Sawdust on the Floor

Hopefully we can wrap this headboard up today. The center portion of the headboard and the corner posts are done, all that remains is to fabricate and then install trim work. Once that’s done then, it will be time to apply finish and then move it into our bedroom.

It would have been nice to be able to use some commerically available trim, but I couldn’t find any that really fit my design, or for that matter any that was made from a wood that looked good with the wood of this project. So I decided to make my own.

For that purpose, I turned to my shaper, that I equipped with a specialty router Bit. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I decided to make the trim out of 4/4 Cherry. I ran a length of the the rough cherry over my jointer, and then a couple passes through the surface planer gave me stock that I could work with. The next step was to rip the stock to 1 ¼” wide. I cut two pieces of this stock to roughly 36” long. Yes that is a lot more stock the needed to wrap around the corner posts, but I always make more in case I encounter a problem while working with it.

Most shaper fences come equipped with what’s known as hold downs. These are simply flexible pieces of metal that force the stock down on to the table of the shaper, or as shown here on the new Jet JWS 25X shaper fence, that looks like traditional plastic feather boards. When you are working on any kind of trim or molding, it is really important that you always use these hold down devices. If you don’t, there is a strong possibility that the stock will ride up the face of the router bit while you are moving the stock across the face of the bit. This can not only ruin the stock, but could create a safety issue.

It is also very important that you use feather boards mounted on the table to hold your stock against the fence. The reason for doing this is simple. Without these feather boards, the stock tends to “bounce” away from the bit. This will cause gouges in the surface of your stock. The more detailed or figured your bit is, the deeper the gouges tend to be. Take it from me, this is not something you want to have happen, I ruined several pieces of stock before I figured this out.

One other thing about fabricating the trim, remember that cherry tends to burn easily. To prevent that from happening, it’s best to make several passes over the bit, adjusting the fence and feather boards on each pass.

Once the stock was turned into useable trim, it was time to install it on the corner posts. I started working on placing the trim on the inside edge of the corner posts. It might sound like a strange place to start, but there was a reason. The position of the trim along the top of the corner posts does not clear the top cap rail of the center horizontal portion of the headboard. In fact it intersects the cap rail at ¾” or half way up the horizontal. To cut the cap rail profile out of the corner post trim, I did the following. Back when I was making the cap rail piece, I purposely made it a little longer then needed. When I cut it to length, I kept the cutoff piece. I used this scrap piece of the cap to help me scribe the profile into the trim. The piece of trim that I started with was about 12” long. I know that is much longer than the actual length needed, but there is a method to my madness and I will explain it in a minute. To cut out the cap profile I turned to a tool that I don’t use often, but when I need it, it is the best one for the job, my Dewalt scroll saw. The fine toothed blade of the scroll saw is ideal for the detailed work cutting the profile requires.

If you’re curious as to why I used the longer piece of stock instead of starting with a piece closer to its final length, it’s easy to explain. I figured that it would be much easier to cut the profile for the cap into the trim stock first and then determine where the miters belonged for that piece of trim, instead of cutting the profiles after the miters were cut. If I were off even a small amount, either the profile wouldn’t fit correctly or the miters would be off. I performed this operation on two pieces of trim, one for each corner post. The remaining three sides of the trim were cut, and then attached to the corner posts with glue. To hold the miters tight while the glue set up, I turned to one of my favorite clamps, the spring clamps.

While the sharp ends of the spring clamps can leave a dimple on the surface of the wood, those are easier to fix than holes made by nail gun. If you choose this method be sure you remember to put glue on both sides of the miter as well as the back of the trim.

There was one other thing I did to the headboard before I started working on the finish. I added a top cap to the corner posts. It was simply a piece of 6/4 stock cut to fit the dimensions of the corner post. To add some visual interest, I beveled the edges of this piece at a 25 degree angle. The piece was simply glued down to the top of the posts. To help keep the pieces in place while the glue dried, I added weight to the top with 5 gallon buckets filled with water. These pieces were added before the above trim was installed.

Well, as hard as it may seem, the headboard is done. All that remains is to apply the finish. That consisted of two days of sanding the entire project. It took that long due to the surprising large number of pieces in the headboard. Once the sanding was complete, I vacuumed the entire project, and then washed it off with Naphtha. A finish coat of a 50/50 mixture of tung oil and linseed oil was then applied to the entire project. After which the headboard was allowed to dry for an entire week. Then guess what, another entire sanding to remove any imperfections before a couple coats of polyurethane were applied.

After about of a month of work, this project that started out with a lamp that we liked, was done. To be honest, I really like the way it turned out. But I found a new problem; the headboard is too large and too heavy for me to move into the house without a lot of help, so I guess I will go see who is home in the neighborhood who can add some muscle power.

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2. Woodworking Project – Building a Bed Headboard Part 1
3. Woodworking Projects Building a Bed Headboard Part 2
4. Woodworking Project – Circuit Breaker Panel Part 2 – Raised Panels
5. Woodworking Project -Circuit Breaker Panel Part 3 Raised Panels 2