Thread: Building a Queen Size Bed - This is how I did it...

ok... as you can see for the design, there is a curve in the top of the head and foot boards. my first challenge was to figure out how to cut this accurately with minimum effort.

from the google file, i knew that the curve dipped to a maximum of 30mm from horizontal at the center and that the width of the curved board was 91mm (to match the width of the bottom rail of the footboard.

now, i could have just maked out the lines and cut as close as possible with a jig saw then sanded to the line. but i am a big david marks fan and decided to make a template instead

i knew i wanted the curve to be on the flatter side so when i marked out the curve on a piece of mdf i didnt want to used a piece of wood that was too flexible. i decided to go with a piece of 14mm hardwood. this would give me the 30mm dip i wanted but stay as flat as possible along the remainder of the curve (if you get my logic).

i have attached a couple of pics making the template...

actually, i should have mentioned how i cut the template...

in order to achieve the curve i placed 3 screws into the mdg and wrapped the hardwood strip around them. i then secured the hardwood strip to the mdf panel using screws and removed the alignment screws (the one directly in the mdf). i then cut close to the line using a jig saw then routed the mdf clean using a flush trim bit on the router referencing off the hardwood strip.

i hope i explained that well enough...

now, it was time to cut up some wood... which was tassie oak by the way...

this was my first attempt at batch cutting... i didnt want to rely on my ability to measure and cut over and over again... i know i measure and cut once very well but im sure i would make a mistake after doing it a few times. since this is the first time i have worked with such large pieces of timber so i bought myself a bench roller... it is absolutely fantastic!!! it made the job so much easier...

since i dont have a fence long enough to attach a stop, i clamped a long piece of wood to the bench and used it to attach the stop block in the place i needed them. this worked very well (despite the way it looks). i dont think i have ever cut things so accurately.

Originally Posted by gabacus

actually, i should have mentioned how i cut the template...

in order to achieve the curve i placed 3 screws into the mdg and wrapped the hardwood strip around them. i then secured the hardwood strip to the mdf panel using screws and removed the alignment screws (the one directly in the mdf). i then cut close to the line using a jig saw then routed the mdf clean using a flush trim bit on the router referencing off the hardwood strip.

i hope i explained that well enough...

Clever technique,

I would be interested in finding out how symmetrical the template is. You could trace the curve and then, after reversing the template, trace again, to see how accurately the curved traces superimpose.
Zelk

ok, now that i had all these pieces of wood i had to figure out how i was going to join them together...

i though of many different ways but the truth is i had no real experience with any type of joinery that would help me here. i tried a couple of things on test pieces... dowels were the most frustrating because i couldnt get them to align and gave up on them. i thought about buying commercial jigs for dowels, buying a biscuit joiner, i even considered buying a domino but i am not made of money.

i have never cut a mortice and tenon joint before and looked up a few jigs for this solution too. the commercial jigs were just out of my budget. i found a few home made jigs on the forum that were adjustable that looked very good.

in the end i thought to myself all my timber is the same width and all the tenons will be the same size so why not make one custom jig for this job. i did this using a few scrap pieces and it work well for me.

i dont have any milling equipment so i bought some 65mm x 16mm stock from bunnings and made a jig specifie for a tenon of this dimension. basically, i built an mdf platform around the tenon stock then cut the mortices using a flush trim bit on my router that referenced the hole in the template. the jig was very easy to align and worked very well. i was very happy with the results.

here are some pics making the joints and a test fit of the foot board...

Originally Posted by zelk

Clever technique,

I would be interested in finding out how symmetrical the template is. You could trace the curve and then, after reversing the template, trace again, to see how accurately the curved traces superimpose.
Zelk

i can tell you now that the template is not perfectly symmetrical. i considered the idea of creating half the template them flipping it over to get it spot on (after all, this is what david marks would have done ) but after measuring it all up it wasnt out by much and i was happy to proceed with it the way it was.

when the bed is finished i may go back and trace this out on some paper and post the result so people can see how close/off it is

now, before gluing everything together i decided it would be easier to cut the inside curve in the top rail before hand so i didnt have to worry about cleaning up corners later. then once the glue was dry i could cut the outside curve.

