bed part three.

Further assembling ...

This weekend - much to do (besides bed building). But Sunday afternoon, after lots of weeding, I was able to finally get back to it. Had to do some routing to fit the biscuit joints for the posts and headboard and footboard. On Saturday I got some new bits along with an adjustable guide that just happened to fit my garage-sale router from a few years back. Both the new bit (the one that came with the router burnt the wood) and the guide were priceless - particularly, the guide. So routing out the holes on the posts was pretty easy, but I had to figure out a way to route the ends of the headboard and footboard.

What I ended up doing was to lay down a 2x4 on the garage floor to rest the headboard, then clamped it to my workbench.

Then just took the router along it after drilling with a 1/4" bit (since my router is not a plunge-type).

And wallah - was able to insert a 1/4" biscuit (just some window stop trim I picked up at the Depot) -

So the final joint when assembled looks like this -

No screws. And when glued I think it will be pretty strong. Now I just need to do the same thing for the two siderails so they can fit into the posts as well.

bed part two.

Cutting and start assembling ...

So first things first - carefully read the plans again along with all the additional notes I had made with my changes and then start cutting into the pile of lumber in my garage. This took probably a little over an hour or so and then I had lots of smaller stacks of lumber in my garage -

Really, it only took that long because of a little tip I came across (coincidentally) reading a TOH article online just the other week: install a blocker when cutting multiple pieces of wood the same length like this -

That way, when cutting you can just shove them up against it and cut - identical length, every time. No measuring. Like in the photo above - for the spacers along the tops and bottoms of the headboard and footboard. I also used it for the vertical slats. Worked awesome.

Then I had to figure out how to notch the 2x4s (one of my modifications) so they would bring the siderails out a bit further on the posts. Hmm, what about routing it? I asked myself. So I broke out the router I bought at a garage sale in Tacoma a couple years ago along with a router table I also got at a garage sale to see if it would work.

It worked perfectly - I routed across the 2x4 about 3/4" deep and 3/8" from the edge, using a speed square as a guide. Then just used a chisel to perfectly cut away the notch on the end to complete it. I have to say, sometimes I totally surprise myself - in that this actually worked and fit the length of the 1x6" board I cut perfectly.

And the final result then looks something like this -

Instead of the 1x6 siderail coming to the inside edge of the post.

OK, after patting myself on the back for that little success it was time to begin assembling the headboard and footboard. My goal is to not have to cover up any screw holes (or even nails) so I am using just glue to piece together the headboard and footboard. So first I had to lay it out -

Using a 2x4 as a post to butt the left side up against, and what would be the toprail to butt the top pieces up against, I went to work.

Then I had to glue. And clamp. Luckily the glue said it set in thirty minutes, cos with only four clamps I could only do one side at a time (and the headboard and footboard each took four turns of glueing). Of course a couple days after doing this I was at a local woodworking shop and found a score on four more clamps so I'll be able to work twice as fast glueing from now on. Sweet. Really, it is.

So once all the glue was dry both of them seemed really quite solid. The trouble was, hmm, how to attach them to the posts without using screws. Then it hit me (and again - totally nothing the plan from knockoffwood mentioned). Since I was so successful with the router earlier, I thought - what if I routed out the top of the post on the inside and used a piece of 1x4/1x6 (top/bottom of each) that stuck out longer than the 1/2x4/1x2x6 pieces and basically create a mortise and tenon joint? Duh!

Except ... this idea came to me after all the glue had set, and now I'm not sure if I'll be able to take out the little pieces I put on each end. If not, I can route out a smaller section and use a biscuit joint so I'm not too worried. And yeah - either one will mean no screws!

So next step - sanding and rough assembly. I really am having a blast building this, and I think perhaps that furniture building may become a bit of a habit. Until something goes horribly wrong, of course ...

goodbye.

I noticed this a little while ago and am just posting it here real quick - the local door and trim shop I would go to for trim and where I scored such an awesome deal on all the interior doors for my house is apparently out of business. Damn. I loved the fact it was right down the street, the owner was super-friendly and it wasn't, well, Big Box.

I'll miss it - really.

bed part one.

So here is part one of testing the plans from knockoffwood to build J a new bed ... lumber.

