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Time to build another bed. I built a basic craftsman style bed for my daughter and the wife wanted it painted white and "shabby chic." That meant I was able to buy pine and have an easy time building. For the son's bed, I am tasked with a dark (see walnut colored) craftsman style twin bed. Not all the way into green and green style, but at least somewhat inspired by that. My question is what kind of wood do you think I should use. I need to keep my material cost around $400. I would like to have a bed of predominantly walnut but I don't know if anyone here has every build a twin bed out of walnut. I need some smart ideas. Should I even consider using pine? I am currently not doing so. What the wife wants me to build (from pottery barn):  (Info from pottery barn that I'm using to rough estimate some costs) 44" wide x 82.5" long x 41" high Footboard: 31" high x 44" wide Side Rails: 76" wide x 13" high x 3" thick Clearance under headboard: 23" Clearance under footboard and side rails: 9"
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Feb 14, 2014 04:47
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 18:33 |
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You can make pine look like walnut by using Minwax "Special Walnut" stain. I used it on the pine trim in my spare room and it turned out well. Also do yourself a favour and get some "bed rail clips" to make things easier when putting everything together. I really wish I knew those things existed before I made my bed.
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Feb 14, 2014 05:11
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Around here, $400 would get you around 60 bd. ft. of walnut, maybe a little more if you scry out some deals. Butternut is about half the price and is a dead ringer for walnut when stained.
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Feb 14, 2014 08:44
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Blistex posted:You can make pine look like walnut by using Minwax "Special Walnut" stain. I used it on the pine trim in my spare room and it turned out well. Also do yourself a favour and get some "bed rail clips" to make things easier when putting everything together. I really wish I knew those things existed before I made my bed. I'll need to try that Special Walnut--do you have to pretreat the pine at all? Sigurd, I highly recommend these things from Rockler. I've used them in my own bed as well as in a crib I'm currently building. 
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Feb 14, 2014 16:17
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Sigurd posted:Time to build another bed. I built a basic craftsman style bed for my daughter and the wife wanted it painted white and "shabby chic." That meant I was able to buy pine and have an easy time building. You could use poplar and then dye it that color. I did this with my sister in law's bed and it turned out pretty good. It would save you ton of money too. 
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Feb 14, 2014 17:24
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Jonny Quest posted:I'll need to try that Special Walnut--do you have to pretreat the pine at all? Nope, you can give it a light sanding if you wish. Those bed rails look pretty sweet, will have to try them out next time I make a bed.
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Feb 14, 2014 19:22
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I have several paper cutter knives, 24" x 4 1/2" x 1/2" thick that I saved from the dumpster. They have been sharpened (extremely sharp) to the point where they are no longer tall enough for the machine. I had hoped to build a miter trimmer with one but I've never gotten around to it. Truthfully I don't really use miters enough to make it worth the effort and a shooting board would be simpler to build. But I can't think of any other woodworking use for them. (comedy option ... giant hand plane!) Might make a great watermelon slicer if I needed such a thing. I'm just fishing for ideas I may have overlooked before I toss them on ebay.
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Feb 15, 2014 00:43
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cut em into smaller widths and make hand planes out of em is what I'd do
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Feb 15, 2014 03:10
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the #1 thing I miss about working in a print shop is access to the old manual papercutter we hand. great for stacks of paper, difficult packaging, sandwiches, and small pizzas
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Feb 15, 2014 03:12
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Thanks for the advice everyone. What do you think of quartersawn (sp?) White oak. On sale right now. Figure that might look pretty nice.
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Feb 15, 2014 07:16
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Jonny Quest posted:I'll need to try that Special Walnut--do you have to pretreat the pine at all? The last bed I made was all loose tenons and rigidity. I will use the rail fasteners this time I think.
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Feb 15, 2014 07:18
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rotor posted:cut em into smaller widths and make hand planes out of em is what I'd do Mmmmm, a 1/2" thick plane blade ... but I can't imagine how hard it would be to cut, probably hardened at least partially.
