Daughter's Twin Bed

[leehljp]

I have been working on this for over 18 months. I thought it was a year but my daughter said it was started in the Fall of 2014.

Its for my middle daughter. She has a small bed room without a bed, and she has two sisters with 5 kids each that like to visit! So I made the bed for our grandkids (her nephews/nieces) to use in her extra bedroom that was her storage room.

I don't have any more pictures to post at the moment. Main mistake was making it too high. I need to cut the top and bottom legs down about 2 to 2 1/2 inches each in the future, probably over labor day.

The spaces between posts of the top bunk and bottom bunk is because I beveled the edges about 1/8 inch on the bottom and top of each post rather than having a flat cut. The top and bottom are connected with a 1 inch diameter dowel 2 inches long; holes for connection drilled in the posts with forstner bit. I also drilled (forstner) into the 3 inch balls atop the posts and the 3 inch balls are attached in the holes. I made 8 of the balls in case my daughter decides to use the bunk beds as twins in a few years.

The longest part was cutting out the slats and fitting them into the upper and lower parts of the head/foot board. I used 5 inch bed rail fasteners from Rockler (I think). I still have to make the ladder and side rails for the top bunk. I should be able to do that between now and labor day. I have the material on hand and ready to use. I had to bring it on up to Ozark MO (next to Springfield) for her birthday this weekend. Otherwise I would have waited until I finished the ladder and side rails.

[BadeMillsap]

Really Really nice Lee! That will be a "forever" piece in the family. Being in the process of building a mission style bed at present I feel your pain getting the slats/spindles fit and in assembly.

Via Tapatalk-- Bade

[Bill in Buena Park]

Wow Hank - that turned out fantastic! Well done!

[JimD]

Looks nice.

I've made a couple mission style beds from Woodsmith plans and their design is to slip the spindles in after you glue up the headboard and footboard. You dado the two pieces that form the top rail of the headboard and footboard to form a slip mortise and then slide the spindles through it. You cover the mortises with a top cap. This made glue up of the headboard and footboard a lot less anxious.

[leehljp]

Looks nice.

I've made a couple mission style beds from Woodsmith plans and their design is to slip the spindles in after you glue up the headboard and footboard. You dado the two pieces that form the top rail of the headboard and footboard to form a slip mortise and then slide the spindles through it. You cover the mortises with a top cap. This made glue up of the headboard and footboard a lot less anxious.

Wish I had known about slip spindles. Probably would have made it easier. Edit in: I don't think slip spindles would work in this case, with the spindles/slats much wider in the middle section than on the ends.

Instead I did a modified version of this:

http://www.ana-white.com/2009/11/pla...win-sized.html Scroll about 1/3 of the way down to see their slat placement procedure. For me, I made the upper and lower "U" channel and added the boards in one at a time starting with the center one.

My daughter found this about two years ago and emailed it to me. I didn't like the overall looks, so of course I had to make some major modifications. With the spindles (I called them slats in the post above because I couldn't think of the right word) I measured about 10 times, glued and tacked the first one in the middle of both the top and bottom cap, added a spacer to each side, glued and tacked (with the cordless Ryobi 16gauge air gun), and then added another spacer. Checked for square from corner to corner with each set of spindles added. One of the shorter (footboard) was warped (wracked?) about 1/2 inch. I laid it on a flat surface, elevated the lower corners with scrap boards, and weighted the high corners until they were flat. left it for several days to set. It did fine.

The Ryobi nailer that did such great work on the headboards and foot boards:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt-ONE-AirStrike-16-Gauge-Cordless-Straight-Nailer-Tool-Only-P325/204667878

[atgcpaul]

Very, very nice, Hank.

[Pappy]

great looking bed, Hank.

[onedash]

Nice job!

[poolhound]

Really nice job Hank. Is it hand or spray painted?

[poolhound]

Looks nice.

I've made a couple mission style beds from Woodsmith plans and their design is to slip the spindles in after you glue up the headboard and footboard. You dado the two pieces that form the top rail of the headboard and footboard to form a slip mortise and then slide the spindles through it. You cover the mortises with a top cap. This made glue up of the headboard and footboard a lot less anxious.

Does that mean they are just a loose friction fit? Do they rattle?

[radhak]

Very classy, Hank! Yours looks better than Ana's!

And as for the height, while I understand your wish to cut it down, I think you should wait to see some of the kids use it before you change anything. Very often I see kids wanting to sit up and read in bed, and lack of height in bunk bed becomes a problem. What you think is a 'bug' now, might become a sought after 'feature' !

[Turaj]

Very nice job Hank.

Very classy, Hank! Yours looks better than Ana's!

And as for the height, while I understand your wish to cut it down, I think you should wait to see some of the kids use it before you change anything. Very often I see kids wanting to sit up and read in bed, and lack of height in bunk bed becomes a problem. What you think is a 'bug' now, might become a sought after 'feature' !

Agreed on both of Radhak points,

[leehljp]

Really nice job Hank. Is it hand or spray painted?

Spray painted. Used an HF painter I bought about 10 years ago and never used.
This one: http://www.harborfreight.com/high-vo...kit-44677.html
Didn't take but a couple of minutes to get used to it. IIRC, I think that is the first spray painting that I have done (besides from a can) since the '70s when I helped a friend in a body shop off and on for over a couple of years.


THANKS fellows for the comments! It is appreciated.

[leehljp]

Very classy, Hank! Yours looks better than Ana's!

And as for the height, while I understand your wish to cut it down, I think you should wait to see some of the kids use it before you change anything. Very often I see kids wanting to sit up and read in bed, and lack of height in bunk bed becomes a problem. What you think is a 'bug' now, might become a sought after 'feature' !

That thought has been going through my mind! I am reluctant to cut it down. It is fine for me to sit up on the bottom bunk and I like it. (I am 5"10) If I cut it down 2 inches for each, My head would be rubbing to top bunk unless I reclined more.

I will run this by my daughter and tell her that the expert (you) said to leave it alone! Seriously, thanks for the suggestion.

[leehljp]

JimD, Can you get me a link to a slip mortice? I thought I had it in my mind and then I kinda got confused on what exactly it should look like.