More on that important bed

The bed project is progressing very slowly as I’m trying to ensure there are no mistakes.  Jarrah timber is expensive and wastage isn’t something we want.
Today started very holy holey.  When the boat was being fitted out we bought oak plugs in bags of 100.  They were used to cover any screw heads that might have been exposed.  When planning this project I didn’t believe I’d need 100’s of plugs and then Aldi provided a solution selling a set of plug cutters during one of their weekly ‘Special Buys’.  I was quick to nab a set and today they were put to use making the first of the required plugs.

The plug cutter leaves a central ‘core’ in the hole which I break out using a screwdriver.  Aldi was also the supplier of the countersunk hole maker for the screws.
This next photo is of one upside down side frame I’ve glued and screwed a vertical lip.  Whilst the screw heads wouldn’t be seen unless you were to lay on you back beside the bed and look up I decided to conceal the screw heads with plugs.

The plug gets glued into the hole and then the protruding portion is carefully cut off with a chisel.

This actually reminded me if yet another task.  My set of chisels were ‘acquired’ from a drain before I met Jan.  They have never been looked after and have received a hard life.  The last attempt to sharpen them involved an electric grinding wheel.  I’d planned for this eventuality and purchased a Veritas sharpening guide whilst we were in the UK.

The guide consists of two main parts.  A holder for the tool or blade requiring sharpening and a gauge to set the angle.

Reverse side
Note the roller on the blade holder.  Once the tool or blade has been aligned by the guide you remove the latter.  The holder is then turned over and placed on a sharpening stone.  I’m using an oil stone (another found tool).

In position and ready to be placed on the stone.  It was then a case of running the chisel tip up and down the stone using the roller. 

This operation is very slow.  Especially if you haven’t been taking care of your chisels.  As you can see in the above photo the bevel on the tip of this chisel was badly out of shape.  Twelve chisels and one Jack Plane blade later it was time for lunch.
With sharp chisels it was an easy tasks to cut the tops off the plugs .
I decided to round the edges on the side of the bed platform.  Thrusting sheets and blankets under the mattress might easily result in a fingernail being caught on a sharp edge.  I used the router to make a curve on the horizontal edge.  That wasn’t too difficult.  however doing the opposite edge was going to be difficult as the router base would only have a 19mm flat surface to slide on.  The strategy I adopted was to clamp two pieces of packing to widen the base.

Right arrow points to the edge to be shaped.  Left arrows point to the temporary packing.
That worked!

Now the outer edge of the base is rounded.
There was just enough daylight left to fit the Jarrah frame to one side of the bed and clamp the other temporarily in place.

The next step is to start sizing and shaping the bed end Jarrah cladding.  I’ve decided to recycle some of the damaged Jarrah from the former display cabinet for this part of the bed.