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Feb 15, 2014 07:26
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Sigurd posted:Thanks for the advice everyone. What do you think of quartersawn (sp?) White oak. On sale right now. Figure that might look pretty nice. White Oak is an excellent wood. If you can get it cheap, it'll be better than poplar or pine without question. I'm no sure how well it accepts stains compared to red oak though.
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Feb 15, 2014 16:57
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Oak stains well. It looks nice if you dye it one color and fill the pores with a darker color. Or fume it.
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Feb 15, 2014 18:01
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wormil posted:Mmmmm, a 1/2" thick plane blade ... but I can't imagine how hard it would be to cut, probably hardened at least partially. I doubt it, it's meant to cut paper, hardening seems like it'd be a waste if time run a file over it and see. I'll bet you could cut it on a bandsaw with the right blade.
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Feb 15, 2014 19:24
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Welp, looks like I need to resume my search for local wood suppliers that aren't Home Depot or Lowe's. I went out to the best (only, really) place I'd found here in Erie and while they have a perfectly good selection of oak, maple, poplar, and cherry boards, and various types of trim and such of all the same (and more) they cater primarily to builders who are buying large amounts. So while yes, they have beech and walnut, no they don't keep it in boards. With the walnut in particular, I guess thats more difficult to source lately? So they keep that raw and if someone needs it, they'll cut it up to spec, but of course I just need a few little boards so they're not gonna do that. Which is reasonable, of course, hobbyists aren't what they're targeting. I got my maple, at least, but if I want to do the walnut stripes, I'm going to have to special order it, I think. I do have some walnut on hand, but it's not long enough and I think I'd have a hell of a time trying to join to strips of veneer like that and keep the seam looking nice. Although, if I were going to do that, I might as well using something more interesting, I'd probably got some bloodwood or padauk or purple heart lying around... Any advice on this? What I'd end up with is a lamination something like this: code:I'm thinking maybe I could build up the layers on the inside of the curve, laminate one half of the walnut layer down, with another layer over top of it to lock it down (but not glued, just acting as a backing to keep the walnut down) and then once that is fully set, put down the second half of that layer using the same process. Might be kinda jenky getting it all together but I suspect that might be my best bet. So in that "art" up there, assemble those bottom layers, and assemble the top layers, and then glue the left side of the walnut down, using the top assembly to help keep it flat down, and then glue the right side down the same way, and THEN finally put the top assembly on. I suppose alternately, I could take the walnut layer (about 1/16" thick) and taper two pieces of it on the sander so I can do a sort of face glue over about an inch, and then run that through the planer/sander to make one continuous piece, that might actually be strong enough to hold up, but I'm not sure how the glue joint would handle the bending process. The walnut I have is about 2' long, so I'd either have to have the glue joint almost right on the bend (maybe just on one side of it) or have two glue joints towards either end of the lamination. WHY DO I HAVE TO MAKE THESE THINGS SO COMPLICATED. I could literally just do plain maple and be done with it. 
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Feb 15, 2014 19:45
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rotor posted:I doubt it, it's meant to cut paper, hardening seems like it'd be a waste if time Made for cutting stacks of paper several inches thick, the cutting edge at least is heat treated. No harm in hitting it with a file. I suspect it would be very costly in blades and time to cut it without losing temper. If I could get it done for a reasonable price I could sell the extra blades to recoup the costs.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:34
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Bad Munki posted:WHY DO I HAVE TO MAKE THESE THINGS SO COMPLICATED. I could literally just do plain maple and be done with it. You'd want the glue joints on the straight part, a scarfed joint would hide well. Padauk would be a nightmare because the red dust stains maple. A jillion clamps, glue with a long working time, a good clamping jig and maybe a metal strap. I'm sure you've been watching youtube videos on bending, there are some good ones on there.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:42
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Will I have problems with warping/cupping of my drawer fronts in this scenario: I plan to make my drawer boxes out of 6" (5.5") pine. They'll be about 25" wide and attached at the corners via box joints. I was thinking of making the drawer faces out of knotty pine and they will be about 7.5" tall and 27" wide. Attached to the drawer box via glue/screws. Will the inch above/below the drawer box start to pull away? Should I look into using a different wood since I know pine isn't the most stable?