Phwew. I haven't added it up exactly but I think after all was said and done I spent close to $300 in lumber. Bear in mind the bed is $700. So now I have probably close to six hours minimum invested in it just reviewing the plans, picking out lumber at Lowe's, a trip to Tacoma to Gray's Lumber for the harder-to-find stuff and back to Lowe's to return the stuff I got but am not using due to my altering of the plans.

Which are:

• She had the top and bottom rails of the headboard and footboard the same (6"), but I noticed on the Land of Nod bed they are not - so I am going with 4" stock for the top rail and 6" stock for the bottom rail of both
• She had 1x stuff for everything - it makes sense cos it's cheap and easy to find in lots of dimensions (unless you're using harder-to-find or more exotic woods than most of the soft woods and oak or poplar). But I realized that would make the headboard and footboards 2-1/4" deep whereas the siderails were only 3/4". Unacceptable. Also, I thought varying the depths of the wood used for the headboard/footboard would look more aesthetic so I got 1/2" stock for those 4" and 6" top and bottom rails
• She used 4x4" posts for the bed which are hard enough to find. But still after probably half an hour spent combing the pallet of fir 4x4s at Lowe's, I opted going for the much more expensive 3x3 CVG (clear vertical grain) fir posts that Gray's lumber had (@ $3.40-something a foot!) - thankfully I only needed 12'
• She used 2x4s for the crown on the headboard and footboard which to me seems somewhat ghetto - so for relatively cheap I substituted 5/4 CVG fir (only 98¢ a foot) - got 5/4x3 stock to match the 3x3 posts

So wow - a few modifications but I am hoping they will make the bed look a little more classy and not so much the yeah-I-got-a-bunch-of-cheap-lumber-and-threw-together-a-bed sort of look.

Next step: cutting.

furniture building + upgrade.

So I am starting a little project building a bed for Julian. He is excited. So am I. Let's see ... maybe five years or so ago I built a bookshelf which turned out OK but was nothing to really show off. And that rounds out my furniture-building experience.

So this will be an experience in and of itself. I am trying to build this bed -

Based on these plans from the knockoffwood blog. In a full-size. I figure as long as I'm building J a bed, I might as well build one that he can grow into. I don't plan on building him another.

But - this is in preparation for building my own bed which will be a king with a canopy so this is good practice. If it turns out (big 'if') I will be slightly more confident in being able to pull off building a king-sized bed.

Now Ana (the writer of knockoffwood) claims the lumber is fifty bucks. Well, for even the crappiest, knottiest pine it'd cost just a little over a hundred bucks (for a full - and she was quoting for a twin to be fair). However, I'm not really going for the 'rustic' look and want this to look pretty much like the Land of Nod version so I bucked up and got much nicer pine (which was still slightly cheaper than fir, came in more dimensions, and definitely cheaper than hemlock which is still a soft wood). Which cost me about $250 and required trips to a couple different places (Lowe's for the bulk of the nice pine stock and a local lumber yard for some harder-to-find stuff like 3x3 VG fir posts and 1/2x6"x8' stock). I am modifying her plans slightly to make it (IMO) slightly nicer-looking - using 1/2" stock on the headboard and footboard cross-sectional pieces instead of 1" stuff, going to try to notch the 2x4" supports that attach to the inside of the bedrails so the rails attach a little closer to the center of the bedposts, and going from 4x4" to 3x3" posts cos the 4x ones just look too beefy even though I spent about a half-hour combing through the pallet of 4x4 fir posts at Lowe's only to go back and return them. Oh well. I want this to look as nice as possible.

And today I found this great post on a totally different site (but linked from the knockoffwood blog) about how to treat pine prior to staining. Totally pertinent, since I'll be trying to stain pine as dark as the bed in the photo above. We'll see how that works out.

Like I said about this whole project - big 'if.'

But - the reason for this post, not only to mention my plans to build a bed, was to highlight an upgrade I made to my DeWalt 12" compound double-bevel miter saw (wow, that's a mouthfull). Two words: laser sight.

I figured before I start a project like building a bed I owed it to myself to make it a little easier on myself. But after reading that finishing post, now I am realizing I should have splurged for a variable-speed orbital sander (mine's just an orbital - no control of speed) for when it gets to the finishing stages. Hopefully I don't destroy all the pine in the process of sanding.

But - we'll see how this all goes. It'll be fun. If it turns out. The alternative is - if it does not - cutting the legs of J's Ikea loft bed to make it into a twin instead of trying to sell it on craigslist. But in the meantime crossing my fingers ...