The Bed Project

Its been several days since I last updated the blog and frankly I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had the time to read the other blogs we follow.

You may recall I was considering using the finger joiner attachment to the router table to make the corner joins on the two large bed drawers.  Well I did do this with one of the drawers and whilst the joints are quite strong, aesthetically I wasn’t pleased with the result.  There was far too much ‘tear-out’ from the router blade.  I don’t suppose I should be surprised by this as the plywood grain goes in all directions. 

The bed frame has now been varnished.  You might be wondering why I would bother varnishing the frame as none of it will be visible.  The varnish is my effort to combat the possibility of the timber swelling and contracting during the seasons.  Well that’s my theory.

For the first time I have some photos of the combined bed frame.

The view from the foot of the bed.  There is no plywood infill panelling (for structural bracing) at this end because I intend to make panels from Jarrah.  The two halves of the completed bed will be screwed together down the middle.  Making the bed in two halves will (we hope) mean it will be easier to move.

The head of the bed.  I’ve been giving some thought about the design of a bedhead.

 

Side elevation.  Two drawers at the ends and one large drawer in the middle.

The next step was to fit the drawer runners to the bed frame.  My method was to make a jig from scrap timber.

This gets placed vertically inside each drawer compartment and held in place with clamps.  The jig is square and the bottom clamped parallel with the bed base.  This should result in the runners being parallel with the base and each runner should be positioned exactly the same.

Once I had fitted all the high runners I cut the jig down and used it to fit all the lower runners.

Eventually all the runners were fitted.

My attention then went to the drawers.  The first step was to make up a filler and use my putty knife to fill all the nail holes and other imperfections.  The drawers will need a second sanding to smooth the filler before they get a coat of varnish.  It appears I’ll need to buy more varnish as I’ve almost used all of the first litre.

Jan and I discussed the width of the bed and decided it will be 6ft (kingsize).  she is now researching waterbed mattresses.

I went back to the hardware store to look at Jarrah timber.  The bed pine framing timber is 42x18mm and you will understand my annoyance when I discovered their Jarrah was 40x18mm.  It’s 2mm too narrow.  Either I find another timber supplier or I will be forced to buy 60mm Jarrah and rip it down to 42mm on the saw. 

The vacuum cleaner

That T15 torx screw preventing me from continuing the dismantling of the Dyson is proving to be a problem.  It’s located down a 100mm shaft and none of the local tool suppliers have a suitable screwdriver.  Eventually I found two potential online suppliers.  One in China and the other in the UK, both selling the same screwdriver.  The seller in China wanted A$1.49 and the UK seller wanted A$15.76 (plus postage).  Not hard to guess which seller received my order.  The only issue with the Chinese seller is the delivery date of late November.  But then there are plenty of other projects to keep me occupied.

All for now…….