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Feb 15, 2014 20:48
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Squibbles posted:pine isn't the most stable? Pine is plenty stable, it just gets a bad rap because construction grade isn't fully kiln dried and warps like crazy. Sticker and let it sit for a few months in your shop before using and it'll be fine, or buy actual kiln dried. Then cut to rough size, let sit overnight before cutting to final dimensions as with any wood.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:01
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This isn't fine woodworking but I just made this simple adjustable/foldable work stand today which I think is going to get a lot of use. I needed to cut a large peice of plywood so I needed something to hold up each side after the cut and I had nothing. I used the new delta bench-top joiner to square up the 2x4's so it seems reasonably square and solid. 
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Feb 16, 2014 01:13
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wormil posted:Pine is plenty stable, it just gets a bad rap because construction grade isn't fully kiln dried and warps like crazy. Sticker and let it sit for a few months in your shop before using and it'll be fine, or buy actual kiln dried. Then cut to rough size, let sit overnight before cutting to final dimensions as with any wood. Interesting to know, thanks
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Feb 16, 2014 01:16
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So I cut my strips for laminating today. Bandsaw cut great: the pieces were fairly clean, with an even thickness and no issues I could see. My jointer isn't operational right now, so I couldn't clean up one face between resawing each strip off. That meant I had two rough faces, and had to clean them both by sending the boards through the planer. That worked fine for most of them, although when you get that thin, even with a support board underneath, any little knot that changes the grain direction makes for blowout. I think I still ended up with enough good material, but there were a lot more failures than I would have liked. And on that note... Planing down curly maple veneer is a bitch and a half. That was miserable. Almost every piece had at least one or two failures. I got ONE really good one out, that'll be my outside layer. After waaaaay too many tries, I managed to get another piece through intact with a ton of babying. I still enjoyed all of it today, though, and accidentally skipped lunch and dinner and went until 8PM without even realizing it. The veneer work was excellent practice at spotting grain direction because I'd only get one or two passes with the planer and if a piece went through the wrong way, it'd chip out too much to rescue. Had a good time resawing, even. I really love this bandsaw, that was a good buy. And now I'm in the market for a thickness sander. 
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Feb 16, 2014 02:32
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Yeah, last time I worked with birds eye maple I had the exact same problem. Didn't matter how sharp the knives wear, it just kept tearing out. Finally I just gave up on getting a perfect surface and just sanded down as much of the tear out as I could. It didn't look too bad, you can see it in this pic here: I'm taking a woodworking class this semester and we're building a little hardwood wall cabinet that uses bent wood lamination for the top (it has some curves). We just did the glue up and the vacuum clamping last class. We used two layers of 1/4" bendy plywood sandwiched between some sub 1/8" veneers (I used hard maple) and we're going to veneer the edges as well so it will look like a solid surface. I've resawed all the parts including the veneers from some 8/4 and it was pretty fun. I'll post some pics from the next class.
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Feb 16, 2014 02:47
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Yeah with those highly figured woods and I'm ready to start finishing I go from the 4 1/2 to a scraper usually. Sometimes its just a bitch. In other news, does anyone else use potassium dichromate? I used it on some cherry a while back. Added many years in a day. Not anywhere near as scary as some nervous Nellies say. Super easy to use and does not blotch hardly at all, which I was worried about with the cherry.
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Feb 16, 2014 04:53
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Bad Munki posted:So I cut my strips for laminating today. ...any little knot that changes the grain direction makes for blowout. That's why I really want to build a drum sander.
