Well, the last of the design decisions involving the look and functionality of the trundle bed is complete. Two changes were made. The finial has been redesigned and made slimmer and shorter. This gives it a somewhat more delicate look while remaining substantial enough to look at home with the rest of the bed.
The second change was in the trundle itself. It originally had two faux drawer fronts, one on each side. The thinking was that if the trundle bed were placed in the middle of the room both sides of the bed would have the pull out drawer look. The problem is that the faux drawer front rises above the mattress and would make the bed feel like a hospital bed, not allowing the person sleeping in it to dangle their legs over the edge. I lowered one side to the height of the head and footboard. This doesn’t completely solve the problem, but it gives the sleeper one side to favor when dangling a leg.
It is now time to turn our attention to joinery and shaping. I like to have a strategy for shaping before I go into the shop even though it may change significantly once I start. The most complex pieces to shape are the Swan-Necks, Headboard Panel and Finial, in that order. So I will start with the Swan-Neck. The first and most important thing to remember about the Swan-Neck is that there are two of them and they are mirror images of one another. The shop drawings that I have created show one Swan-Neck, the left one. The drawings are annotated in a number of places to remind the craftsman that there are two, and the second is the mirror image. I don’t know about you, but I have made several pairs of things and discovered during glue-up that they were the same and not mirrored. Be forewarned.
The first thing you notice when looking at the Swan-Neck’s overall dimensions in the picture above left is that the stock is 3 1/4” by 3” – very hefty. Immediately you wonder – “What kind of router bit or shaper cutter can handle this profile and how will one actually move the stock through the cut?”. I decided that it is best to make the Swan-Neck out of two layered pieces, and, after some research of router and shaper bits, use two router bits and one shaper cutter to do the shaping of the stock. The Swan-Neck S shape will be formed using the band saw and various sanders. Before moving on to the next picture notice the mortise cut in the bottom of the Swan-Neck to accept the Headboard Panel. This will be cut with a slot cutter. At the end of this blog I will list all of the router bits and shaper cutters required to shape the Swan-Neck.
Looking at the Swan-Neck cross section picture above right you can more readily see how the two pieces will be shaped. The front, and smaller piece, is only 1” by 2 1/4”. This curve can be shaped with Freud Raised Panel Cutter #UP209 and the companion Rub Collar #RC101. This cut will want to be made in a number of passes, probably by lowering the blade with each pass.
The second piece of this two piece sandwich is 2 1/4” by 3”. I will use two router bits to form it. The first is a rabbet cut 1/4” by 1/4” using a rabbet bit. This will remove most of the material. Then, using a 1/4” cove bit, I can shape the remaining curve.
Take a look at the Swan-Neck back piece pictured above left. You will see that it is cut from a piece of stock positioned such that the grain of the stock runs through the center line of the Swan-Neck S. This stock should be 2 1/4” thick and minimally 8 1/2” wide by 28” long. The longer the length, the better. This will provide the opportunity to slide the template up and down the length of the board to choose the best grain pattern.
Note also the mortise slot for receiving the Head Board Panel. The particular slot cutter I have chosen cuts a slot 1/2” deep. The Headboard and Footboard Panels are designed to have a 1/4” tenon. Hence there will be a 1/4” gap. This gap will be filled with Space Balls, a hard rubber like ball that will give as the panels expand/contract with seasonal changes. More on this in a later blog.
Also notice the annotation that suggests that cutting and shaping the ends of the Swan-Neck may be a hand cut and sanding operation rather than using router or shaper bits. This is to avoid tear out ruining the entire piece. Better safe then sorry.
A similar picture of the Swan-Neck front piece is shown above right. This time I will use a piece of stock 1” thick by minimally 8 1/2” wide by 28” long. Again, the longer the better so that I have a choice of best grain direction. Also, as with the back piece, the ends will likely be shaped by hand to avoid tear out ruining the whole piece.
I promised a list of the shapers and cutters I plan to use to shape the Swan-Neck. These can very well change as I begin working the wood, but at this moment here is the list:
Freud UP209 |
Raised Panel Cutter |
Freud RC101 |
Rub Collar for UP209 |
CMT 835.502.11 |
Rabbeting Bit Set |
CMT 837.722.11 |
1/4” Cove Bit |
CMT 822.364.11B |
1/4” Wide by 1/2” Deep Slot Cutter |
Freud UP207 |
Raised Panel Cutter for the Headboard and Footboard Panels |
If you don’t have a shaper you can use similar or equivalent router bits. But they will have large radii which will require slow cutting RPM and they may not cut as cleanly as a shaper cutter.
In the next blog in the Trundle Bed Design series I will cover the shaping of the Headboard and Footboard panels.
Sneak Preview – Possible LayOut Tutorial
As I mentioned earlier I purchased a SketchUp 7 Pro license and I am using LayOut to generate my shop drawings for this project. When they are completed I will make them available to you from my Free Plans page. I am also thinking of (quite seriously thinking of) creating a tutorial series on how to use LayOut. If there is enough interest I will get to work on it. To see how much interest there is I have a polling question at the top of my blog page. Please vote whether you are interested or not.