Mission style Queen sized bed in progress

[BadeMillsap]

Some while back in another thread => regarding long mitered joinery I got advice on how to deal with some fairly long mitered "legs" I needed to construct for the mission style bed I am building for my wife after MANY years of the "request" laying about unfulfilled.

I finally got moving on this project a month or so ago and made a trip to Huntsville, Texas and the M&G sawmill and picked up about 120bf of exquisite rough cut QSRO. After several hours of cutting rough lengths, jointing edges and planing and then several more hours of shop time cutting "pieces parts" ... I have a little progress to share ... all of the pieces are cut at this point ...

This photo shows the footboard dry fit to see if everything lines up ... getting all those spindles in all those square holes is no small task!!




and this photo shows the legs finally assembled ... I used a lock miter bit ... it WAS difficult to get setup and a scary thing screaming on the router ... I took 4 passes on each edge to get the full cut ... so for all 4 legs a total of 128 passes on the router table ... it was a bit nerve wracking but I am happy with the result ...




Much more to do but getting close to putting all the pieces parts together and then trying to get the color to suit the "customer" ...

[chopnhack]

That's great Bade. Much luck with the coloring, but it looks like you already have luck favoring you Getting that lock miter set up had me stumped, kudos sir. :-)

[LCHIEN]

How was using the Miter lock bit?

I'd thought about trying a miter lock bit, but it looked scary and the setup painstaking. Both vertical height and horizontal bit exposure from the fence need to be adjusted perfectly. With the vertical cut you will end up with the piece riding on a knife edge. So I never got one.


Was the results worth the work???
How about a closeup pic of the end of the legs?
Any pics during the cutting?

[BadeMillsap]

Lock Miter

Man you guys are tough!! I said I was "happy with the result" ... not that the result was "perfect"

Here's a shot of one of the ends ...



As is evident in this shot I chamfered the edges a bit because as LCHIEN indicates you wind up running on a feather edge of the wood and it just doesn't 'survive' all that well ... I read that an option to that is to cut the work pieces just a little oversize and then sand or plane them down to final sizing but I decided a little chamfer on these wouldn't look bad.

(in my pathetic defense ... my router table depends solely on my ability to adjust the router height "with the router itself" (DW-618) no fancy lift mechanism ... had I had a good quality lift I think I could have dialed it in virtually perfect with some patience ... it took me about an hour of 'tests' before I was satisfied enough to attack the actual work pieces)

[LCHIEN]

well, that looks pretty good actually. Nice work.

[BadeMillsap]

Dry fit ... starting to look like a bed!

I've made a little more progress on this mission style bed ... all the pieces parts cut, dry fit and ready for final sanding, finish work and glue up ...

[Knottscott]

Awesome project....looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[Shep]

It's really starting to come together Bade. Great work

[Pappy]

Looks great. I have a miter lock bit but haven't tried it yet.

[JimD]

Looks Great! Are you going to spray the final finish? With all those spindles it looks like a good canidate. If you stain, it might be better to do that before glue-up but I would be thinking of sprayed on poly for the final finish.

Jim

[BadeMillsap]

Pappy/JimD

@Pappy -- using that lock miter bit definitely tightened my backside. I was working with .9" stock so it took 4 passes on each edge to make the cut and every pass was tension filled. In retrospect, I believe that a really good router table (mine isn't) with several horizontal and vertical featherboards (I had 2 H and 1 V) and a really really good lift mechanism that allows for fine tuning (which I didn't have) would make this a fairly straight forward tool to use. Without all of that it is more of a religious experience.

@JimD -- I'm facing that whole "how best to finish..." question right now. I've pretty much settled on dying the wood with analine dye, then wiping a pore filler on, then a wipe on/off gel stain and finish with several coats of wipe on poly. I've got to soften all of the edges (and there are many) so I'll PROBABLY do that and at least apply the stain at that point but I don't want to inhibit any glue surfaces so I'm currently thinking I'll glue it up before the pore filler step.

[cabinetman]

I'm facing that whole "how best to finish..." question right now. I've pretty much settled on dying the wood with analine dye, then wiping a pore filler on, then a wipe on/off gel stain and finish with several coats of wipe on poly. I've got to soften all of the edges (and there are many) so I'll PROBABLY do that and at least apply the stain at that point but I don't want to inhibit any glue surfaces so I'm currently thinking I'll glue it up before the pore filler step.

The work looks great so far...well done. I would do all assembly before any finishing. If you use a grain filler, I would do that first. Is there a reason to use two different coloring methods?

Using a gel stain is fairly easy if you follow directions for the brand. It goes on fairly thick, and you wipe down to the desired color. I generally use a pigmented oil base stain, as you have a bit more working time.

Wipe on poly is a good fail safe finish.

.

[BadeMillsap]

Doing dye first to try and "pop the grain" a bit

@Cabinetman -- I have done a little experimentation and reading of other's having used QSRO and I think (read HOPE) that the analine dye will give a little extra pop to the grain ... the finish is going to be pretty dark and redish per LOML's requirements so I'm doing all I can to get the most visual effect from the grain.

I agree gel poly is very easy ... I've used it several times and really like the results and the ease of application.

I've started the final sanding task and expect it to take a good long while which will give me time to ponder the finish/glue sequence.

[JimD]

I do not fill the pores in oak (or walnut) with anything other than finish. It does not bother me at all that oak does not end up perfectly flat. It usually will only be perfectly flat if you put a whole lot of finish on and then sand it flat and buff it back out. I don't work that hard on furniture. Wipe on poly is easy but very thin. I like it for pieces that will not get much wear but for a bed, I prefer something thicker (and more durable). If you have spray equipment (or access to it), my favorite at the moment is Resisthane by Hood finishing. I've used it over oil based stains after waiting a week for the stain to throughly dry (it is water based).

Sanding after coating with a water based dye will be a pain on this much surface area. An oil based stain would raise the grain less. In the end, what is acceptable to your quality control officer will be what you need to do.

Jim

[BadeMillsap]

Almost done

The following pics show the Head and Foot boards after applying the aniline dye coats and before the Seal-A-Cell coat ... after that it's wipe on gel as a glaze to push the brown tone a bit and then satin poly.





So far the wife is pleased!