It's been a while. One of the many things I am not very good at is doing things in moderation. I've struggled with this for a long time. My last build was in July. I've done a few small projects since then but nothing that took more than a day or two to complete. I spent that time off of training for and finishing my first (and probably last) marathon. With winter in full force and running pushed to the back burner once again, it's time to get back in the shop. Our daughter is getting older. We had a mattress laying on the floor some time as she outgrew her crib a while ago but having a full height bed seemed a bit more adventurous than we cared to be. I thought now might be a good time for a "Big girl bed". The legs are made up of 3 pieces of 3/4"x2.5" glued together. I would have loved solid posts but 12/4 cherry is fairly hard to come by and quite expensive. Once again I used every single small clamp I own. Next I selected the material for the headboard and footboards. The headboard had a really awesome grain in a sweeping arch that matched the shape I wanted to use. I matched that arch with a ruler, roughed it out on the bandsaw and cleaned it up with my latest Craigslist find - a 6" horizontal belt sander. To make the tenons easier, I cut them before doing any of the shaping. The headboard was used as a template for the footboard and it was cut out in the same way. Tenons are added to the other cross pieces for the headboard and footboard. Layout for the headboard was mostly done by eye and mortises are cut in the legs on the mortiser. It's starting to look like a bed frame! The rails are made a 1x6 and a 1x1 glued to the bottom. Here are all of the small clamps once again. A super sharp hand plane is much faster at cleaning up wood than sanding and can actually leave a cleaner surface. I still went over it with some 220 grit before putting the poly on but it made sanding go a lot quicker. Sanding before glueing also made sanding a little more tolerable. For finish, I went with Semi-gloss Poly from General Finishes. I say it every time. This is my go to poly finish.
Here it is finished. Except it's not. I hate how it looks. The headboard is way too tall. Back to the shop for some modifications.
I fixed it by cutting 9" off the legs of the headboard and adding a second set of hardware. This allows the bed to be used in a "toddler position only a few inches off the floor and then moved up when the child is older.
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Aaron Whalen:A blog about woodworking in Southwest Wisconsin Previous ProjectsArchives
February 2024
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