Looking for help or plans for a bed

[shoottmx]

LOML would like one of these Shaker Moon beds and I'd really like to put a smile on her face:

   

I've looked all over and I can't find plans but the seller Vermont Wood Studios who sells these for $2,170 has several views on their site so I'm confident I can replicate the dimensions without issue. 

   

My concern is how to construct the head and foot boards to allow for the expansion/contraction. Looking at the detail photo of the foot board it appears that there are plugs in the legs to cover fasteners. 

 

   

I hate the thought of drilling the legs and headboard for bed bolts. Is it safe to glue M&T joints just in the center? Alternatives? Hoping one of the Woodnet brain trust has a fastener free construction method.

Thanks for reading!
g

[Woodworm!]

LOML would like one of these Shaker Moon beds and I'd really like to put a smile on her face:



I've looked all over and I can't find plans but the seller Vermont Wood Studios who sells these for $2,170 has several views on their site so I'm confident I can replicate the dimensions without issue. 



My concern is how to construct the head and foot boards to allow for the expansion/contraction. Looking at the detail photo of the foot board it appears that there are plugs in the legs to cover fasteners. 

 

I hate the thought of drilling the legs and headboard for bed bolts. Is it safe to glue M&T joints just in the center? Alternatives? Hoping one of the Woodnet brain trust has a fastener free construction method.

Thanks for reading!
g

How about these bed rail fasteners
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/bed-r...gKT-fD_BwE

[shoottmx]

Holy cow! I was planning to use them on the side rails, never crossed my mind to use them on the other face of the legs.

Thanks for the suggestion Woodworm!

g

[KC]

Holy cow! I was planning to use them on the side rails, never crossed my mind to use them on the other face of the legs.

Thanks for the suggestion Woodworm!

g

Not sure that's what he was recommending.  Assembling the panels to the legs with mortise/tenon is fine.

[Woodworm!]

I was thinking of just using them for the bed rails. For the through M/T joints you could peg them, putting the pegs in elongated holes in the M/T for expansion.

[shoottmx]

So glue the center of the m/t and dowel the ends thru elongated holes in the tenon it'll be ok. The dowels would be blind coming in from the back of the legs and into but not through the front side of the leg.

Thanks KC and Woodworm,

g

[handi]

Two ways the Woodworkers of old did cross grain joints like these:

1) Double M&T- instead of one long tenon on the ends of the panel, do two shorter ones. The less -wide tenons will not move as much, and an elongated hole in the center of each will allow for pinning each.

2) Compression Joint- This method glues one long tenon in the panel into the matching mortise in the leg. To avoid cracks, they would clamp the daylights out of the panel top to bottom, compressing it before gluing. After assembly, when the clamps are removed, the panel is is now under compression within the mortise. If the panel shrinks when the weather gets dry, this will simply relieve the pressure rather than splitting the panel.

Of the two, option 1 is your better bet. 2 requires some serious clamping power and is always a bit risky.

[shoottmx]

Handi,

So in option 1 the panel is held only by the dowels, no glue at all?

g

[hbmcc]

Think in terms of the full panel width: 15 to 18-inches panel width, times whatever the annual moisture variation is in your area, times the dimensional coefficient for the species of wood you use. An excellent reference and guide was done by PopWood for Woodworking Magazine (Sep05WM_BOOK.indb). Google 'Wood shrinkage coefficients.  My link: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-co...vement.pdf It really is easy when you use it.

Bob Lang will say "nickels and dimes" (I think that's for drawer gaps) but the point is, it's not a lot. Just enough to break your heart. In the above reference the change was 1/8th inch over 24 inches of bench top.  

You also want to glue one set of tongues up to about 4 inches wide, probably in the middle so the movement is minimized across the panel. Peg everything else with increasingly elongated holes in the tongues. You are adjusting for the whole panel that is entering the post. So think of that before you start cutting tongues. 

Finally, my Denny Downer observation: The foot-board has an extremely small chunk of wood at the juncture of panel top and post. Make that acute angle a tongue and as long as possible. The world hates acute angles, even if they look good.

It's a pretty piece.

[handi]

Handi,

So in option 1 the panel is held only by the dowels, no glue at all?

g

Glue away in the tenons. They will not move too much and the dowels in the center will keep it in place no matter what.

While wood does expand and contract along the grain, it is a percentage movement. So one long tenon with move quite a lot, but two or three 2 or 3 inch ones alongside the length will only move a little each. 

Using three narrow tenons, I would pin the center with a dowel through a fitted hole, and elongate the holes in the top and bottom ones.