Sawdust on the Floor

Hey welcome back, let’s see how far we can get today on building our new bed headboard. Now that the sconces are on hand and I have figured out how I want to handle them, its time to get busy on the rest of the project. Here is what I have decided to do. The two corner posts will be constructed out of a combination of newly purchased cherry, and some of the pallet lumber I have in the shop. Each post will be constructed to be hollow, with three horizontal boards that will be added for stiffeners. The sconces will be mounted on the face of each corner posts, and the power cord for each will be routed inside of the hollow posts and will exit from the rear of each posts.

This headboard is made up of several pieces, the above corner posts, the center portion which consists of the spindles, the top and bottom trim boards and the top cap, plus a bottom stretcher. My idea was to construct the center sections first, then attach them to the boards that make up the inside edge of each post. After all of the center sections were made and attached to the inside boards of the corners, then I will finish up the assembly of the posts. I know this may sound backwards, but there is a reason I choose this route. My logic is that by attaching the center sections to the corners with screws that run through the inside boards of the corner posts, the joints would be stronger then if I were to try to attach the center section with pocket screws. I was concerned that any motion in the head board could eventually cause the pocket screws to back out and loosen the entire head board.

The first portion of the head board I worked on was the hardest part, the spindle section. All of the components that make up the center section measure 83″ long. This value is equal to the outside edges of the actual bed, yours maybe different. I started out making the spindle section, by ripping two 2″ wide pieces of 6/4 cherry. These pieces will form the top and bottom rails of the spindle section. Even though I had purchased this piece of cherry from a local supplier, I still took the time to run one edge over the jointer to ensure that it was completely flat. Then I took the stock to the table saw and ripped a piece of the cherry to 4 3/8″ wide, using the newly jointed edge as the reference against the rip fence. Once I had the stock ripped, I went back to the jointer, and squared up the edge perpendicular to the first one I made on the jointer. The reason I did this is that the bed of my jointer will only accommodate a maximum 6″ wide piece of stock, and the stock I had was a little over 9″ wide.

The next step was to mortise slots in both the top and bottom rails. After a lot of head scratching and more math then I cared to do, I figured out that the most pleasing configuration was for 23, 2″ spindles spaced an inch and a half apart from each other, and that each spindle would be 3/4″ thick. A properly cut tenon is always cut smaller then the full size width and thickness of the stock, so for a 1 1/2″ X 3/4″ spindle the proper tenon would be 1″ wide by 1/2″ thick. So that meant I had to cut 23 mortises in the top and bottom rails that were an 1″ by 1/2″ wide.

When I have to make multiple mortise in both a top and bottom rail, I am always concerned that all the mortises will line up when I go to install the tenons. My fix for this problem was to cut the mortises through both pieces at once. After marking the position for the mortises on the top side of the upper rail, I clamped the upper and bottom rails together. I set the depth of my hollow mortise chiseler to a depth of 1 3/4″. An 1 1/2 for the thickness of the top rail, and a 1/2″ for the mortise in the bottom rail. I equipped the hollow mortise chiseler with a new sharp 1/2″ bit and began cutting out the mortises. To ensure that I was exactly centered across the width of the top and bottom rails, after completing one complete pass, I turned the stock around and made another pass with the opposite edge of the rails against the fence of the hollow mortise chiseler. If the results of this step make the thickness of the mortise a little more then the desired 1/2″, I will adjust the shoulder cuts of the tenons. This method of cutting both mortises at once worked for me, because I intended to add additional stock above the spindle section. This added stock will cover the through holes in the top rail.

The next step was to make the 23 spindles and then to cut the tenons in both ends of them. Again after some trial and error, I decided that the correct length of each spindle should be 13 1/4″. That plus a 1/2″ on both ends for the tenon gave me a total length of 14 1/4″ for each spindle. I went through my scrape box and my pile of pallet lumber and found enough visually interesting pieces of lumber that I could use for the spindles. I didn’t want them all to match or be of the same material. I liked the contrast that different woods gave the project. To be honest I made about 28 spindles because I wanted a few extra pieces to work with to perfect the fit of the tenon into the mortises. After several minor adjustments, I was finally happy with the fit of the tenons. because I was cutting so many tenons, I set the tablesaw to cut the shoulders of the tenons, and then switched to my Tenoning Jig to cut the faces of the tenons

After looking at the spindles I decided that they looked a little too plain, so using my table saw I cut a very shallow decorative edge along the four vertical sides of each spindle. This didn’t add anything to strength, I just though it looked better. 

 Click here for more detail

Before I did the glue up of the spindles to the top and bottom rails, I took both the top and bottom rails and added a decorative edge along the front and rear face of each rail. I did this using a router bit mounted in my shaper. Because of the length of the stock, I used a set of roller stands to support the stock as I ran it over the shaper. Again because of the length of the stock, I also used two feather boards to hold the stock in contact with the bit both vertically and horizontally.

One final step before I assembled the spindle section of this project. A good thorough sanding of both the top and bottom rails, plus all of the spindles. I realized that this would be a nightmare to sand once the section was assembled.

The assembly of the spindle section would have made a great episode of Americas funniest videos. Getting the 23 spindles inserted into the bottom rail was a piece of cake. However getting all 23 to line up and get them inserted into the top rail, without either pulling out of the bottom or getting lodged so far out of line that there was no way in He.. that they were going into the top, turned out to be a fun hour or so. I finally settled on getting one end started, and held in place with a clamp, then working my way down the line, aligning and clamping as I went along. I think in the end I used every bar clamp I owned to hold the two pieces together.

Once I had everything inserted, I double and tripled checked to be sure that the spindles were in fact square to the rails, and that I hadn’t racked the assembly as I glued and clamped it. That done, I put the spindles section aside to dry, and went to find a good glass of wine. Enough of this fun for one day.

Related posts:

1. Woodworking Project – Building a Bed Headboard Part 1