# Attaching Oak to Pine



## greenbison (Feb 4, 2015)

Hello, I am a first time poster, and I am looking for some advice.

I am building a king size bed with storage drawers underneath for a buddy of mine. The internal frame is made out of pine (2×4's mostly), but the sides, footboard, and headboard will all be faced with red oak 1×4's. This is my first time working with oak, and I am not sure about the best way to attach it to the pine frame. My initial thought was to glue the oak and also screw or nail through the back, but I don't know what the best method would be.

Would glue only be adequate, or do I need metal fasteners in addition to the glue? Would you recommend nails or screws? Do I need pilot holes for everything?

Another thing I am concerned about are the different wood expansion rates. Will this cause problems with glued boards coming loose, or cracks developing around metal fasteners?

Also, if I am gluing, I know I should go long grain to long grain, but do the long grains need to be parallel to each other, or is perpendicular okay?

Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

How thick is the oak?
No you may not glue, nail, staple or otherwise a fix perpendicular. It will fail horribly..


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

Gluing frames on 2×4's with clamps will hold fine. Avoid end grain gluing. You can also put some screws on the backsides too. It would save a lot of clamping… Glue > clamp > screw> remove clamps and move on to next piece.


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## Ghidrah (Jan 20, 2015)

A platform bed? The pine is for structure and the oak is for show? Framing pine is going to move like crazy even if it kiln dried, if your building a platform you might consider 3/4 ply, crisscrossed by half lap to support a 1/2" or 3/4" platform and mattresses. You can set the voids to coincide with your drawers and you can honeycomb the plywood to lighten the footprint load and still maintain strength.

You only have to secure the ply panels that coincide with the drawers so the slides will operate properly. Nice thing about the crisscross method with waterbeds is you can insulate the interior to R60 or more depending on the hgt of the platform. The weight of the mattress and bodies will keep the inner frame and outer frame lined up.


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