| Blog series by Chris Davis | updated 448 days ago | 5 parts | 15236 reads | 3 comments total |
Part 1: The Toy Box Bow
Oak may not be a popular boat building material in the real world, but in my world it make a beautiful bed. I’ve been working on a boat bed for the last couple days now. Most of them that I build are painted and I build them out of a combination of Maple MDF and pine. This customer, however, wants their in oak. I have built one before and that example (see oak example) is what the customer sew and wanted. I’m even going to do the same color scheme. I framed out the bow of ...
Part 2: The Headboard
When coming up with a design for the boats headboard for the first time I wanted more like a bookcase headboard. Something more then just a flat headboard. What I did was take a simple bookcase headboard, one like I’d use on a captain’s bed, and tilt it back a little. To give it more of a nautical look, I cut portholes across the top and then some larger ones in the sides. Building Picture Raw Video of the build <other /> Video streaming by Ustream For more building...
Part 3: Toy Box Lid
Continuing on the boat bed project, I have to now make a lid for the toy box. First I trace the shape of the toy box onto a 1/2” material. Rough cut it, screw it down and then use a trimming bit on the router to trim it flush. I use some templates that I made a few years ago to make the trim. I’ll then use a rabbiting bit and cut a groove in the inside of the trim the thickness of the bead board. A round over is used on the top edges. I put together two of the three side...
Part 4: Applying the Veneer
Unlike my normal boat bed, this one will not be painted. It will be built in oak. Using oak on most of the project is, for the most part, straight forward. Not much different the using the maple and MDF on the painted version, until we come to the Bow of the Boat (AKA the toy box). Since we have a curved bow, a veneer must be used over the bending plywood. In prepping, I make sure all my staples are driven. I also fill all staple holes and imperfections with Bondo. This will keep tho...
Part 5: The Finish
I got it built and ready for the finish. The customer requested that we do a two tone color. They really want it exactly like the saw on our web site (see example). I tweaked the colors a little bit but for the most part it is standard Minwax colors (see color chart). I used Red Chestnut and Golden Pecan. When using stain you can not tape off. There is not way to get a crisp line. You’ll always have some bleeding. I just had to stain parts as separate pieces and assemble them ...
