Bunk bed work in progress

[Doug B]

I've been working on this a couple of days. I don't get to post this far down in the forum very often, but occasionally I stop the lathe work long enough to make a real woodworking project. This is one of those occasions.

My son and his wife are expecting #2 son in August and they need a bed for #1 son by then. I'd prolly waited a little longer to get started, but my son ordered the wood and I have to do something with it before it rains

Loosely based on mission style, it will be my own design based on some pics that my son liked the looks of. It's really going to be a full size bed tucked perpendicularly beneath a loft bed once it is all done. For now, I just need to get the full size bed done and the loft or upper bunk bed won't be needed for a while. That is my mission (pun intended) and I figured I should post a few pics as I progress just so you all know that I am capable of doing more than just pens and bottle stoppers

Ok, so here we go...first pic is the rough lumber - Knotty Alder was the choice my son made for this project.


Where do you'all store your lumber for projects? Under the boat works for me 8/4, 6/4, and 4/4 Knotty Alder.

Now a pic of the rough lumber I selected for the full size bed that I'm working on first (eh, just ignore the junk on the right side of the pic )


And now a pic showing my favorite way to make tenons...stacked dado blades and my dubby (cheap version of a sliding table on the TS)


I like to make an initial cut using a regular TS blade to get a nice clean cut for the shoulder, then switch to the dado blades.


Now for the first progress report photo - footboard for the full size bed is ready for sanding, staining and glue up.


And here is another photo that just tickled me because it looks like I made some kind of fancy curved footboard. Trust me, that is beyond my patience level and the footboard is really square - but it would really be cool to make something like that

[deepsplinter]

Good start Doug.

That's gonna be one stout bed.

Keep us posted.

How 'bout a pic of that boat, next update?

[sachbvn]

That's awesome Doug! Pretty cool TS set up you have too!

Turning makes it hard for me to want to do flat work stuff right now - I'm sure I'll get back to it (well.... MAYBE! )


Zac

[Ruffnek]

That's a good start, Doug and thanks for providing the WIP pics.

BTW, I didn't know you did........... flatwork!

[Leo Voisine]

Nice - at that pace you will be done even before I get back to the drawers on my daughters dresser.

[Ruffnek]

Hey Doug,

You don't always have to cut your head off in your pics. I'd like to see what you look like.

Come on..I know you don't have two heads or horns or something. ;D

[sachbvn]

I just imagined there was a cowboy hat a cigar sticking out of the neck of that photo!

Zac

[fredbelknap]

A little flat work makes one well rounded ;D ;D. Looking good.

[boodrow]

Doug nice setup , what kinda table saw u have? By the color it looks like a delta? Also glad to see u slumin in the general wood section. Not everthang has to be round. ;D
Boodrow

[boodrow]

Doug by the way I didnt mention in the last post , that is lookin real good. Did ur wife do most of the work on it?
Boodrow

[Beamer]

Boy - i didn't know Doug had such hairy arms ...

Lookin' good, sir! Is that a Dubby I see?

[Doug B]

Thanks guys!

Dave, I looked high and low and do not have a good pic of the boat. It is my dream boat, a deck boat with a 200 HP Merc that is great for fishing and skiing. Only problem is that the fishing is not so good lately and I don't ski much anymore. I only took it out 4 times last year. Oh yeah, and I got a lathe ;D

Zac, I just got my TS set up the way I really wanted it and then...I got a lathe ;D It really is the heart of my woodworking shop, even if I don't use it as much these days.

Cody, I don't do flatwork very often anymore because I got a lathe ;D

Leo, thanks, and I've been watching your dresser progress with interest. I made a couple dressers but nothing like that one for your daughter. This bed is really just some pretty straight forward woodworking. I used to do lots of things like dressers, but then I got a lathe

And Cody, if I only had horns or 2 heads I would not hesitate to post pics, but there is serious risk to the camera when pics of me are taken Besides, I did post a pic of my ugly mug one time. This one...


Fred, I don't know if "A little flat work makes one well rounded" is correct, but I figure it can't hurt

Boodrow, my TS is a Ridgid 2424 but I have added some things to it, and yes, my wife has heavily influenced the design of the bed - I just do the grunt work

And Beamer,,,if you think my arms are hairy...you should see my palms ;D
But at least I have a BF Hammer! And yes, that is a dubby...I really love it! Cheap sliding table for the TS.

Well, I did not get to work on the bed at all today...spent the whole day getting the garden going. Planted 3 kinds of squash today and added on to the raised bed garden for some tomato plants which we will probably buy and plant in the next couple of days.

