The Baby Bunk part DUEX

In the art of woodworking, there is so many examples of perfection and awesome detail that make you believe that only hundreds of hours and decades of experience can render. Most people don't have a first hand account with woodworking so hence don't know that wood can be very forgiving (it also can devour your soul). What may look as if every single stroke of a chisel or cut with a saw was made with absolutely no mistakes is probably to the contrary. No matter how many mistakes one can make on a singular work, you can always either hide it, fix it, or exploit it (or if its the soul devouring kind, you live with it). This becomes more true the simpler the project is, yet becomes more difficult on complex projects. Case in point, I give you the next episode.

When making the bed top, I joined two "8 inch wide" boards together (this is done instead of using just one very wide piece because the wider a single board is the more chance it will have in cupping/warping). I joined them together using dowels again. Now when using dowels you (theoretically) have to drill holes in the exact center in the same spot on the two pieces you wish to join to produce an invisible seam. Since I don't have a drill press, I used my fancy (not really) drill guide to get it exact. I was soon disheartened by the not-so-exact nature of my holes on either board. "Great. Now what? Hide, fix, or exploit?"

HIDE IT! 

Well, after a brief lamentation, I decided to shake my fist at this wretched device of "inexactitude"; shook the sawdust from my feet; and decided to dry fit it anyway. It was rather awful; yet something was telling me to just keep going. "GLUE IT UP SON!" So I did.

Can you see the seam?
No you can't! Be quiet!!

Once it was fully cured, I sanded the up-side within an inch of its life! To my giddy appeasement it was given a mighty fine invisible seam (just don't look at the other side too closely!). Bed top done!

The next step was to cut the back and this required a little ingenuity. I wanted a curved top edge for it....Ok, piece of cake. To make circles everyone knows all you need is a fixed point with a string attached then proceed to scrawl circles to your hearts content. The problem was my radius (length of string) utilized my entire work space to get the degree of circle I needed. With a couple of tries, I got what I was looking for.

The bed top and the back:  (the back was cut out of a 12 inch board with my jig saw. [Btw, all the wood I am using is Pine of varying degrees of quality])

Now if you have been following along and if you have been looking over my drawing with a fine toothed comb, you would have noticed a fatal flaw. In the drawing, the bunk is supposed to be about 16 inches wide. The boards that I bought for the bed-top were sold to me as 8 inch boards.

Yet in the realm of the lumber industry the actual measurements of lumber has actually been shrinking since the 19th century. Back then when you purchased an 8 inch Pine board you were getting an 8 inch pine board. Yet the same board being sold in today's lumber yards as "8 inches" is in actuality 71/4 inches. "Great. Now what? Hide, fix, or exploit?"

Exploit it!

So with this error in mind I had to make up about 3/4 of an inch (if you are trying to do the math, don't bother. Not sure what happened, all I know is that I had 3/4 of an inch to make up) and the way to do that was to drop the 3/4 inch thick back board down to fill the space instead of setting it on top of the bed top.

("Crisis averted!! Right?" Well be sure to remember this last minute change when we get to part three of this series.)

The next adventure involved making the sides -

The sides came together pretty simply, once I figured out the curve I wanted. (French curves are fun...)

featherin' it up

I then shaped it out with my trusty band saw (craigslist).

Then I sanded them down to a sleek figure. Not bad at all.

(I don't know why, but when things go according to plan I get really excited.)

Now drunk with power from accomplishment, I decided to do something rather daring!

The Oak gives a redder accent to the project.

During the process of making the Oak Bookcase, I was left with 6 long strips-scraps of oak cut from the individual shelves. "I could use the strips as accents to the sides and the back!"  I thought to myself.

So began my adventures in Steaming Wood!



Even though the strips were pretty pliable by themselves, the degree in which I planned to bend them needed a technique called steaming. It is the idea that if you use moisture and heat, you can bend wood into almost any shape you want without breaking it!

Professionals would use what are called steam boxes and they had many variations but generally they looked like this: a wood box with openings on both ends and some source of steam; in this case a tea kettle.

I didn't have one of these nor did I want to make one at the moment. So I improvised!

Years ago, I saw my dad use a trick without a steam box. He used just a sponge, a hairdryer, and an adjustable jig made out of a piece of plywood and nails.

I tried the same thing: I traced the shape of the side to the piece of wood that made my jig...

Now, just don't snap.

...and then I placed the nails on the line and tucked the piece of wood in. I used the hairdryer and a spray bottle to try and get the moisture and the heat needed to make the bend.

...dooooon't snap

So far so good...

no snappy no snappy no snappy no snappy no snappy...

Not bad! Just a little more!....

#@!&*%$!!!

...annnndd......nope.

"Great. Now what? Hide, fix, or exploit?"

FIX IT!

Not enough heat me thinks.

So I ended up having an idea completely out of left field.


If all I needed was heat and moisture why not use...I don't know...

....a nesco? Strange I know. But hey it's the same principle!



I worked the wood slowly: 5 min. in the hot water, then work it slowly in the jig a few inches at a time with 20 min to rest. I had to do it this way because I could only heat 4-5 inches of the piece at a time. It was slow going.

Success! I then duplicated my results(this time just using a cast-iron pan with hot water)....

Now I have two!

Now the wood is relatively in the shape that I want, I then make a clamping jig so my clamps have a square surface to clamp on to. The difficult part was making sure there was no gaps all the way around the bend.

I little trouble with the jig, but it seemed to work out all right.

Once both of them were glued up, I sanded them down and now they  look like this:

Here is a closer look:

Since those worked out so nicely, I continued with the back which didn't require steaming because it wasn't a sharp bend.

Bad news: running out of clamps is not fun.
Good news: I found a new use for rope!

We are nearing the end of it now. Stay with me for the finished product and a possible stress test using the neighborhood dog.

Thanks for reading!

Werd out.

Neil