Main > Woodworking
Woodworking questions (non-arcade related)
Pyro:
If you do end up using Pine and decide to stain it instead of dye it (as was mentioned earlier in the thread) you might want to consider using a wood conditioner on the lumber before staining it. Staining pine directly can produce a "splotchy" appearance. The use of a conditioner helps relieve that problem.
I would recommend not using a softwood for a bed for a couple reasons. One is that any joints you make may eventually "wear out" due to the softness of the wood. Another reason is that it dents and scratches easily. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread something about a "distressed" look. If that is something you are considering, then maybe a softwood would be suitable for your project.
One major consideration is how you plan on fastening the rails to the headboard and footboard. Beds get a lot of use and abuse (No need to elaborate here ;) )and strong joints will help you keep your bed around for a long time. There are a few different ways to make these joints.... some are mechanical such as brackets or bolts & plates, and some are joints you cut directly into/on the wood such as mortise and tenon joints.
Good luck with the project,
Pyro
AtomSmasher:
Alright, you guys have talked me out of using pine, what is a good wood to use that isn't too expensive? Maple, as mentioned earlier?
As for the plans for my bed, well, what I have scribbled down probably won't make sense to anyone but me. Its basically some crude drawings of my design and a list of every piece of wood I'll need to cut out, with the exception of a few small pieces I can cut out of scrap wood. How all the pieces will fit together isn't on paper though, its just in my head. I went ahead and posted my drawing of the "headboard", which will actually be a bookcase style headboard. It'll have 2 drawers and 4 shelf type areas. I also attached a bookcase headboard picture I found online so you can see what I'm going for.
Warning: The rest of this post is a description of how I'm building my bed, so feel free to ignore it. It probably won't make much sense anyways. I'm pretty I've thought the design through pretty throughly, so my plans should work well and be easy enough to build.
The reason theres 5 legs is because this bed is actually going to be convertable from a full size bed to a queen size bed. The reason for that is right now I have a full size mattress and box spring and don't really have a reason to buy a queen size. But if I'm going to build a bed, I might as well make it as useful as possible since I'm sure I'll eventually get a queen sized bed. So, the 2 outside legs will be used when its a queen size bed, and the 2 inner ones will be used when its a full sized bed. The 5th leg there to hold two support railings that will go down the center of the bed.
As for how the railings will be attached to the legs, I'm going with an extremely simple method. At the top of the bed (the side with the headboard) they will just be bolted to the legs on the bookcase headboard. For the legs on the bottom, I'm going to use a 1''x3'' and a 1'x4'' and attach them together in an L shape, making it 4'' on each side. I will then bolt the railings to that. I'm also going to have two railings going from the center leg of the headboard to the footboard. There will also be some railings attached to the footboard and I'm planning on putting supports underneath each of the railings at the legs which will go from the bottom of the railing to the floor, so it should be very rock solid. I should probably also mention that the railings will be 2''x4'' boards attached so the 4'' is vertical, making it unlikely to bend. I know I'm going a bit overkill on the supports, but I figure its better to make it too strong then not strong enough.
The sides and the footboard will be 1''x12'' boards, with the 4'' railings attached on the lower insides, the extra 8'' will be covering up the boxspring. I'm attaching a picture of the type of look I'm going for, except it'll have a bookcase headboard instead of that one. I'm also going to make 2 footboards, one at queen bed width and one at full size bed width, I figure I can keep the unused footboard inside the lower section of the bookcase, just behind the mattress.
Oh, one more thing, you'll notice on my sketch theres a 16'' tall section, thats the part where the mattress will be and 8'' above the mattress, which I will use two 1''x8'' boards to cover. I'm thinking of making the top 8'' board hinged with some sort of trick release system because it will just be wasted space behind there and might as well add something kind of cool to it.
If any of that makes sense, then theres probably something wrong with you, but let me know what you think.
AtomSmasher:
I should probably also mention this website which helped a lot when coming up with my plans
http://www.freeww.com/index.html
clite_rad:
Looks like quite a project and it seems as though you have thought out things fairly well. One suggestion might be to use oak/maple plywood for the longer and wider pieces - you could rip a couple of 4x8 sheets into the larger/longer pieces; then you would just front them with a small strip of matching hardwood to hide the edges of the ply [or use t-molding on the edges - a nice green would look good ;)]. This would cut the costs of using hardwood for the whole project (it also may be hard to find hardwood in the width that you need). This technique is used in many pieces of furniture - the plywood is more stable than striaght hardwood which also makes for less problems with warping.
Good Luck!
tkuper05:
I say you make an arcade bed using t-molding and translucent buttons all over the headboard and joysticks on the corner posts. Use some Galaga bedsheets too that would be sweet. BYOACBed :laugh2:
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