i aligned the template to the piece and maked the cut lines. i removed the template then cut out the bulk with a jig saw. finally, the template was attached again and flush trimmed the piece to the template.

now, a word about routing curves. this is the first experice i have had with this and it is a challenge to say the least! the problem is that as you move along the curve the grain starts to change direction... this inevitably lead to tearout . you will notice in the center of the curve there is a section that hasnt been routed to the line. the reason for this is that i had some really bad tearout and had to stop routing and fix it with some CN glue. i went back and cleaned it up when the glue dried. my advice if you plan to do this is climb milling. i did this on every other piece and did not have a problem with tearout (but the router did try and jump around a little ).

now that i had the shape i was after it was time to cut some of the design details. if you look at the google plans, there are a number of dado cuts to add shadow lines to the piece.

here is a woodworking puzzle...

the dado's were 5mm wide by 5mm deep... the router bit had a 5mm cut width (as required) but the shaft was 1/4 inch to accomodate my router.

my first though was to measure this all and laying out all these lines and stuff but as i stated earlier, im not good at making measurements over and over again. i like the confidence of cutting using a template. i know that i didnt have a flush trim bit but the shaft of the 5mm cutter was smooth and i was sure i could use this to reference of a template. but this still left me with the problem of the cutter being smaller than the shaft.

its hard for me to explain the solution but i will try. i had a standard piece of mdf i was using as a reference. i then attached a very thin piece of mdf protruding from the bottom of the template using double sided tape. i then cut the thin piece of mdf using the thicker piece it was stuck to as a template. this left me with a very small ledge at the bottom but the important part is that the little ledge was the exact difference between the width of the cutter and the width of the shaft on the router bit. now all i had to do is align the little ledge to the line i wanted to route and then reference the router off the larger mdf is was attached to.

i hope that makes sense... if not, i hope the pictures will explain it...

now it was time to figure out how i was going to attach the side rails to the head and foot boards.

again, i reasearched a lot of solutions here. there are a lot of fixtures you could buy commercial but i wasnt 100% confident in their long term durability.

in the end, the solution was to use 2 dowels to align the side rails and then bolt them in place. my only problem with this is that the bolt would be visible from the front of the footboard. then i discovered threaded inserts the bed i am currently using has these and they have been solid for over 10 years. i will not go into too much detail about what i did here. i think the photos explain it well enough

by the way, i actually stuffed up the measurements for the location of the dowels and threaded insert on the headboard. they were 20mm too low you can see from the photos that they are out. i fixed this about an hour later and everything is nice and straight now

I like what I see. This is going to be a fantastic bed.

Good work! I think you are taking the sort of approach I could copy - not too many tools, and not too high a skill level (Obviously I"ll have to splash out on a scms... Damn.) I particularly like that you've used a straightforward way of doing M&T joints, which, like you, I've never used.

I'm saving this one for when I build my bed - although as waistlines expand, I think mine will be king size!

One request - do you have a link for the thread where you found instructions on making the M&T jig? It'd be really useful for me.

Nice design work there, gabacus. The deails come together very nicely - I especially like the grooves in the ends to set off the corners.

Originally Posted by rhancock

Good work! I think you are taking the sort of approach I could copy - not too many tools, and not too high a skill level (Obviously I"ll have to splash out on a scms... Damn.) I particularly like that you've used a straightforward way of doing M&T joints, which, like you, I've never used.

i only used a few different tools for this project. the real workhorse was my router. without that my router and a flush trim bit i would be nowhere! even before i had a drop saw i used to cut by hand and clean up with a straigh edge and my router

Originally Posted by rhancock

One request - do you have a link for the thread where you found instructions on making the M&T jig? It'd be really useful for me.

unfortunately i cannot remember the thread. there is a section on this forum on jigs and i just did a word search in there. if i come past it again i will let you know (i am always looking for new jigs )

Originally Posted by zenwood

I especially like the grooves in the ends to set off the corners.

thanks zenwood. the grooves are what make it work for me too.