Bed leg design and construction help needed

[kooshball]

This question came about on my previous post on the "wood" forum regarding 16/4 walnut but I figured that I would put it here for more traffic.

I am going to build a bed out of walnut and the legs are 3" x 3" with a slight taper on the inside of an otherwise square leg. Something like this:

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I am now concerned with using one big piece of lumber due to the risk of having it warp.

1) how real is this risk if I get Walnut stock that has been air-dried for 6-12 months then kiln dried?
2) how strange will it look to have 2 pieces of walnut glued up on a bed leg?
3) 4-sided miter; how to account for the slight, asymmetrical taper?

Thanks

 

[mlzettl]

David,

If you have 16/4 walnut that has been adequately kiln dried, I don't think you need to worry about the legs warping or twisting. If you need or want to glue up the stock for the legs from 4/4 or 8/4 walnut, you can make the glue joints almost invisible with careful grain matching, machining, and gluing. Of course, gluing them up would require a lot more material than you would eventually use if you really wanted to match the grain well. There is a lot of fooling around involved. My advice would be to use the 12/4 if you have enough of it.

I don't really understand your third question on the "four sided miter" and "asymmetrical taper." Perhaps you could explain that a little more or provide a more detailed drawing of exactly what you are concerned about.

Hope this helps.

Matt

 

[Erich Thompson]

All the options you've listed are valid approaches, just depends on materials available, how much time you want to put into tweaking and what compromises you're willing to have seen. The four sided miter option has only the drawback of the miter seam being visible on the tapered face. If all 4 faces are tapered equally then even that wouldn't show. But what you have drawn would show ever so slightly in the shadow part of the foot if you got down on the floor to look at it.

Good luck.

 

[robliles]

David,

How long (or tall) will the bed post be? I am of the opinion that if you go with anything other than a solid piece of walnut, you will end up regretting it. You will get the best grain and look from solid as opposed to laminated or mitered. There are several places you can get 4x4x? squares of walnut. Constantines Lumber is one. They ain't cheap, but the quality is outstanding. They list pieces up to 36" long but I have had them supply me with 48" lengths in the past. These are really nice, clear, dry, pieces of wood and I have never had one twist, bow or split. I had one cherry piece 4x4x48 for over 9 years and it was as straight and true when I finally dressed it last week as it was when I received it.

If you need a longer length, you will have to find some 16/4 stock somewhere. There are several dealers, especially listed in "Fine Woodworking" that have it and do not have minimum orders, etc.

Good luck with your project and definitely go with solid. it is availiable but costly. I, like most folks on this site, build my furniture for two reasons. First, I can't afford furniture of the quality that I want and can build myself, and second, I can't find real quality furniture many places. The money I spend on really fine wood for a piece still makes the piece cheaper than anything I could buy of near similar quality (assuming my labor cost is $0) I am a firm believer that with my furniture porjects "the joy of low price rapidly disappears with the reality of low quality" or something like that.

Rob Liles

 

[robliles]

P.S. 1. The web site for Constantines is www.constantine.com/turningsquare.

2. The main reason we do this is we love woodworking

Good Luck, Rob Liles

 

[kooshball]

David,

How long (or tall) will the bed post be? I am of the opinion that if you go with anything other than a solid piece of walnut, you will end up regretting it. You will get the best grain and look from solid as opposed to laminated or mitered. There are several places you can get 4x4x? squares of walnut. Constantines Lumber is one. They ain't cheap, but the quality is outstanding. They list pieces up to 36" long but I have had them supply me with 48" lengths in the past. These are really nice, clear, dry, pieces of wood and I have never had one twist, bow or split. I had one cherry piece 4x4x48 for over 9 years and it was as straight and true when I finally dressed it last week as it was when I received it.

If you need a longer length, you will have to find some 16/4 stock somewhere. There are several dealers, especially listed in "Fine Woodworking" that have it and do not have minimum orders, etc.

Good luck with your project and definitely go with solid. it is availiable but costly. I, like most folks on this site, build my furniture for two reasons. First, I can't afford furniture of the quality that I want and can build myself, and second, I can't find real quality furniture many places. The money I spend on really fine wood for a piece still makes the piece cheaper than anything I could buy of near similar quality (assuming my labor cost is $0) I am a firm believer that with my furniture porjects "the joy of low price rapidly disappears with the reality of low quality" or something like that.

