CK's Walnut Queen Bed

[ckx707]

As I mentioned in my new year's post building a bed has been on my to-do list for quite a while and I finally started to make some progress. I've put pictures and a full write up on the progress to date on my blog here but will post a few details here as well for those of you that are too lazy to click the link

The design is a close copy of a shaker design I found on Google images from Vermont Wood Studios. The first step was to draw up a sketchup model to figure outo the details and dimensions for a queen size mattress.


I then started selecting lumber and rough milling for the corner posts and headboard and footboard. I have been luck to pick up nice stash of walnut from various craigslist posts over the past few years and have a few really thick 12/4 and up timbers for the legs as well as some really nice air dried 16" wide boards for the head and foot. Here you can see my Roubo being stretched to hold one of the wide planks while I jointed the edge.


For the headboard and footboard I flattened one face with a jack plane before feeding the planer a mouthful.




I built a shooting board (this was the first time I ever came across a need for one) and shot the ends true after crosscutting them by hand.


I then shifted over to the corner posts to layout and chop the mortises. The full depth mortises were hogged out with the hollow chisel mortiser but the shallow groove between them was done by hand with chisels and the router plane.


I then roughed in the tenons with a dado stack, divided them with my new Bad Axe sash saw (man that is a nice saw), and removed the waste between them with a coping saw.


After some tweaking and trimming with a chisel, shoulder plane, and block plane both joints fit nice and tight and I could dry fit the footboard.


At this point I am in the middle of the cutting the same joinery on the headboard but progress will likely stall for awhile since my shop is unheated and based on the current forecast for the next week or so we will be lucky to break 10 degrees.

More updates to come...

[Dan Moening]

Quote:

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really nice air dried 16" wide boards

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The purples that can only come from air dried stock really show in the final product. Looks fantastic!

Did you change your mind about the style, as the foot board does not have the curve shown in the sketch?

[ckx707]

Dan Moening said:

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[blockquote]Quote:

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really nice air dried 16" wide boards

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The purples that can only come from air dried stock really show in the final product. Looks fantastic!

Did you change your mind about the style, as the foot board does not have the curve shown in the sketch?

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[/blockquote]

Agreed on the coloring, the variety of colors in the walnut is really gorgeous. I'm hoping at least some of that comes through in the finished product.

Regarding the lack or curve on the footboard that is simply because I am waiting until the joinery is complete on the headboard to layout and cut both of the complimenting curves at the same time. I will likely use one to layout the other.

[jteneyck]

Nice start. I likes seeing your use of handtools; I thought I was back in Colonial Williamsburg for a minute until I saw the Unisaw and that big planer. Very nice looking stock you have to work with, too.

John

[ckx707]

jteneyck said:

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Nice start. I likes seeing your use of handtools; I thought I was back in Colonial Williamsburg for a minute until I saw the Unisaw and that big planer. Very nice looking stock you have to work with, too.

John

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Ha. Thanks. The funny thing is that most of my hand tools are much newer than the 1939 Unisaw

[AztecKing]

It's looking great so far! What's your plan for dealing with wood movement on those wide planks? Those are some beautiful wide planks by the way. Looks like you have a cute little shop helper too.

Jeff

[Scoony]

Looks like a great start. Love those wide walnut boards.

I am guessing that the curves will be cut once the joinery is completed.

As for wood movement, I would think that leaving some space for movement on outside tenons and only glueing the center tenon would work just fine. Are you planning on using pegs in the joinery?

[ckx707]

To Jeff and Scoony regarding wood movement...

Yup, I plan to leave room for the outer tenons to move and only glue the center tenon. I will most likely drawbore the joints with elongated holes in the outer tenons. My only drawboring experience to date was on my Roubo and that went a bit sideways as I didn't taper the pegs enough to accomodate the fairly strong offset... ended up pounding a 5/8" oak peg through a few inches of SYP and blowing out the inside corner of the front left leg. I'm fairly confident I can avoid those issues on this project but I still need to work out some of the details (peg diameter, hand tapered pegs vs. dowel plate formed, amount of offset, etc...)

[ckx707]

I've been able to take advantage of a few milder days over the last month to make a bit more progress on the bed. I've posted more pictures and details on my blog but here is a summary.

I cut the mortises in the headboard corner posts following the same basic procedure as on the footboard.


I spent some time looking over the headboard to determine which side and orientation would look best. I even clamped a thin strip of wood to the board to help visualize the curve.


Again, following the same procedure as on the footboard, I cut the tenons on the headboard and the lower rail. Here you can see the headboard assembly after the initial dry fit.


I then cut the complimentary curves on the boards and also cut the top of each corner post to length, angling that cut to match the basic flow of the intersecting curves.


I'm planning to drawbore the mortise and tenon joints so I made a dowel plate and started playing around with it. I still have a few details to work out as my first attempt to fit a homemade dowel into a hole drilled with my brace and the same sized auger bit was a bit loose.


Other than working out the details of the drawbores I also need to make the side rails and try out a few finishing options. I'd love use some garnet shellac but I'm not sure I'm interested in padding it on to a project of this size so I'm thinking I'll likely end up with a homemade BLO/varnish blend. Any other suggestions are welcome...

[Herebrooks]

Nice piece! Elegant! Can't find better material than that.
Bill