A William Morris inspired Craftsmen bed........

[fritter63]

Finally got around to starting my bed(s) project. Will document here in multiple posts.

I'm actually building two of these, one Queen sized and one King sized. Below are the inspiration picture an overview of the plans I found online.

I'll also be building 3 stickley dressers to go with these, so I ended up getting about 300 bd ft of Quartersawn White Oak, which were delivered in early April (had to wait out our 3 week road trip to get started!). Got it in rough 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4 thicknesses.

First up, making the legs. They are 2 3/4" square. Rather than try to miter or miter joint (with the router bit) them together, I decided to make them solid so they could handle the weight. So I planed a bunch of stock to 1" thick, then glued them together and trimmed to the right dimensions. I also planed some 1/8" thick, and used that for "veneering" the side grain on the legs so there will be face grain on all four sides.

I used the TS55 for putting a straight edge on each board after planing, then it was just a matter of running them through the tablesaw. I spent most of February upgrading the old Unisaw to use a Harvey Big Eye fence, along with a Digifence readout, and it was well worth the time. Especially nice is how easy it was to micro adjust the fence for a slight gap on the outfield side. For cross cutting, I ditched the old delta sliding table which was having issues (can no longer get parts for it) and went with an Incra meter slider cutoff table into which I fitted my old (25 years?) Incra 1000 miter gauge. The system worked great!

 

[fritter63]

Just more pictures that it wouldn't let me add to the last post.

 

[fritter63]

Next up, thicknessing the stock for the vertical slats (5/8"). It adds up to like 52 pieces! Had to call in my handy helper so I wasn't putting in 10000 steps just walking around to grab the outfields. I also printed some hacks for the Domino which I will document in it's own thread.

 

[fritter63]

And then we're on to thicknessing the boards for the upper, mid, and lower rails of the headboard and footboard. All 1" thick, from rough 5/4 stock...

For cutting to length, I used my Festool-ish cutting table (Documented in this thread) . I due to the length of the rails (59 5/8" for the Queen, 75 5/8" for the King), I had figured I'd make a plywood "fence" to which I could clamp a stop block, but then I remembered that I had the SET of Parf fences, and that maybe I could split them apart (registered in the same line of holes) and that would be enough. Worked like a charm! (forgot to get a good picture of the long boards being registered like that). A brief moment of panic came when I released that one of the Queen boards had some nasty defects on the already trimmed end that I didn't want. And I had already setup th estop for the final length cut. No worries! I just put in a second set of UJK dogs into the next row and used that re-make the first square cut (picture included).

Thanks to Peter Parfit ( @Stone Message ) for a great design!

 

[fritter63]

So, here is the progress to date.... time to break out the new DF700 and make some BIG joints....

 

[fritter63]

@peter halle Why can't I reference Peter Parfit? Did he leave the forum?

 

[smorgasbord]

First up, making the legs. They are 2 3/4" square. Rather than try to miter or miter joint (with the router bit) them together, I decided to make them solid so they could handle the weight. So I planed a bunch of stock to 1" thick, then glued them together and trimmed to the right dimensions. I also planed some 1/8" thick, and used that for "veneering" the side grain on the legs so there will be face grain on all four sides.

Yeah, that's one way to do it - Wood Mag published this several years ago:

Quartersawn skin puts eye-popping grain all around

It takes a lot of skill to put a ray-flecked quartersawn grain on all four sides of our Mission bed project. Here's an alternative way that doesn't require as much precision.

www.woodmagazine.com

For smaller cross-section, a single rift-sawn piece can sometimes work.
BTW, building the legs even out of 4 - ⅝" boards would not be practically any weaker.

I wish I was re-outfitting my shop these days. There's so much better precision with today's fences/gauges/etc., but I'm at a point in life where it's just not worth the time, effort, and money to sell my tools and re-buy/re-setup/etc. The worst offender is my drill press: every time I have to manually move belts to change the speed I feel like I'm in the 1920's instead of the 2020's.

Are you going to use the DF700 connectors for the big joints? Are you going with the faux tenon look as in the design?