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Feb 16, 2014 05:32
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The past couple weeks I've been making this serving tray for my best man's present. I'm getting him a liquor decanter and wanted to have a nice tray for it and some glasses to sit on. So far it's been oiled up, I'm debating whether or not to through a coat of poly on it. It's solid cherry, and I free hand drew the curves on the handles, so they're not symmetrical. It was a good learning process. Dry fit  Oil drying 
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Feb 16, 2014 18:06
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So, I had to rip some maple on the tablesaw today for the first time....&*(&$@)!*@!!! I have to repeat the process again in a couple of weeks and still undecided whether I should buy a good ripping blade or see if I can get the drift on our bandsaw under control, as this was a real bitch (burn marks on most of the cuts) and I had to fight to keep it safe. Added a featherboard after the first board which really helped, but this was not fun at all!.
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Feb 17, 2014 04:06
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ImplicitAssembler posted:So, I had to rip some maple on the tablesaw today for the first time....&*(&$@)!*@!!! ... this was not fun at all!. Underpowered saw? A ripping blade uses considerably less power when ripping than a combination or GP blade. This video is often recommended for bandsaw setup/tune up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU
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Feb 17, 2014 04:16
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Bad Munki posted:
I recommend against doing a split piece. It's hard enough to do a curve with perfectly clear whole pieces. The joint would probably crack in the bending process, and lining up two pieces end to end would be a huge pain in the rear end. If you're really have no other option, put the joints near the end of the curve. At least then they won't be under too much strain. Skinny Bins fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Feb 17, 2014 |
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Feb 17, 2014 06:12
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 Is this a bad idea? I'm redesigning my tv stand plan because it was way too complicated. I want a mortise/tenon frame, but also want thick leg posts. Because I only have 4/4 stock, I plan on laminating the posts out of two boards. Is it bad to have the "tenon" simply be the entire board width slotted into the mortise? It seems a lot simpler than cutting tenons out of the rails, and the leg posts have plenty of wood to accept the 3/4" board. It also makes the mortise construction simpler since I can do a lot of the cuts before laminating the leg posts together.
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Feb 17, 2014 16:36
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polyfractal posted:Is this a bad idea? The tenon shoulders provide stiffness and bracing; so basically yes it is a bad idea.
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Feb 17, 2014 17:26
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wormil posted:The tenon shoulders provide stiffness and bracing; so basically yes it is a bad idea. Great, thanks! I felt vaguely uneasy about it, since I haven't seen anything like it before. Good to know there is a reason why! 
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Feb 17, 2014 17:33
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Is there such a thing as a cheap but decent moisture sensor? What are you guys using?
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Feb 17, 2014 19:25
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the spyder posted:Is there such a thing as a cheap but decent moisture sensor? What are you guys using? Yeah, I even got one in my stocking this year, they can't be all that expensive. Did you try Amazon? Here's a cheap one: http://www.amazon.com/DUSIEC-Handhe...=moisture+meter
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Feb 17, 2014 19:30
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the spyder posted:Is there such a thing as a cheap but decent moisture sensor? What are you guys using? You can use your multimeter. I doubt you'll get a more precise moisture-meter. Look halfway down this link for a how-to: https://woodgears.ca/lumber/moisture_meter.html
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Feb 17, 2014 20:43
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That's awesome. I ordered a cheap one off Amazon about five minutes before reading your link though, haha.
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Feb 18, 2014 21:08
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What would you call it if you had a table top put together like this, with everything running diagonally instead of straight across? I have no idea if something like this would look good because I don't know what to google. My dad (he's the woodworker, I know nothing) picked up some ash over the weekend for a coffee table top, I'm just trying to decide how it should be glued together.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:44
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I've seen tables with tops like that before and I think they look fine.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:50
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 18:33 |
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I guess you don't see them often because it's pretty wasteful to laminate rectangles on the diagonal and cut them to size afterwards. I think it would look quite cool.
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Feb 19, 2014 22:02
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