Bunk Beds, Day 5 - Part 2

26 June 2013

Bed is assembled (mostly) and in the bedroom. Mattresses are on the top and the bottom, mattress covers are on. Let's go onto how I got to where I finally am now.

Like I said earlier, plane, cut, assemble, done. Well, almost.

I did get the last three boards planed this morning. The only hitch there was that the three boards were still fairly wet, so the planing didn't do a whole lot.

Brought the head and foot boards into the bedroom after removing the box springs and moving the furniture out of the way.

Once this was done, I had to drill and attach the bottom outside spacers, lower long rails, middle spacers, upper long rails and then three of the tops. Next came the slat rails (these sit inside the long rails and hold up the slats that in turn hold up the mattress.

Next came the slats...

You may notice the wood mallet on the top bunk. This is what I used to "finesse" some of the top slats into place. It turned out that the top bunk is about 3/32 narrower than the bottom bunk and therefore needed slats that were just a hair shorter. This would normally be a fairly simple job. Throw the slats on the miter saw and have at...unfortunately, my daughter had gone to bed in the master bedroom. The master bedroom is about 15 feet away from the miter saw. This meant I went to the job with a tenon saw, shooting board and plane.

10:30 PM...

Mattresses are on the bed. Bookcase has been moved to the end of the bed. Storage is underneath the bottom bunk.

Tomorrow, I'm going to need to get up early. The guard rails for the top bunk need to be planed. The ladder rungs and guard rails need to be routed. The front needs to be drilled and screwed together. Then it's ready for Kenny and Jenne and the niece and nephew. I think the morning work is going to take about an hour.

After that's done, I just need to pack everything to be able to backpack with my three brother-in-laws and spend another night or two in Portland with the rest of the brother and sister-in-laws.

Next week's project is going to be fixing this mess:

The current bookcase situation in the home office is this sorry excuse. The replacement is going to be an oak bookcase with two or three main sections, about 6 to 6-1/2 feet long with movable shelving. I'll use red oak plywood for the case and shelves, then solid red oak for the trim and shelf fronts. Estimated time is another five days. I can't wait to get started!


I do want to send a huge thank-you to Matthias Wandel. His plans for a twin over twin bunk bed made this one possible for me to build. His website is pretty amazing. The things he does with wood are wonderful and ingenious.

Finally time for some rest. I'll make one more post on this project tomorrow after the front is up.

Bunk Beds, Day 5 - Part 1

I think today could be rough. ..get it? Didn't think of that pun until the letters were being typed. I need to finish planing the rails, three to go. Then cut and plane everything else and assemble.

Could be a long day. Kiddo is at daycare though so I could get some things done. We're also not clamming again today. Fun, but time consuming.

Lotsocoffee...GO!

Bunk Beds, Day 4

I'm officially on day four of this project and had a delay this morning that has unfortunately put me off schedule. The delay was an excursion clamming with my wife about a mile from the house. The fruits of the labor were outstanding, but the time setback could be crippling.

Today I was able to get the long rails cut and routed as well as the outside post pieces routed. The inside slat rails have also been cut and routed. I was able to get all but three of the boards planed tonight, unfortunately the 2x6 boards are the ones not done...

I did run into an interesting board At the end of the evening:

By far, the most work I've had to do on a board so far. There were the deep scallops on the left as well as the feed roll marks on the right. Not only did this side of the board take a lot of planing to smooth it out, it's not completely done and the other side had so many grain direction changes I eventually just switched to a card scraper to finish the job.

Tomorrow is the last day that I have to work on this one for a bit. Partially because the new bed for our room is being delivered tomorrow, partially because we're leaving for Portland Thursday, and partially because it needs to be used when we get back. 

I have several more cuts to make and a final assembly before I can call it good enough until it's finished drying out. 

Time for some sleep before a long day tomorrow.

And the pile grows...

Bunk Beds, Day 3

24 June 2013

Got up early this morning and finished planing. Went to sanding for the kiln dried 2x4 center boards, but found that planing was far faster than the sanding, even with a 40 grit disc on the random orbit sander.

The end result of planing:

Once the planing was done, I laid out the locations for the head boards and foot boards as well as the pilot holes for the screws. Drilled out and countersunk all of the pilot holes in the post boards for the aforementioned head and foot boards and begun assembly.

Took a break between assembling end one and two to take the kiddo to the park.

