Building a rustic bed?

September 9, 2005 11:35 AM

Building a bed out of logs: Attaching milled rails to the rustic headboard?

My wife is a self-taught beginner rustic furniture builder, she builds stuff out of logs and sticks. She's currently building a bed and is at a stand-still.

She has the headboard and footboard built and now wants to build the frame for the mattress. She knows how she's going to build the frame. The problem is the rails will be standard milled lumber (1x6, I think) and she's not sure how to go about attaching them to the headboard and footboard.

She doesn't want to use any metal hardware with the exception of a bedbolt. That would ruin the aesthetics of the rustic work. In a normal bed built out of normal milled wood she could use normal joinery using the same measurements on all four posts, set the saw or router, and end up with everything square and perfect. The problem is, being rustic, the four posts are all slightly different so creating accurate mortises and tenons that would result in a square, level bed is not that straight forward.

The goal is to end up with a square bed but the rustic nature of the posts makes it impossible to use a jig or a simple saw setting for all four posts.

So, how can she make the same cut on four irregular posts or is there a better way to do this?

As for tools, she has a router, a buttload of hand tools, a band saw, and a hand held jigsaw.

I'm not a woodworker, she's not a mefi member. That's why I'm asking for her. I'll do my best to answer any questions. I'll also welcome emails from rustic woodworkers who might be able to help.

posted by bondcliff to home & garden (11 comments total)

Mortise and Tenon.

They aren't a lot of fun to do by hand, which is the only way to go on irregular objects that (like you stated) won't work with a jig. You could probably rough it out with a saber saw and fine tune it with a nice hand saw, but it will take a lot of work and precision. I'm sure it will look fabulous if done correctly.

Japanese woodworking is famous for their mastery of fastener-free wood joinery, maybe she could pick up some books on their techniques?
posted by prostyle at 11:45 AM on September 9, 2005

If you cant cut mortices and we have to stick with the tools mentioned above (not even a tablesaw?) then you will have to make the frame rails freestanding (and squa') with their own means of support. Then the head & footboard attach after the fact like big trimpieces.

Depending on the design of the footboard, you can obscure the fake legs by insetting them a bit from the edge.

(Let me know if I need to draw a diagram or something, I can)
posted by ernie at 11:48 AM on September 9, 2005

How about the method used to join the rails to the posts of a split rail fence? Could she whittle the ends of the side rails and fit them into holes that she carves into the headboard and footboard?

On preview - since I don't know the proper terminology, I may be suggesting what prostyle is suggesting, but I will forge ahead in ignorance anyway.
posted by iconomy at 11:48 AM on September 9, 2005

She has circular tenon cutters that attach to a hand drill. They're good for creating mortices and tenons (I don't know which is the innie and which is the outie) on the ends of the logs/sticks, but it won't work for the 1x6 going into the posts.

If everything was perfectly square, she could cut a 1x6 slot into the posts. That's the idea, but since things aren't even throughout if she cuts them they could all end up a bit off The bed wouldn't be square and if she tried to fix it by carving the slots wider it would weaken the structure.

She has a few books on rustic building but none of them address this type of thing.

Iconomy, I think whittling down the siderails would weaken the bed and make it hard/impossible to attach the bed bolt.
posted by bondcliff at 11:55 AM on September 9, 2005

What about an inner "shelf" to lay the rails on? I'll draw a really embarrassing picture of what I mean.
posted by iconomy at 12:00 PM on September 9, 2005

I haven't done this myself, but I think with a jig you cut a pretty tight mortise with a router, a jig and a template. Build a 3-sided, U-shaped plywood box just long enough to clamp the round bed posts in, then make a carriage for the router to ride on the open side of the box. Easier if it is a plunge router. The box will hold the post still and the carriage will allow the router to float above it on a flat surface.

Hmm, this is hard to explain, but a picture of a router in carriage is here.
posted by LarryC at 12:06 PM on September 9, 2005

Also, the mortise wouldn't have to be all that deep if you use some big-ass bed bolts to join the thing together.
posted by LarryC at 12:07 PM on September 9, 2005

I should mention that the headboard and footboard are already assembled.

LarryC, what about using a router table? If she had a way to keep the headboard flat on the table somehow. She's not very experienced using a router but my brother has a table and some experience.

Sorry if this sounds like Woodworking 101 translated via babblefish.
posted by bondcliff at 12:12 PM on September 9, 2005

I think it might be too hard moving something that large and irregular over a router table--you would lose the "feel" for how the bit is moving through the material. But you are on the right track, the carriage is a sort of upside-down router table, and the plywood box would give you a stable flat and square surface to support the carriage.

Whatever she does, practice on some scrap logs first!
posted by LarryC at 12:30 PM on September 9, 2005

If the headboard and footboard are assembled you're almost good to go.

You will be using bed bolts to keep it together no?

Drill some temp holes in the bottom of each post, and bolt some 2 x 4s onto them to stand them up.

Lay everything out then, you can almost eyeball it, with the rails in place, figure out your height up the posts, cut the tenons on the rails, and drill, rout, or chisel the mortises.

Keep in mind, the idea is to be able to take the bed apart, the mortises don't have to be airtight, 1/16 -1/8 inch play is fine, the bolt keep everything locked together.

Since the HB and FB are already assemebled, drill then chisel, depending on the diameter of the posts, ya want 2 1/2 to 4 inches of tenon in them posts.
posted by Max Power at 4:25 PM on September 9, 2005

Working around the idea of using bed bolt one does not need to make a full-blown mortise and tenon. Indeed, the 1x6 IS the tenon to a very shallow mortise -- just enough to have it "sit" into the each bed post.

Here's how I see it:

Set the bed rails up on a temporary stand, making certain that the rails are parallel and square to one another and the floor. Construct this jig such that the ends of the rails are free and nothing interferes with setting the of the head and foot boards such that each corner post can touch the end of each rail.

Set one frame adjacent to the rail set-up, using clamps or temporary braces as needed to hold it "plumb" and adjacent to the ends of the rails. Judge which post will need cutting first: the bottom of each post mortises should define the plane of the bed frame. (Imagine a milled and sqaure bedframe sitting against flat stock. Those shallow mortises will be your flat stock.)

Working with one end frame at a time, trace and cut a shallow mortise using a knife to trace acorss the grain of the post, a scratch awl to trace along the grain of the post and VERY sharp chisles to remove the waste wood. Cut only deep enough to allow the rail to sit snugly into the post. (A milled bed frame using bed bolts has NO mortise so let that be your guide. :-)

Repeat with the other corner post of the frame and adjust each mortise until satisfied that the frame is "square" to the rails. (Given that this is rustic, one can only put an eye to it.)

Drill and set the bed bolts. Repeat with other frame.
posted by Dick Paris at 2:25 AM on September 10, 2005