Craftsmen Slat Bed Question

[cpowell]

I'm making the bed shown below in KD red oak. LOML found it online and issued the work order. I printed the pic and scaled with a tape to get approximate proportions, then adjusted for a full size mattress set.

The wide slat in the center will be around 7 inches wide and the other slats around 4 inches wide. Should I oversize the mortises that accept the slats? I have built a similar bed before but the slats were only two inches wide and I cut the slats so they slid into the mortises without slop.

My gut feeling is that the RH in the shop is higher than the house and the slats will probably shrink very slightly once the wood equilibrates with ambient moisture content in the house.

Chuck

 

[DaveO]

I think that in this part of the country, no matter what season it is the environment inside a house is going to be drier than most shop environments. So the biggest thing you have to worry about is shrinkage (don't we all :lol: ). Those slats don't seem to be very structural. So I would consider using a close to full width tenon and mortise and only gluing the center of the tenon to hold the slat in the correct orientation. That would allow for whatever shrinkage that might occur.
My $.02, Dave

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

What Dave says or a split/dual tenon to keep the slat flat. Except for the inevitable rattle over the winter when everything is dry, you could even forego the glue. Another option is to use 23 ga. pins in the center on the inside where they won't be seen.

 

[jeff...]

Why couldn't you glue the slats in place? Am I thinking wrong? As long as the Lumber MC is around 8%, I'm thinking it's not going to shrink much more, if at all. Especially if keep it dry during finishing (no stain) and sealed well. Red oak is by far my favorite wood to work with, it's stable as anything as long as it's worked after it's arrived at the proper MC.

 

[Travis Porter]

Reading in the current FWW issue Christian Becksvoort talks about how much wood will move. His figures were for worst case scenarios, but IIRC, an 8" wide board would move 5/16".

Are you planning on putting tenons on the pieces or putting them in the grooves? If it were me, I would make tenons narrower than the openings but have the board wide enough to cover up the openings. That way, no gaps.

My .02.

 

[cpowell]

Reading in the current FWW issue Christian Becksvoort talks about how much wood will move. His figures were for worst case scenarios, but IIRC, an 8" wide board would move 5/16".

Are you planning on putting tenons on the pieces or putting them in the grooves? If it were me, I would make tenons narrower than the openings but have the board wide enough to cover up the openings. That way, no gaps.

My .02.

I cut a dado to accept the slats and will glue in spacers between the slats...no tenons. I have dry fit the slats in the headboard and it looks very good! It's a big headboard.

I decided to go with a 5 inch M&T joint after all. The red oak is dry and has been in the shop for quite a while. The wood might shrink 1/32nd or so which I don't believe will be a problem.

I can't get into the shop tomorrow night but with luck I'll finish the footboard slats Wednesday night. I'm hoping to sand and glue up next weekend and deliver to my son's bedroom the following weekend. Work and travel are eating into my shop time...(I figure you know the feeling yourself lately ).

I'll try to take a few WIP pics tomorrow evening.

Chuck

 

[cpowell]

Here's a pic of the footboard assembled dry. The footboard is 38 inches high by 60 inches wide (rails are 54 inch for full size mattress set). The headboard is around 50 inches tall.

I originally planned to leave the leg posts straight at the top, unadorned. I am considering adding a cap...maybe a two piece square cap. The bottom piece would have a cove (wider at the top side) and the top would be a square cap with a roundover on the bottom to tie in with the cove. I would prefer the two piece cap so I can use dowels to center everything atop the post.

Does it look okay as is? The rest of the furniture in my son's room is craftsman style in red oak with straight legs.

Chuck

 

[DaveO]

Personally, I would add the cap like you mentioned, but also reduce the height of the extension of the top of the legs by about half. They look a little tall to me, of course that is my opinion and you know what they say..."they are like armpits, we all have them and often they stink." :-D
Dave

 

[Travis Porter]

I second Dave's opinion on all counts, but my armpits don't stink tonight. I used deodorant.

Have you decided how you are going to attach the rails?

 

[cpowell]

I second Dave's opinion on all counts, but my armpits don't stink tonight. I used deodorant.

Have you decided how you are going to attach the rails?

I'm going to attach the rails with standard bed rail fasteners for easy disassembly. I used them on a previous bed and they worked great.

As far as the post height...if I go without caps I'll leave them as is, but, I wholeheartedly agree they would not look good with caps unless they are cut down to within an inch or so of the top of the rails.