of
unconventional angles (if they're being used correctly) so strength is
important.
I didn't use a planer or a jointer, I don't have either of those -- I
must be old-fashioned or something. I adjusted my plans to use the
sizes of finished timber that I bought. I cut the mortices and tenons
using my hand router and a mallet and chisel. Finish was boiled linseed
oil, cheap, easy to apply and (perhaps most importantly) forgiving if
final adjustments need to be made.
The head and foot of the bed are joined to the supporting rails using
bed bolts (from Rockler). They are extremely strong and the bed doesn't
creak even under, um, serious use ...
Ben.
In article <[email protected]>,
"stryped" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I like that do you have plans or the dimensions of the bed? What did
> you use for posts?
[I tried e-mailing a reply to you but it bounced]
I do have plans but they're on my computer at home. Send me your e-mail
address and I'll forward a copy.
For the posts, I used some local hardwood, Victorian Ash (a eucalypt
variety), which I bought milled to about 90x44mm (I think, it's all on
the plans). They have prove to be more than strong enough, and we've
been using the bed for over a year.
The wood cost me about A$400 (~US$300). Most of that was on the rails
which were hopelessly over-engineered, they simply will never have to
take the load which they are could bear unless I have some sort of Roman
orgy with most of our suburb attending. I think my wife would have
something to say about that, and it wouldn't be "goodness dear, aren't
the rails holding up well".
Can I also say that the bed bolts are great. When I was doing research
for the project, I found somewhere on the web which said that the
combination of a mortice and tenon joint bolted together is one of the
strongest joints in woodworking. It is unbelievably strong and hasn't
shifted an iota since we put the bed up.
Here's a link:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=12&SearchHandle=DADBDADFDADADDDGD
DDFGCDIDGDFDAGBCNDDDGDJDJCNDEGGGDGBCNGBDGDIGFCNGDGBDBGCGBDADAGEGBGFDCGFDA
DADADBDADADADADIGCGFGECAGCGPGMHEDADADADEDADADADADADADADBDFDADADADBDADADAD
ADADADADADADADADADBDADADADADIGCGFGECAGCGPGMHEDADADADBDB&filter=bed%20bolt
Ben.
On 8 Feb 2006 10:40:28 -0800, "stryped" <[email protected]> wrote:
>x-no-archive:yes
>
>Thinking of purchaseing a small table top planer and jointer.if I have
>to plane/joint all this lumber, would the planer last? (Or jointer).
>How often do you have to change blades in those things?
>
>By the way, I am a newbie to woorworking. If I decide to just use solid
>wood wood to make a box for the posts and just use glue to glue it
>together with a dado, is that acceptable?
If you don't joint and plane the lumber yourself it's going to have
warped somewhat by the time you've gotten it. So you just need help
getting it lined up, the glue joint by itself as all the strength you
need. You'll definitely have an easier time if you run dados
(actually a rabbet, a dado is a groove running against the grain) on
the edge, or use a biscuit joiner. You'll need LOTS of clamps though.
Do a dry fit before you put any glue on anything.
>Also, how do I tell if my lumber is quarter sawn and what are the
>advantages of that?
Basically they are just cut from the log differently. What would be
the face of a flatsawn board is the edge of the quatersawn board and
vice versa. So the edge of the flatsawn board will be very similar to
the face of the quartersawn board, and the grain will be basically
straight so it will match better.
http://www.loyalistforest.com/?page=quartersawn_whiteoak
-Leuf
stryped wrote:
> I like the idea of all the boards glued togther but I dont have alot
> of equipment yet and am afraid of not getting the boards exactly
> right in the width which would not look right makeing a solid post.
If that worries you the entire project is too much to undertake before
you gain some experience.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
"stryped" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> x-no-archive:yes
>
> Thinking about atempting to copy one of these to build for my sons
> room.
>
> http://www.furnishingsontheweb.com/NoFrame/Items/027123nf.html
>
> Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
> and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of? Would it be strong enough
> to hold the metal bed frame?
If you plan on using bed rail hardware that is mortised into the posts
(allows for the rails to be disconnected from the head/footboard) this might
present a problem. Do you plan on having these detachable?
see: http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3269
> How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
All the more reason to use solid posts.
>
> The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
> match the rest of the bed.
You could use 12/4 oak or you could use 12/4 ash (almost indistinguishable
IMHO). You could also glue up in laminations 5/4 or 4/4 to your required
thickness.
Here is a great link for making a similar bed:
http://www.uniqueprojects.com/projects/other/missionbed/missionbed1.htm
Also you can take a look at the one I made for ideas?
http://www.garagewoodworks.com/Missionbed.htm
--
Stoutman
http://www.garagewoodworks.com
(Featuring a NEW look)
"stryped" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> x-no-archive:yes
>
>Snip
>
> Could I build each post out of plywood?
Yes.
Dado the endges of the plywood
> and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of? Would it be strong enough
> to hold the metal bed frame?
If the hardware attaches with screws they will most likely strip out sooner
than later.
> How would the top "sill" board attach to the hollow box?
Put a solid plug in the top of the bed post and dowel the top rail from the
bottom into the post plug.
>
> The problem is, I dont know where I could find a solid oak post to
> match the rest of the bed.
Most good lumber yards will have solid oak posts however it would be cheaper
to glue up 5 or 6 1x4's to form your own post.
>
> Also, been re thinking the free wood idea. (My white oak). WOuld it be
> batter to buy red oak boards from home depot or something?
Home Depot is probably going to be the most expensive place to buy hard
wood, most any thing for that matter.
Is white oak
> hard to work with and stain?
No.
Seems like in the back of my mind there
> was something I read about white oak staining unevenly. Not sure if
> that is true.
If you are working with Quarter sawn white oak the flecs tend to appear a
bit lighter than the rest of the wood. IMHO that is a good thing.
On 8 Feb 2006 07:07:39 -0800, "brianlanning" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>>Could I build each post out of plywood? Dado the endges of the plywood
>>and glueing togther to form a "box" sort of?
>
>If you do that, you'll see at least part of the plywood edges. You
>could miter the four sides, but that will be tough to get perfect, and
>the corners will be ultra-delecate. Usually, people lightly chamfer
>the corners of posts like that to prevent them from denting. You
>wouldn't be able to do that in this case.
You could wrap the plywood with 3/4" oak, get quartersawn for 2 sides
and flatsawn for the other 2. If you have a good color match and put
the joint on the quartersawn sides it should be hard to spot the
joint, and it'll be a lot easier than trying to miter the corners.
You could then do whatever edge treatment on the corners you like.
You can probably even skip the inner plywood. But you're probably
going to have to go to a real lumberyard to get the quartersawn
anyway, unless you get lucky in the home depot stacks, so if they have
a suitable post you may as well save yourself the trouble.
In the picture in the link it doesn't look like they are solid posts
to me. You can see the post on the right has flatsawn grain which
doesn't go all the way to the right edge, so my guess is they used
butt jointed flatsawn wood in the original. It could be an illusion
from the compression of the image though.
-Leuf