California King Size Walnut Bed, Part 3

To make the head board, I started by joining the boards using biscuits.

I wiped most of the glue squeeze out with wood dust right away, then once dried I went over with a chisel and a hand plane to remove the rest.

I used the orbital sander with 80 and 150 grit to finish the surface.

Then I trimmed the ends to the final length with the jig saw first...

...and finally with a router to leave a perfect finish.

I always make lots of adjustments to the initial plans throughout the build...

To cut the miters for the head board frame, I used the miter saw.  To get a bit more accuracy I used a piece of sacrificial plywood as the base so it'd show me the cut line.  Then I sneaked to the cut line a little at a time.

I don't trust the guides on the saw, so I made a few test cuts on scrap wood to make sure I got a perfectly square angle:

The frame is also joined with biscuits.

A handy trick to clamp very long boards is to connect two long clamps:

This is how the back of the head board looked like once done:

If there're any small gaps in the corners I finish them with a mix of super fine sand dust and glue:

The side boards were a lot easier to make, here's a gluing the rail to it, which also has a bunch of drywall screws:

The legs are very simple also, first I cut them to width:

Then to length on my sled:

and finally gave them a sanding:

These are also glued with biscuits.  Here's using Matthias Wandel's trick to remove squeeze out with wood dust:

California King Size Walnut Bed, Part 2

I made the plans, and decided to add a headboard after all.

This is how it will look like:

The headboard is going to be made of a miter-jointed frame with a board inside that's made of 3/4 inch walnut boards jointed together.  All joined with biscuits and glue.

NOTE: The measurements shown in these screens are not 100% accurate.  I made changes to those during the build of the bed.  Please don't use as a reference.

The rails are going to be made of 2x4 fir:

Bottom view:

Side boards:

Foot board:

Supports:

California King Size Walnut Bed, Part 1

I made some quick sketches for a very simple design using 2x4's and solid walnut.

I wasn't sure whether to have the mattress rest on the actual walnut boards or tucked in, but I think I'll go with the latter (which is, the left sketch):

I started by planning all the boards to 1 1/4 inch thick,

That made a lot of chips

Then I jointed all the edges.  I don't have a jointer large enough to do this, so I just did it on the table saw.  It's good enough for what I need it to be,

That's all of the 2x4s:

8 feet is as long as I can rip in my small shop...

Finally, I sanded everything to 220 grit for now.  I'll do up to 300 later,

That's all the boards ready.  I don't have the mattress yet, but once I have it, I'll cut everything to its final dimensions and assemble it, in part 2.

Walnut Drawer Cabinet Part 2

The drawer boxes are made out of 12 mm Russian birch.  Probably if I could go back I'd make them out of nicer plywood and also cover the edges with veneer.  I may still do that later on if it still bothers me.

I joined them with rabbet joints.  The bottom is 6 mm plywood.

They are glued and nailed.  I use these squares red squares I made out of oak and box joined to keep things square while I nail things.

My shop is so small everything is on wheels and most things have a double function.  That bench is usually against the wall and I use it for finishing pieces, but some other times I roll it behind the table saw and use it as an outfeed table which is very handy to rip through big sheets.

We made this jig to figure out where each drawer slide should go and make sure both sides match up perfectly.

My father made the calculations and the sketch for that part.  You can kinda tell he did that for a living for decades.

The drawer faces are made of 3/4 inch walnut plywood, the same used for the cabinet itself.  The edges are made of solid walnut cut in strips of 6mm and miter joined.

I made this small jig to make the holes for the drawer pulls so they are in the exact same spot for all the drawers.  All you need to do is draw a line at half the face and then line it up with the line on the jig, then drill.

The drawers have a 2 mm clearance (approximately).  It took a ton of work, tweaking, sanding, wedging and hand planing to get a perfect fit.  

I sanded it all with an orbital sander and then with 180 and 400 grit paper.

To finish it, I blew compressed air on all the pieces to get rid of most of the dust, then I rubbed it with mineral spirits to get rid of the rest, let that dry and apply a coat of tried and true varnish.

Turned out really nice.

The shop mid-project

Progress

Just a year ago, this was the extent of my woodworking skills.

Sketching Skill: Me vs My Father