Thanks for all the comments guys, and I hope to get back to the bed very soon.

[Doug B]

Well, Spring Fever hit me pretty hard and I did not get much more done on the bunk bed until today. A little more progress today, I got all the pieces for the headboard milled, and completed all 13 slats for the headboard.

Now I have to make 26 mortises for the slats plus 4 more mortises in the bed posts.

I showed an extra slat from the footboard along with the headboard slats for perspective. At 18" long, the headboard slats are twice the length of the footboard slats.

I'm really looking forward to making the 30 mortises tomorrow... NOT

[dcarter636]

Now those are proper MANLY tenons, none of that namby-pamby ¹/₄" x ¹/₂" stuff!

[Doug B]

Hehehe. Dave, those are for a bigger bed than a crib. Thanks for the comments.

[Doug B]

More progress today. I got all 30 mortices done as well as the big tenons on the headboard horizontals.

For the slats, the Dubby has adjustable stops that work well, but for the big pieces I have to set up a stop block using the TS fence. Here I will get a 1.5" tenon by making 2 passes over the dado blades.



The Dubby makes it easy and safe to cut the tenon. This 5' long piece would be a real challenge without something like the Dubby to help make this cut - I cannot imagine doing this using a tenoning jig



Second pass over the dado blades by just aligning with the edge of the Dubby. Even with a 5' long 2X5 board on edge, this is a safe and easy way to make the tenon.



Just need to clean up a very small sliver using a chisel after the second pass.



Now its time to line up the slats and mark the mortises for them. I use a spacer to do this instead of trying to do the measurements - it's a whole lot quicker this way.




I like to clamp the two boards together and mark upper and lower mortises at the same time. I don't really care if the distances between the slats is exactly the same, but I want to make damn sure the upper and lower mortises are lined up squarely.




Clamping the two board together and marking for both the mortises makes sure they will align properly even if I did not measure exactly precisely.



And here is the results of todays endeavors. Headboard ready for final sanding and staining.

[deepsplinter]

Looking good, Doug.

Coming right along.

[gomer]

Very nice work. How do you make your mortises? I use a forstner bit and chisel myself. 30 in a day would push me to the limit. I prefer the tenons.

[Doug B]

Thanks Dave and Kyle!

Kyle, I use a mortising machine for the mortises. It is just such an imprecise operation that it somehow does not feel right to me, but the mortiser is definitely the way to go for doing lots of repetitive mortises. It just does not give clean, nice looking results. Of course, it doesn't have to since you never see them once you put it together so it shouldn't bother me, but it does

Before I got the mortising machine, I used to use a plunge router to do mortises and squared them up with a chisel - that is still not a bad way to do them, but the mortiser is quite a bit quicker.

[Doug B]

Some more progress on the bed.

I decided on how I wanted to support the mattress. I dadoed in a 3/4" x 1/2" deep groove on the side rails to support a plywood platform that will hold the mattress. Milled the supports to fit the groove and provide some additional strength by making them 1.5 inches deep. Notched for the cross braces.



Now to mortise the endgrain on the siderails for the bed hardware. I outlined the area to be mortised with a chisel, then used a dremel to remove the material. Using my bench vise to hold the side rail at an angle made this an easy task - it took me a while to figure out the best way to put a mortise on the end of a 5' long side rail



I clamped 2x2 pieces on either side of the rail to give me a better platform to hold the dremel base. The added stability was very helpful.



And here is the rail hardware installed.



Ready to mortise the headboard and footboards for the bed hardware - this requires a double mortise and I simply used a 1/4" forstner bit for the interior mortise. Other than that it was the same procedure as the rail mortising.



Finally, it is starting to look like a real bed But,,,what's behind the curtain? ;D



My son and I discussed whether or not to add a top cap piece to cover the headboard/footboard and so I made a couple pieces to see how it would look. It really changes the look, and I think I like it. It's hard to tell in the pic, but I chamfered all 8 edges at 45*.


So now you see what was behind the curtain Didn't get the caps done until after the picture taking was done, and I couldn't get LOML to help set up for pics again for just this last pic, so...now you know! ;D

I'm working on the platform to go between the side rails now. It's going to be way overkill, but it will definitely hold up to a couple of boys jumping on the bed and there should be absolutely no racking possible. That should be the next set of photos, then it will be time to take it all apart, final sand, stain, glue up and final finishing with some wipe on poly. The fun part is almost over now