Nick Fohl
7/22/2002
nfohl --- sixthelement
nfohl --- sixthelement
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| Furniture that I have made for myself and my friends / 4posterbed_tom
Nick Fohl 7/22/2002 nfohl --- sixthelement nfohl --- sixthelement |
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A four poster bed that I built for my roomate. It was 3 year project that started before Tom McGillvray became my roommate - because I ran into to some problems with such a large project being built in my bedroom! This in-situ photo makes his room look more crowded than it really is because I was not using a wide angle lense. The posts are squar up until about 2" above the bedding and then I started the octogonal tapering. After some discussion, Tom decided that he did not want the traditional lathe that connects the 4 post tops. Completed early 2001
The design: Tapered Octogon pencil posts made from 4"x4"x8' construction grade pine posts. Clear fir side boards, walnut headboard. The box spring is supported with 2"x2" fir slats. The bed is a "knock-down" piece so that it can be disassembled and moved. I used French bed bolts for this (from Wood Craft Supply). Sizing of the bed is Queen. Because I used 3/4" thick pine for the side boards, I needed more depth for the bolts to give them room without poking through to the exterior. The bolts go through holes in the posts and then into the end grain of the boards via a hole and a notch for the nut. I solved this by using some left over red oak from a prior project (Allison and Tina's blanket chest I believe) and glueing up some extra thickness.
The sideboards are fully mortised into the legs for maximimum stability and load bearing - this way the bolts are only providing compression to hold the piece together and are not providing any support vertically. The bed has been extremely stable in its first year of life, with no squeeks or movement.
Tools:
| I used a variety of hand and hand held power tools for this project. Especially helpful was my new Lie-Nielsen scrub plane which was used to remove most of the stock from the pencil legs. This was after I bought, used and destroyed a power planer. The power planer has a spinning blade in a body much like the scrub plane at the left - it is sort of a combination of a power planer and a router. Anyway, I managed to get the power cord in between the work and the blade and it sliced through its own cord like nothing (except for the big blue POP!). This scared me sufficiently to go back to hand tools. This plane here is expensive but it takes wood down very, very fast. Easy to control and very accurate - it has a very open throut and a convex plane iron which makes a scalloped cut. Highly recommended. |
Lie-Nielsen scrub plane A scrub plane is designed to remove large quantities of wood in a hurry. In the past scrub planes were used as one does a thickness planer - to take rough sawn boards down to size, finishing with jack plane and smooth plane. Today's woodworker will still find pleasure in using a scrub plane for this purpose, as well as find it practical for shaping irregular objects and producing an interesting finish surface, or jobs like backing out a length of molding to fit an irregular wall. Scrub Plane $145.00 U.S. |
| Other tools used were the Lie-Nielsen Low Angle Jack Plane. This is the nicest plane in my tool box - it has a very low angle of attack for the plane iron so it does very well on difficult grain. As you can see from my pictures, I did not have the ideal bench setups for these projects and a smooth running plane made things much easier. I had a lot less tear outs once I switched from a regular Record jack plane. |
Our Low Angle Jack Plane is based on the Stanley 62, a 14" plane with a 2" blade bedded at a 12 degree angle. A moveable shoe allows fine adjustment of the mouth. The body is made from fully stress relieved iron castings. The blade is a hefty 3/16" thick, ground razor sharp. Adjustment is very positive, with a knurled stainless captive nut,like our No. 140 Skew Block Plane. The cap iron is bronze, and the knob and handle are cherry. Low Angle Jack Plane $225.00 U.S. |
| Other tools used: A Japanese pull saw, Bosch power drill, Sandvik hand scrapers |
