Maple and re-purposed mahogany bed

Henry W

Henry
Corporate Member
This bed has been a long promised project for 'us' - it was 90% completed before the 'Covid desk' jumped it on the priority list.

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The design is inspired by a piece we saw in a furniture store 5 years ago; took a pic and then made this piece based on that, using these materials. The mineral pattern in the maple 'spoke to me' at the lumber yard when I saw it, and thought it might make a wonderful panel for the bed we were planning. Dimensions of the head board were planned around that panel. The maple panel is I believe 14" wide at the max, all one board as you might guess with that mineral streak pattern.

The mahogany in this project has the same origin as the mahogany in the recently posted "Covid" desk, except this mahogany was all from solid raised-panel mahogany interior doors (1.75" thick). Recall the stack of mahogany doors Phil gave out a few years back? That was provided ALL the mahogany for this bed.
Anyways all the mahogany in the bed is in essence 8/4 material - the posts and stretchers of both the head and foot boards, as well as the rails (which are in essence mahogany 2x6s). The maple panels in the head and foot board are 4/4 material - flat panels.

In the foot board the panel floats in grooves on all 4 sides, conventional construction. In the headboard the top curved rail is 'lifted' away from the panel, so only three sides of the panel have a tongue. The panel is completely glued into the bottom rail of the headboard, and all the expansion will be up/down on the top edge. The grooves holding the ends of the panel extend higher than the tongue of the panel, allowing for dimensional changes with moisture; the grooves are covered by a small portion at the top of the panel without a tongue. At 64"+ wide, I did not have long enough clamps for the head and foot board. Here's a pic of the 'paired wedges' clamping technique I used on my bench top to glue up. Wedges are shown in left side of pic - which are almost top down pics of the piece clamped on the bench top.
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Loose tenon techniques were again used, made exclusively using a horizontal router table. 3/4" thick tenons were used in this 8/4 material. Panel tongues were set into 1/4" slots in the head and foot boards.

The side rails have both loose tenons (not glued into the posts) and 'traditional' bed bolts. Here's a pic showing the unfinished head board, mortised for the side rails but not yet drilled for the bed bolts.
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The platform is made of three pine frames of 1x4 on edge. These are skinned over with 1/8" luan flooring glued/stapled to the frames; sort of a torsion box but simpler (no interior members). These 3 platform elements are laid onto a ledge that is screwed onto the (massive) side rails. While this platform took more effort to construct than a 3/4" plywood platform, I suspect it is both stiffer and lighter, as well as easier to handle and maneuver. Third, it used available materials.

Finish is SealCoat diluted 3:1 to a 1/2 lb cut, sprayed, and 2 coats of sprayed Target EM-6000 water borne lacquer (gloss). For some reason when I sprayed the rails (in the recent high humidity experienced in NC) the SealCoat layer dilute as it was, kept giving me white streaks. I re-sanded once, and repeated the sprayed finish, with better, but not flawless results. I scuff sanded these white areas with a 180 grit pad and continued on with the lacquer. It is not perfect, but also not very visible. Thankfully we did not have such humid weather when I sprayed the head and foot boards last week (as those would have been much more difficult to re-sand than simple straight rails).

Put into service tonight!
 

JohnnyR

John
Corporate Member
Great bed and description Henry. Now don't let your wife cover it up with fancy pillows like mine did.
 

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