Thank you all for the compliments. I consider myself very much an amateur so I appreciate the positive feedback from such a talented group.
The stain is a product I got at Rocklers called General Finishes, the color is Candlelight. For the finish I used Zinsser shellac. I went 50/50 clear and amber. There was a steep learning curve with the shellac. I've only ever used polyeurathane in the past so this was something new. I finally found a YouTube video which really helped. After applying several coats, I sanded with 400, then 600 and for the final buffing I wrapped steel wool around a felt rubbing block, sprayed it, and the wood, with a 50/50 mixture of mineral spirits and mineral oil, applied some 4f pumice and made a couple of passes. Yes, I must be a glutton for punishment because I did that to all 4 sides of every spindle.
Pretty much everything was done on a table saw. Yesterday I used my new 106" guide rail to rip down some poplar and that was so much easier than screwing a straight edge to a random width board and then running it through the table saw to make a working edge. I did use a mortising machine for the bed posts but the lower headboard rail was too tall so I had to do that one on the drill press. All of the tenons were cut on the table saw using a dado stack. I modified the miter guage by adding a board to create a longer, taller fence. On the spindles that allowed me to set a stop. On the rails, I used the table fence as my stop. I believe the tenons were 2" so I set the fence 2" from the blade (including the blade width) shoved the board snugly against the fence and then made my first pass. Each subsequent pass I pulled the board back from the fence until I had worked my way to the end. I set the work up to the left of the blade with the majority of the length hanging off the table. I supported it with a roller stand and the board would slide, rather than roll, as I cut the tenon. To cut the face of the tenon the blade is set around 1/8". After cutting all of the faces, raise the blade and cut all of the shoulders. It was not the easiest process but it was all I had. If none of this makes sense, I'd be happy to set it up and post a couple of pictures. However, in the future I will use dowels, or dominos, to make joints. Either one is much easier and supposedly stronger.
