| Project by brownmd | posted 843 days ago | 1495 views | 5 times favorited | 5 comments |  |
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So here is the bed I finally finished after a bit over a year. I built it in the corner of my bedroom, using almost exclusively hand tools (though I did end up using a circular saw to cut the plywood). It was a lot of fun, made a huge mess of the apartment, cost more and took a lot longer than expected. But in the end, I’m pretty happy with the results.
It’s pretty sturdy, with 4 inch posts, two inch thick rails with 3/4” plywood panels. No box spring, just wooden slats for support. It’s all mortise and tenons cut by hand, and the grooves for the panels cut with a wooden plough plane. It’s built from clear hemlock, with birch plywood for the panels. Finishing involved smoothing it up with my newly acquired Stanley #4, followed by a couple coats of Charles Neil’s new (well, when I got it it was pretty new) blotch control prestain conditioner. Stained with General Finishes Cinnamon stain (water based). Finally covered with a few coats of GF satin poly.
My wife is very happy with it, but possibly even happier to have her bedroom back. Now for some nightstands…. ;-)
I’ve got a few in progress pictures somewhere, I’ll try and find them and post them.
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5 comments so far
Beginningwoodworker
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13225 posts in 1845 days
#1 posted 843 days ago
Nice looking bed.
-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker
Marc5
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301 posts in 1514 days
#2 posted 842 days ago
Looks good. What did you think of the conditioner?
-- Marc
bvdon
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#3 posted 842 days ago
Looks great. Let me get this straight… you built the bed in your bedroom????
-- http://woodwork.me
brownmd
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17 posts in 1226 days
#4 posted 842 days ago
Marc – I was actually incredibly impressed with the conditioner. It came out much better than I had hoped for. I’ll try and put some pictures up of the bed in the daylight, but it really is impressive how even the color came out. The sample boards I did without the conditioner had serious blotch issues, and almost none with the conditioner. I’ve already ordered another can, just to have on hand for whatever project comes next.
Bvdon – yup. Actually, my bench was right about where the first picture was taken from. Well, if you call a Workmate with a slab of MDF on it a bench, that is. See, I live in a small one bedroom apartment (the bedroom itself is actually good sized though, hence my choice of location for my “workshop”) For some parts, I’d take the bench outside for a bit, like for using the circ saw to cut plywood; but for the most part the entire thing was built, and finished in my apartment.
Todd Thomas
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4969 posts in 1621 days
#5 posted 842 days ago
man this turned out great…finish looks good…how do i get my hands on the conditioner
-- Todd, Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †
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