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9K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  stefang 
#1 ·
Grandaughter's Bed

Last week I posted this project. At that time I promised a blog-Here it is
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/25569
I'm never quite sure how far to take something like this. There are so many skill levels here on LJs. Your input is always welcome. If I leave out a step that's important to you, tell me. Some of what I show might be very elementary for you. If so, just ignore it. I'm used to it. My family does that all the time. Hopefully, I'll share something that may be worthwhile.

The more you know of me, you'll see that I typically don't use plans. If the project appeals to you, let me know. I can get measurements for you. Unless you are actually going to build this bed, it's probably not relevant anyway. Maybe some of my techniques are. My kids brought me a picture of a bed they liked. It was designed and built by looking at that picture and figuring everything out as I went. I realize most of you consider that to be a dumb way to build anything. You are probably right, but I've always built things this way, and I'm too old to change now. I started with the mattress size. Every other measuement came from that, which brings up a point. Don't most projects start that way. If you do a built-in bookcase for instance, don't you start with the size it must occupy. Kitchen cabinets must fit the space allotted, as well as allowing for appliances. Design may not be as intimidating as some think. Start with what you do know, and other details tend to fall into place. That said, you must constantly be thinking ahead or you could run into serious trouble.
I guess in reality, I do have a plan, I just don't put in on paper. I have a vision in my head--Yeah, it goes with the voices that are there. I have seen numerous architectural drawings that would not work in the actual build, but they sure looked good on paper. I've built several houses that the cabinets had to be redesigned from the plan. OK, maybe it's time to replace the guy drawing all the wothless plans. I say all this simply to give some background of where I'm coming from, not to say everyone should build this way. Most will do a detailed drawing (or SketchUp) before starting. This makes sense, but obviously I didn't do that and this is my blog-LOL

OK-The stuff you really want to see! Of course, I started cutting and glueing up pieces. I needed a consiserable amount of thicker lumber. Since I had a lot of soft maple and poplar left over from various jobs in my door shop, it made more sense to laminate it rather than go out and buy 6/4" lumber. I began to glue-up different size pieces that I would need.

I found this cool glue spreader through my door shop. I don't recall who makes it, but it sure speeds up a big glue project.


This clamp rack, made by Taylor, was used in my door shop before we upgraded to a clamp carrier. It's so handy, I chose to keep it at home rather than sell it.

I tried to glue up all the pieces I would need first, before I began to layout and mill them into the parts I needed. I did the framework first, as it all needed to be thicker pieces. The slats couild wait until I had a better idea what I would need. There was no glue-up to them.
What is it we all say--You can't have too many clamps!

Thats it for now. Next time I'll begin to show how the pieces are layed out and start to come together.
 
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#4 ·
Wow, that's what I call clamps! I'm sure this is going to be a great blog Kent. You don't need excuses about not drawing up a plan. Like you said, the plan is in your head and I guess you make small changes as needed underway. Having worked in the oil industry for quite some time I can tell you that even the most detailed and costly engineering plans get changed a lot underway on every project. Besides, we often come up with unique and interesting ideas that give our projects better appearance, better quality or sometimes better work methods. Though I'm not a good designer I still like the freedom of designing underway just in case inspiration comes knocking at my door.

I mentioned in earlier comments that I could use something like this project as an entry way bench. The place it would sits also needs a good capacity wood box too. I'm hoping your blog might encourage me to think out how these two functions might be combined into one piece. My main hesitation is that a white painted wood box might not be such a great idea with all the logs going in an out of it. Maybe it's just a design problem, but I will be sketching solutions in my head.
 
#6 ·
Greetings Kent:

Hey…. stellar job on the bed for the grandbaby…. It turned out beautiful. She'll sleep good knowing "grandpa" made it for her…. lol. My grandkids really like it,too, when I build them a piece of sometning. Looks like you went down to the store and "robbed" all the clamps out of it…... better put them back, or you won't have any to sell….......... Stellar job… what's your next move? Keep on keeping on…..!
 
#9 ·
Preparing The Parts

As you can easily see, there are a lot of parts to this bed. As shown in the first of the series, I had to glue up quite a few pieces before I really got into anything that resembled a bed. Now I want you to see the pieces, and how some of them are prepped. So far, the order doesn't make a lot of difference, and to be honest, I'm not sure I even remember what order I did some of this. Each part of each section obviously must be made before the section is assembled. Again, keep in mind this project was made from a picture of another bed. Mine is not identical, but is pretty close in a lot of ways. All the proportions were done by eye, based on the picture.

One of the more challenging parts was the top rail on the end sections. After laminating my thickness. I started to shape it. It is coved on the inside toward the mattress, and rounded over, top and bottom. Evidently, I missed taking a picture of the table was set up. You are probably familiar with a cove cutting jig on a table saw. That was the method I used. Basically, you clamp a fence at an angle to the blade, and run the workpiece across the blade. I did this in increments, as it's not safe to take that big a bite in one pass. If you are not clear on this method, and are interested, just tell me. I could recreate that set up and take a picture.

I began to round over the top and bottom by running all four sides over an angled blade on the table saw.
Then I began to shape by hand. This is a pretty inexpensive wooden hand plane I ordered from one of the catalogs. No, all my tools are not high end. I have always loved using this plane since I learned to set it up and use it.


I actually used other planes also, I just didn't take pictures. I'm not too sure at this point that it matters much what kind of plane you shape this with. It was then finished up with sandpaper until it was refined to the point I needed it. There was also an extensive amount of shaping and sanding on the cove that was cut on the table saw. Of course there were saw marks as well as burns. This whole process took quite a bit of time, but I felt the shape really contributed to the overall look of the bed. The roundover could have been done with a router or shaper, but it would be an awefully big bit, so the cost might not have been worth the time saved. This is an instance where hand tools are an excellent way to go. Round scrapers are helpful too.

That's it for now. Be back shortly!
 
#15 ·
More Parts

It's been a while since I posted anything on the day bed I built for my grandaughter. I kinda got sidetracked with other things. Thought I would share some more of the parts used in the bed. This is how I did the routing on the legs. The legs themselves are self-explanatory. Basically, I glued up two pieces to create the thickness I needed. Of course, thicker lumber would obviously work, but I already had 3/4" stock, so it made more sense to use it. Sometimes you can do the glue-up faster than you can make a trip to buy something else, and why spend the money. I may be extravagant on some of my tools, but I'm not totally stupid. If I save on material, that leaves more to support funds for my tool addiction.

I made a template to make the curves with. After bandsawing close to my line, I used the same template to route the final shape. For the most part I was good at taking pictures of each step, but I missed some here. You will have to use your imagination.


I made another template to do the inside routing. It is simpy set in from the outside edge. Then, using a round nose router bit with a template guide on a plunge router, I routed the decorative reccess.

It was a bit tricky to route in the center of the pieces. The router got too far from the edges, so I placed scraps to give support to the router base in the wider parts. This is not shown in the pictures. Now, after all the difficulty doing this, I realized after getting my Torque Work Centre how easy this step could have been.
(I know--Now a word from our sponsor)

The top rail for the back piece is pretty simple. I laid out the shape-freehand. A little jig-sawing and sanding on my Jet spindle sander, and it's ready to go.


I guess that's it for now. Hopefully I didn't loose you. Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask.
 
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