HappyMonkey/HMD WOODSHOP

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Awesome! How do the pieces join?

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.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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.

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

[Clodfobble]

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?)

[Happy Monkey]

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.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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.

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

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Awesome! How do the pieces join?

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

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.

Here is that design:



And the rail design:



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









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

[jester]

Beautiful job - you're quite crafty

[busterb]

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

[Happy Monkey]

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.

[busterb]

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

[Happy Monkey]

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.




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.




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.




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.




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




A 90 degree notch was cut out.




The grain remains unbroken across the joint.




Looks good.

[Happy Monkey]

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




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




Eight of each.




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




Splines strengthen the joint. The tablesaw cuts some grooves.




The grooves.




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




Glue the splines in.




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

[Happy Monkey]

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.




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




The other half of the joint has the top removed.




Like so. This one is rightside up.




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.




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




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




The result.




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.



All four - inside and outside.




That's all for now!

[glatt]

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.