 

[fritter63]

Yeah, that's one way to do it - Wood Mag published this several years ago:

Quartersawn skin puts eye-popping grain all around

It takes a lot of skill to put a ray-flecked quartersawn grain on all four sides of our Mission bed project. Here's an alternative way that doesn't require as much precision.

www.woodmagazine.com

For smaller cross-section, a single rift-sawn piece can sometimes work.
BTW, building the legs even out of 4 - ⅝" boards would not be practically any weaker.

I wish I was re-outfitting my shop these days. There's so much better precision with today's fences/gauges/etc., but I'm at a point in life where it's just not worth the time, effort, and money to sell my tools and re-buy/re-setup/etc. The worst offender is my drill press: every time I have to manually move belts to change the speed I feel like I'm in the 1920's instead of the 2020's.

Are you going to use the DF700 connectors for the big joints? Are you going with the faux tenon look as in the design?

Yeah, I'm going to use the 12mm dominos at like 70 and 50 mm deep, which is why I wanted them to be solid.

I hear you on that refit thing, I spent a few months debating if it was worth it. I even considered just buying the furniture (the build vs buy thing where you can buy it, just do it). And yes, I'm running out rooms to fill in the house (and we're starting to think downsizing).

 

[luvmytoolz]

Sensational work! Looking forward to seeing this progress. I'm a sucker for anything William Morris, exceptionally talented artist.

 

[Muttley000]

Wow, nice work and I love the style! Looking forward to watching this come together. What are your finishing plans?

 

[guybo]

@peter halle Why can't I reference Peter Parfit? Did he leave the forum?

name change @Stone Message

 

[smorgasbord]

Yeah, I'm going to use the 12mm dominos at like 70 and 50 mm deep, which is why I wanted them to be solid.

I'm sure you know this, but the DF700 connectors use the 14mm bit. The joints do need dry-fit dominos as well, and I guess those could be 12mm if you wanted. Just to be sure, you're not planning on gluing up the whole bed frame, right?

 

[fritter63]

I'm sure you know this, but the DF700 connectors use the 14mm bit. The joints do need dry-fit dominos as well, and I guess those could be 12mm if you wanted. Just to be sure, you're not planning on gluing up the whole bed frame, right?

The 12 mm are for the major joints on the headboard and footboard, the bed rails will be double dry 14mm plus a domino connector.

 

[smorgasbord]

The 12 mm are for the major joints on the headboard and footboard, the bed rails will be double dry 14mm plus a domino connector.

Cool. Are you going to add the faux tenon covers in keeping with the spirit of the original design, or are you thinking those were only included since they were using a more traditional bed bolt that needed something to cover up the bolt access hole?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

name change @Stone Message

I'm confused? What is going on there?

 

[luvmytoolz]

I'm confused? What is going on there?

I'm glad you asked the question we're all thinking!

 

[fritter63]

Cool. Are you going to add the faux tenon covers in keeping with the spirit of the original design, or are you thinking those were only included since they were using a more traditional bed bolt that needed something to cover up the bolt access hole?

I’ve decided not to do that. I’m worried it might confuse future dismantlers!

Seriously, I think it will look fine especially since are no other through tenons on it

Wow, nice work and I love the style! Looking forward to watching this come together. What are your finishing plans?

Lately I've using a wipe-on stain "Michaels Cherry" that I got from Cabinfield (we bought some of their furniture with that stain on it). Followed by 4 coats of wipe on poly thinned to 50%. I'm not looking forward to doing that on the beds (or the dressers that will be next).

So I'm contemplating: 1) building a makeshift fumigation tent out of plastic and PVC pipes 2) getting a graco sprayer for the top coats.

 

[fritter63]

Today's progress.... marking and layout for the slats and rails dominos. Thought I could knock it out fast, instead ended up working all afternoon in a hot shop (we peaked an 90 today and my shop is not conditioned). The layout was a bit of a pain, so I think I'll be ordering the woodpeckers story stick kit tonight. Still it all fit together well, got to use the 3D printed dry fit dominos.

 

[smorgasbord]

Seriously, I think it will look fine especially since are no other through tenons on it

That would be my choice as well.

 

[bobtskutter]

The level of detail in the pencil marks is amazing!!! I see "center line", "wide", "37mm". What does the "T" mean?

bob