|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Project: Bunk bed
|
 |
|
Fine furniture from construction-grade lumber
|
|
|
By Steven Maxwell
Photos: Simon Cheung
Illustration: Len Churchill
|
|
|
|
|
Time was in short supply for me earlier this year, as an impending new baby meant our two boys had to move into the same bedroom. That's why I tried to buy a bunk bed, although without any success. I couldnt find anything I liked enough to spend money on. I couldn't even find a design I wanted to copy. And besides, what kind of a woodworker buys a bed? So after a few spirited design discussions with my wife, and half a dozen crumpled scale drawings, a plan emerged. After building the bed, and tucking our boys in it for more than four months, there's not much I'd change. I recommend this plan with confidence.
People who see the bed are surprised to learn it's made almost entirely from construction-grade 2 x 10s. There's beautiful wood bound for use in house frames, and you'll save money by redirecting the best of it into your workshop, air drying it and turning it into furniture. The cost of doing business with this under-appreciated material is access to a jointer, thickness planer and tablesaw. You can't build this project without these machines, so don't even try. For more on selecting and drying construction-grade wood, see page 2.
Start by sorting through the pile of 2 x 10s you carefully selected at the lumberyard, choosing the best for panels, side rails, legs and leg caps. Rough-cut these longer and wider than needed, then stack them with spacers between the layers to promote drying. This is called stickering and youll be doing it throughout the building process. Dont plane or joint any of these parts yet and be especially generous when roughing out the layers of wood youll need for the legs. You'll want to leave lots of extra width for jointing after lamination. Make each leg layer 4 1/2" wide at this stage. You'll need this extra width because the legs are long, so it can take many passes across the jointer to get all three layers even and square.
 Start With The Panels
Since construction-grade wood needs time to dry while you're building, I'll lead you through the preparation of parts in stages. Moving from one group of parts to another as you work allows wood to cup and twist (as it inevitably will) while you still have the opportunity to do something about it.
The panels are a prominent part of the bed, so choose and combine grain patterns with care. This is where artistry comes in. Since the finished panels are about 3/8" thick, you can easily get two panel parts by splitting 1 1/2" lumber down the middle, on edge. This leaves lots of extra wood for jointing and planing operations. If you don't have a bandsaw, rip the panel parts no wider than 4", then slice them in half, on edge, in two passes across your tablesaw. Splitting thick stock like this naturally reveals striking book-matched grain patterns on matching parts. This is good stuff, so make the most of it.
Next, spend time at the workbench arranging panel parts so they look their best. Mark the location of neighbouring pieces, then set them aside to dry for at least three or four days before jointing and edge gluing. Thin, newly split pieces like these tend to cup as they dry, so youll want to let that happen before jointing. I designed the completed panels to be less than 12" wide so they could be milled in any benchtop thickness planer after lamination. Set the panel parts aside for now.
Bags And Bags Of Shavings
Most of the bunk bed parts are 1 1/8" thick, meaning youll have to spend hours working with your planer to mill the 1 1/2"-thick boards down to size. You'll save time if you rough-cut all stiles, rails, bullnose cap strips, side rail support strips, support boards, safety rails and ladder parts to width first, instead of running uncut lumber through your planer, and then cutting these parts. Joint and plane components to 1/8" thicker than final size, then let them sit for a week with a fan blowing on the stickered pile before milling to final thickness. Keep the parts in separate groups so you can work on each kind in turn.
 Laminate The Legs
The bunk bed legs are thick and long, making them the most troublesome part of the project. The plans show how each leg has five parts: three hefty internal layers, capped by two face strips that hide the lamination lines.
Divide the 12 leg layers you cut earlier into four groups: three pieces for each leg. The idea is to arrange the layers so the outer face of each leg looks best. Mark relative layer locations, then joint and plane leg layers to 1 1/4"-thick and glue them together. A few wooden hand screws tightened across the edges of the layers will do wonders to align the parts as the main clamps draw them together. This saves lots of jointing later.
While the leg layers are drying, cut the leg cap strips slightly wider than listed and plane to final 3/16" thickness. When the legs are ready to come out of the clamps, joint and plane them to final size. Glue the cap strips over the sides showing the lamination lines, using as many clamps as needed for gap-free joints. Plane the excess edging flush with the legs, sand and rout a chamfer along all edges. The plans show how the joint line between leg and leg cap disappears if you cut so its edge lands on the joint line.
 Back To The Panels
Joint one face of each panel member, then joint an edge, before ripping each piece to wider-than-final width and jointing this sawn edge. Keep all panel parts grouped, as you arranged them earlier for best appearance, while dry-fitting the panel parts. When everything looks good, edge-glue the panels, scraping off excess glue after a few hours when it's half-hard.
As the panels are drying, joint and plane the rails and stiles to final size, then trim to length. The plans show how the edges of these parts require grooves to house the panel edges. These grooves also admit floating hardwood tenons that join the panel frames. This is why the panel grooves extend around the ends of the rails. A wing-cutter router bit in a table-mounted router is the best tool for cutting these grooves. Take one pass from each side of the rail and stile parts so the grooves are centred. Aim for a 3/8"- to 7/16"-wide groove, then plane and trim your floating tenons for a snug fit.
Dry-fit all stiles, rails and floating tenons under clamp pressure to check for tight joints, then measure the inside dimensions of the frame (to the bottom of the grooves) to determine the ideal panel size. Make the panels 1/16" smaller than these measurements and plane the panels to fit nicely within the grooves. Dry-fit the stiles, rails and panels, then assemble the frame permanently with glue. Give everything a day or two to dry, then joint the outside edges of the frame parts to level and square them.
Mill the bullnose cap strips on a table-mounted router, then fasten them to the top and bottom edges of the assembled panel frames using 3/8" fluted dowels. With all the parts of this project that needed dowelling, I invested in a self-centering drilling jig to help me bore accurate dowel holes in the panel edges and the ends of the side rails -- all parts too large to be bored on my drill press. It worked wonderfully. When the cap strips are glued to the panel frames, run the edge of the assembly over the jointer again, taking a light cut to level the sides for a tight fit with the legs. Install 3/8"-fluted dowels across the leg-to-panel joints, dry-fit under clamping pressure, then join the legs and panel frames permanently. Cleaning glue squeeze-out from the corner where the legs meet the panel frames would be difficult without help. I used Waxilit, a glue resist that looks like skin cream. Smear some across the dry-fitted joints -- when the joint is reassembled with glue the product prevents the squeeze-out from bonding to the surface wood. The hardened glue pops off with a chisel.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
