Almost there

If you had asked me three weeks ago, I would have told you that this bed would be done when Katie went to college. Now it is looking close.

Here is the Front Wall

I am cutting the side wall to size

And here is a quick fit test.

Now there is hope

First Final Assembly Complete

Well keeping up with the long traditions of Blogging, I have failed to update this journal as promised.

But we have now started final assembly. The headboard and bed platform are now attached, the headboard is painted, and it is all screwed to the wall. I am convinced that the walls will come down before this bed.

This is the final sprint. I still have delusions of making a trailer before memorial day, so if we are not done next weekend that plan goes up in smoke.

The tower is not finished. I was just checking to make sure it fit.

Wish me luck!!!

Norm would be proud

Wood Magazine was in town this weekend for their traveling show. I had cut the shelf for my bookcase headboard, but was having trouble getting it all glued together. I decided that it was time to listen to the old adage, "woodworker can never have enough clamps!"



One neat clamp I found this weekend was called a 3-d square. It is just a piece of angle cut on a miter. They machine them within 0.0002 inches of square. They help hold things steady while you see the real clamps. I love them!

Bed Frame

This is the first piece of the bed I have completed. It also contains the first design change. I took two of the crosspices and turned them flat. I built brackets for them out of spare 2x4. This way we can pull them out and use the space for storage.

Overall I am happy with the way it came out. I did manage to glue one of the corners with the wrong overlap. I was checking the diagonals for square and could not figure out why it was so out of line. One head smack later, and a was scrambling to rip out screws before the glue set.

But in the end it worked out OK.

One down, some rather large number to go.

The workshop

So this is my so called workshop. They say that an organized shop is the sign of a deranged mind, so my friends and family have nothing to worry about. While the space is working it one real problem is dust.


MDF creates an evil dust. While the particles are too small to see with the naked eye, don't try taking a picture with a flash.

This dust gets everywhere. Not good when you share the space with two cars and all of your children's stuff. Luckily it is winter, and we don't play outside that much. We will have a big wash day with the toys and bikes come spring.

Walkthrough

This is a walk through of Katie's bed. It has views from the inside, and shows how the bed is built. Hopefully it makes what we are doing a bit more clear. We hope to start when I get back from our Christmas trip.

Time: 0
Cost: $0.00

The Plan

After months of preliminary work and planning, we have arrived at a final plan. Hopefully my woodworking skills will live up to the challenge. Katie is VERY excited about the castle bed, and can’t wait to help.

I have decided to not count design time in my tallies, so I am starting everything at zero now. I hope to be able to keep a running tally of cost and time for any silly enough to follow in my footsteps.

Time: 0
Cost: $0.00