Twin Beds

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Karrie's dad was looking for two twin bed frames for his daughters. Wal-Mart had bed frames for around $80 each and even at the Salvation Army, steel frames were $40. So i said i could probably make two beds.

I sketched up some idea, trying to keep things as simple as possible. Then Karrie and i went to Home Depot and bought all the wood. The total cost was $78.

I quickly drew this on Google Sketch-Up. Just to get an idea of what it would look like.
Then i drew the final design on AutoCAD, which i like because it's the best way to realize problems before you start making anything. It also helps a lot to make quick changes and get the right dimensions. Here's a screen shot of my plan.


Here's all of the pieces cut out and the headboards dry fit together.
Everything cut, routed and sanded

Gluing the legs to the headboard and baseboard.

Here are a couple of time lapse video's of me working on the bed.

This is drilling the 3/4" holes for the head board dowels.

Here is everything sanded, glued and bolted together ready for stain.

Karrie helped me with the two coats of polyurethane and the sanding in between.

Also we figured that the center 1x3 probably wouldn't be strong enough, so i replaced it with a 2x4. Then Karrie bought some colored letters and things from the dollar store for the headboard, which made it very "girly".

Great success.

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Wood Bench

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Karrie asked if i could make a quick and simple bench for her back yard, just cut a couple of 2x4's and nail them together. Instead i decided to make this:
Obviously it took a bit more time and effort but it was basically the same cost, right around $30. I measured several existing chairs to get the right dimensions and sketched several different designs on paper until i ended up with something i liked. Then i drew it on AutoCAD to get the right dimensions and made sure it all went together correctly. Here's an image of the AutoCAD drawings i made.Here are the actual PDF files:
PDF 1
PDF 2
I printed out the full size pattern then cut out the pieces. I added the holes to lighten the weight, which i think it makes it look better too. Again form and function working together.
I spent a few hours tracing the patterns onto the wood, then cut out all the pieces.

I used a router to round over all the edges, then screwed and glued everything together.
There were a few surprises. One major change was that i decided to make it 4' wide instead of 5' wide. When i put the first 2 slats on i realized that it was too wide, so i cut them down to 4'. That also meant that it was stronger and there would be no wasted wood since they were 8' boards.
It didn't turn out exactly as i hoped. The seat could be longer and back rest could have been be more comfortable.

Once i had it all together i took off the slats then sanded, stained and put two coats of polyurethane on everything.

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