Rob Liles

Thank you for the reply; I need 2 at 20" and 2 at 49" for the legs. This be will be my first official project and like you I have decided to build it for similar reasons. Even if the 16/4 stock is $13 / bdft I can get the rest of my lumber much cheaper so the total cost of the bed will still be 1/3 to 1/2 of a similar one in the store. My wife and I have literally been shopping for bedroom furniture for 4-years and the outcome is always the same. It is either "$3500 for a bed?!" or more frequently "I would like it if the legs were different, or the side rails were a bit thinner, etc". So I sold all my photography equipment went and bought cabinet saw, 14" band saw and a drill press and here I am. I have access to a good jointer, planer and routers so I will hold off on those purchase but now I can create EXACTLY the design that my wife and I like and I can't wait to start sawing.

Solid legs it shall be!

 

[cpowell]

I have used laminated and solid stock for bedposts and really find the laminated looks beautiful if you select the grain carefully. Not an issue since you will buy solid stock.

The equilibrated solid walnut should not move since you are only going to remove a small amount of the surface. Problems with movement occur when you resaw thick stock and the wood stresses are relieved, or when stock is dimensioned and the stock surface mositure is different than the shop ambient equilibrium moisture.

Let the stock sit for a week in the shop before you start dimensioning. Use stickers to ensure all 4 sides of the stock are exposed to shop ambient air. Again - USE STICKERS to keep all 4 sides of the legs exposed to air while dimensioning and while you work. If you lay a piece face down on a table top for a few days it may bend. It will NOT move if you allow even exchange on all surfaces.

Take your time dimensioning. Remove a little from ALL sides, sticker and let it acclimate for a few days. If the wood bows a bit you can re-joint and then plane to finished dimension. The stock will not move if you do this.



Good luck and post pics!

Chuck

 

[smitty62]

No reflection on Constantines--they do sell a quality product, but so do some of our local suppliers like: http://www.walllumber.com/default.asp or

http://www.thewoodworkingsource.com/pages/Lumber.html We need to keep these local suppliers in business and buying lumber from Florida doen't help. I don't want to pay the high cost of shipping on all my lumber purchases in the future!:gar-Cr

Dick

 

[cpowell]

This question came about on my previous post on the "wood" forum regarding 16/4 walnut but I figured that I would put it here for more traffic.

I am going to build a bed out of walnut and the legs are 3" x 3" with a slight taper on the inside of an otherwise square leg. Something like this:

|......|
|......|
|......|
|......|
|......|
|...../
|..../
|__/

I am now concerned with using one big piece of lumber due to the risk of having it warp.

1) how real is this risk if I get Walnut stock that has been air-dried for 6-12 months then kiln dried?
2) how strange will it look to have 2 pieces of walnut glued up on a bed leg?
3) 4-sided miter; how to account for the slight, asymmetrical taper?

Thanks

Second thought since you are new to woodworking.

If you laminate 8/4 stock (face glued) it will look beautiful, especially if you can find stock 8 1/2 inches wide or so. You can dimension S2S then rip the center, then glue the face jointed surfaces. The appearance of the face jointed glue line is very nice since the surfaces are "bookmatched" in essence.

Again if you find 16/4 then no worries but don't fret over it if it is not available. If you truly need 3 x 3 finished posts then you should use 4 x 4 stock (16/4). It will be difficult to get true 3 x 3 finished legs out of 12/4 stock. You may need to settle for less depending on loss during dimensioning.


Chuck

 

[robliles]

Dick,

I in no way am suggesting not patronizing our local suppliers. 16/4 walnut is hard to come by. I live about as far from anything as you can and it can generally be cheaper for me to order lumber than to go to suppliers in person. I patronize Wall Lumber frequently and have been for many, many years. In all the times I have been there, I have never seen 16/4 walnut. Does he now carry it? I haven't been to his warehouse in a couple of years and none is listed on his website. I am a firm believer in buying local as frequently as I can. It's just that when you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary, i.e. 16/4 walnut, any source is worth checking out.

Rob Liles

 

[smitty62]

And I wasn't being critical, I just wanted to point out that we all need to patronize our locals suppliers to whatever degree we can to keep them around. My 2 cents (if it's worth that) I wouldn't use solid 16/4 or even 12/4 on a piece I prized- I would laminate it to avoid splitting or warping. Anything over 8/4 is very hard to dry (why you will find it scarce). I doubt you will find even top $ furniture posts are solid. Good luck in however you make it:thumbs_up