Finished assembly of the two ends and contemplated putting off the rest. Finally decided that I was well on schedule and that spending time with the family was more important than getting ahead on the project.

Bunk Beds, Day 2

23 June 2013

Today was a work day. After realizing the 2x4/2x6 mishap on Sunday, I didn't think that changing the post sizes would change some of my other measurements as well. I decided that I'd just cut all of the parts for the ends of the beds and then measure/cut everything else to fit. 

I was able to get all of the parts cut to length for the ends using my miter saw and then used a jig saw to cut the bevels for the head/footboards.

I cleaned up the bevels with a #4 Groz plane. After the bevel cleaning I chamfered all of the edges with a router.

I thought that my next order of business would be to sand everything to 220 before really getting down to the construction part. Unfortunately the wood was for the most part too wet still to sand. 

This is an explanation of why I changed method and the method to which I went. Here's an explanation of my process. 

Plane Shavings from the First Day of Planing

At the end of the day (10:45 PM) I had cut all of the end pieces to length, chamfered everything I needed to and planed about 60% of the boards. Tomorrow, tackle the rest of the ends.

The Bunk Bed Beginnings

22 June 2013

It was decided some time ago that a bunk bed would need to either be purchased or constructed to reside in my daughter's bedroom. Me, being the person to volunteer to build everything and actually turn out very little, decided that this was the one on which I was going to follow through.

Requirements were simple, solid construction, functional, attractive and full over full. The last part was somewhat of a tall order. We wanted to go with full over full as we have two full beds in the house currently and my wife and I wanted a queen size for our bedroom.

After an exhaustive search, I couldn't find any free plans (I'm somewhat of a cheapskate) for a full over full bunk bed. There were a couple for which I could pay, but I wasn't about to cough up the money for one.

I eventually found a set of plans by a guy named Matthias Wandel, he runs a few websites, one is Woodgears. He posted some plans for a twin over twin bed that I found quite attractive. After studying the drawings for a bit, I made a cut list that expanded his dimensions for a full over full.

Lucinda (my wife) cautioned me to not spend more money than it would cost to purchase a solid wood bunk bed. I ran off to Pro Lumber to pick up wood and screws.

Much to my chagrin, Pro Lumber had everything in stock that I needed except for kiln dried 2x6. I settled for the green stuff as they told me it had been outside for a while. Unfortunately that "while" meant not very long at all. I ended up pulling quite a bit more weight home than I needed.

When I got home I opened up the garage to get to work only to realize:

I hadn't emptied the garage from camping or race season. Clean the garage into at the very least a workable condition and I can get to work. 

Okay, the garage has been cleaned and I think I'm ready to get going. I found after studying my plans that I'd make one error already and Pro Lumber was closed for the day. Instead of 2x4 material for the corner posts, I'd purchased 2x6 stock. Not an issue, just rip the 2x6 down to size on the radial arm saw.

The Radial Saw that I have is one that my wife's uncle gave me. I got it with a hideous table and a "brand new" DeWalt blade. Unfortunately, "brand new" was referring to the blade in its unused condition when it was put onto the saw several years earlier. After a new blade, plus a complete tear down and rebuild, plus re-painting the legs, adding casters and a shelf under the table as well as making a new table for the thing, (50 hours of labor time) it was ready to go. Oh, and I had to install a 220 V plug in the garage too.

I got the 2x6 ripped down to size before I was tired and done for the day. 

What's this all about?

I am, among other things, a shop teacher. In addition to woodworking, welding and middle school woods, I also teach leadership, math, PE, freshman seminar (study skills and careers), I advise the Student Council coach Varsity Track & Field, the Electric Car Racing Team and serve as the Athletic Director.

Now that summer has arrived and I only have to think about a few school things every day, I'm taking time to return to the workshop where I used to toil away countless hours tinkering, and tinkering...and tinkering with who knows what.

This blog is intended to chronicle my (mis)adventures this summer and perhaps provide some poor fool with some techniques that they can bring into their own woodworking and/or house projects.

At current, I'm 28 years old and haven't even begun to tackle the number of projects that I'd like, but I do what I can with the time that I have.

Enjoy what you see here and laugh heartily at my expense. Perhaps pick up on something here and there, perhaps appreciate something that you thought you wouldn't.

Sincerely,

The Shop Teacher

The Shop Teacher and Daughter North of Florence, OR