A friend of a friend, recently acquired a tractor-trailer load of exotic woods. Planks 1 to 4 inches thick, and 1 to 3 feet wide, very cheap, but probably exported/imported illegally.

I puzzled over that for quite a while, over several iterations. I finalized (I think) the design just yesterday, on the way to the lumberyard.

The frame is extremely simple; four boards with a ledge on the inside, held together with bolts and cross-dowels, like this.

The middle rail is held in place with dowels in the ends going into the ledges.

The corners are the tricky part. They support all of the weight, but I wanted the feet to be recessed, to give it a bit of a "hovering" look, so they couldn't directly support the sides. Instead, the two halves of each foot will be held in the bottom of an L-shaped base via sliding dovetails. The mentioned base will be two ash boards lapped together.

Exactly how it works should become more obvious in time.

Heh, thanks, but I probably can't handle it, then. Not to mention transportation from PA.

So is the one lighter-colored board for the cross beam underneath, or will it be visible somewhere? (Or is it for another project entirely?)

It's the ash for the bottoms of the corners. Ash is cheaper and stronger than walnut, and the bottoms of the corners need to be extremely strong. I'll need to do some cosmetic stuff to make sure the ash isn't visible.

The cross beam won't be walnut either, but we'll use some wood from our spare wood pile for that, and it isn't in the pictured purchase pile.

shush...
I believe you have my address just in case this "friend" needs help disposing.

Here is that design:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/...fbe21f167d.jpg

And the rail design:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2318/...1822614c07.jpg

And here are some of the early designs for the corners.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2233/...052b6a71fa.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/...63b0e8369c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/...01d6d3a7d0.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2054/...6397726d97.jpg

This last one also has the shopping list we took to the lumberyard.

Beautiful job - you're quite crafty:)

I'm thinking I need to consult with HM before I start my wood working projects! Have a look in thread fail. Good job mate. bb

I had a bit of a FAIL myself, today.

I was too clever by half when I wrote the dimensions on my shopping list on that last photo above.

See that "60+2T ~62"? Guess which number I used, when making the cut?

Dammit. I can fix it, and that part won't be visible, but still.

Dammit.

Yeah. That's why I alway stuck to metal. A lot easier to weld over the screw ups.

OK, I'm gonna start getting caught up to what I've put on Flickr.

My dad got this excellent router table for Christmas. We used it to put a nice edge on all of our boards. There's a shim behind the left half of the fence (the board moves to the left), that matches the depth of the cut, so the board hugs the fence on both sides of the bit.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/...fbc66c15c4.jpg


This is not an action shot. When we actually cut off the ends, we were more careful to make it square. Of course, as mentioned above, square is one thing, the right length is another.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2404/...ac47373dc8.jpg


We tried and failed to use the router table to cut the boards to width. I think we were pushing the board in the wrong direction, but in the meantime we finished the job on the tablesaw, which is the right tool for he job anyway.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/...967a60ee63.jpg


Starting to cut the corner sides. They will be mitered, and the saw tilts to 45 degrees. I marked 12 inches on one side, used a spare bit of 45 degree wood to mark the edge, and marked where to make the cut.

When making the cut, I used a square to make sure that the saw guide was square, while my dad made the cut.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2075/...30681ac4ab.jpg


Flip the board, and cut another 45 degrees on the same line.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2364/...6091a54687.jpg


A 90 degree notch was cut out.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2403/...24c51c3a09.jpg


The grain remains unbroken across the joint.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2299/...495cf18053.jpg


Looks good.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/...5f3a92f903.jpg

Back to the router table to cut a groove for the bottom.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2317/...fd25aef4c4.jpg


Move the fence and adjust the height a bit, and cut the tongue to go into that groove.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2284/...81770605fc.jpg


Eight of each.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2023/...dfc6d52fb0.jpg


Glue up the miter. The clamps on the bottom ends are only there to lift the ends to the right height.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2073/...8c4b1f8d5d.jpg


Splines strengthen the joint. The tablesaw cuts some grooves.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2334/...8c88abdd9e.jpg


The grooves.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/...5952c7b6b4.jpg


Shave down a strip of wood to tightly fit the groove.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2233/...5bd8e98685.jpg


Glue the splines in.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2098/...322a2934b0.jpg


The excess wood is cut off with a saw, and the joint is complete.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/...4b61386e70.jpg

The bottom of the corner is made up of two pieces of ash forming a huge lap joint. We used the router to cut away the bottom of half of the eight ash pieces. About a third of the board was removed.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2180/...08ee592b92.jpg


Here it is, upside down. The lap matches the tongue. So to speak.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/...c70ab1855f.jpg


The other half of the joint has the top removed.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2246/...f9d40f2c38.jpg


Like so. This one is rightside up.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2033/...43acfc812f.jpg


Just placed together, it's OK, but it needed my dad to finish it up with a bit of planing and chiseling. And just a tad of tablesawing, to adjust the edge.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2208/...61628573fb.jpg


All the bottom pieces. Bottom halves on the left, upside down; top halves on the right, rightside up.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2270/...87661a1c8a.jpg


The lap joint is glued. The bar clamps hold it square, and the C-clamps hold the glued faces together.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2046/...65d66bfa82.jpg


The result.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2096/...ae5e7dca45.jpg


All together now. The tongue on the outside of the ash bottom fits into the groove on the inside of the walnut sides.

There will be walnut caps on the end of the ash, to fill in the remaining space.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2251/...4f41f90a19.jpg

All four - inside and outside.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/...01536cb8dd.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/...7e7e01d915.jpg


That's all for now!

This is really interesting. At first, I couldn't figure out your design from all the parts you are cutting, but then looking at this image on Flickr, I get what you are going for.

I'm curious though, why do you have the long cross support board in the center of the bed frame, but you are using just the corners for support at the head and the foot? Why didn't you use a long wide board to support the mattress and frame at the head and foot as well? (See my sloppy alteration of your plan below.) Is it simply to save materials and to give you the opportunity to play around with half lap joints, or am I missing something?

This isn't a criticism at all, the design is a cool one. I like the look of the bed. This is a good thread and I'm glad to see it revived.