The Bed We Made For You

Today In Shop

Here in the Mission Valley of Western Montana one can walk around and find wooden furniture made from trees. And, practically behind every tree is a piece of furniture waiting to come out of the proverbial woodwork.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Ole Joe's trolly dun got derailed again. Of course wooden furniture comes from trees!"

What I'm saying is that you can get a piece of furniture straight from a tree!

I ain't kiddin' ya, take a look...

See, it's just like I told ya, straight from a tree!

The other day I got to the shop and noticed a nice pile of logs was sitting beside the porch. I thought, "Aww, gee, some kind soul dropped these off to christen the woodstove I still have to build". Smiling, I turned away to grab the chainsaw and cut them up when something told me I'd best make a call.

It is my firm belief that whoever came up with Caller ID was a paranoid skitzo because it takes all the fun out of finding out who's calling and the fun was greater if the caller could change their voice.

"Riiinnnngggg"

Jim answered, "What the hell are you bothering me for now, Joe?"

"It's my destiny," I said in my best Darth Vader voice, "My function on this planet is to make you wish you had never met me."

"Well...it's working."

"Hey, you know anything 'bout them logs sitting out by the porch?"

"Yeah, Clinton wants to make a bed."

My shop is open to those who helped build it and out of them, only two; Bob and Jim, have unfettered access - meaning they have a key, which means they can come and go as they please. Clinton is Jim's youngest son who also helped so the door was opened to him and Penny to get their project underway.

As Shopenmeister my sole purpose was to provide assistance in:

Observations
Proper tools
Proper tool usage
Suggestions
Techniques

The first step of the project was to outfit them with a drawknife to remove the bark and here's Penny working away:

And we have Clinton's performance:

When it came time to dowel the ends I told Clinton the shop wasn't equipped with an adjustable tennoning bit but that fact wouldn't prevent him from getting accurate sized tenons. I suggested using a compass to delineate the diameters on the ends then marking the depth of the tenons with a wooden gauge:

Clinton's original thought was to use a hole saw to drill down through the ends to make the tenons. However, I knew that would be an effort in futility and explained how difficult the larger diameter hole saws are to handle in a powered drill and the fact they wouldn't be deep enough for the length of tenons needed. So, I suggested using a handsaw outfitted with a clamped on depth gauge, which was a blade liberated from a combination square. The saw's depth of cut is adjusted based upon the nomimal diameter of the tenon and the outer diameter of the member.

Once the tenon shoulders had been sawn to the marked line the next step was to use a sharp bench chisel to remove the unwanted chunks:

Once all the tenons were made it was time to drill the mortises:

I advised Clinton that the bed would look better if the footboard presented the best features first because the mattresses and bed coverings would hide all the goodies if they were left on the headboard:

And to keep the headboard looking plain:

As of yesterday (10/19/10) Clinton still needs to install the slats for the boxsprings and apply the clear finish but you get to see another project fixing to come out of the TKW.

I Draw Plans!

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