Cherry Bed

[Dave Avery]

Ok, I admit it, I'm technically challenged. This is my first attempt to post pictures of my work, so be kind, both in terms of the quality of the pictures and the workmanship.

Hopefully attached is a picture of my recently completed king size bed. The structural members are solid cherry, jointed with loose tenon joinery made using my simple (read not a multirouter clone) horizontal router table. The panels are made from quilted maple veneer over 1/2" mdf. The veneer was applied with a low-end hobbiest vacuum press which worked very well with Franklin's specially formulated veneer glue.

I finished the panels with pure tung oil to pop the grain. Over the tung oil and on the cherry is Bartley's Gel varnish.... highly recommended.

[Todd Burch]

Dave, aint nothing wrong with that! Looks good. I'm sure that the craftsmanship is fine, but as you said - you gotta figure out the photo-thing so we can all SEE the fine craftsmanship!

Todd.

[Lee Patz]

Dave,
That really looks great, - - - - but I've got to agree with Todd, I'm sure the picture doesn't do the wood or your craftsmanship justice!

I'll give you a lot of credit if you planed, routed or even jointed that Quilted Maple. It's some of the most beautifully figured wood I've ever seen, but getting it smooth and avoiding tear-out is a real challenge.

Thanks for sharing,
Lee

[Dave Avery]

Had trouble trying to reduce the photo size to meet the space limitation..... using Microsift photo editor (Nikon software wasn't real useful). Any ideas how to make the file smaller without making it semi-unviewable? Thanks.... Dave

[Jason Roehl]

Originally posted by Dave Avery
Had trouble trying to reduce the photo size to meet the space limitation..... using Microsift photo editor (Nikon software wasn't real useful). Any ideas how to make the file smaller without making it semi-unviewable? Thanks.... Dave

Dave, I use MS Photo Editor, too. First off, I crop off any unnecessary part of the pic. Then I resize the pic to approximately 640x480 (could be a little different dimensions, depending on the cropping you did), then I "save as" the pic with a JPEG quality factor of 75 (low compression). Rarely do the pics end up more than 50K, but still have enough quality to see detail. On larger items to be photographed, you'll want to take several close-ups of details, joints, highlights, etc., as a 6' long object just isn't going to show detail in a 4" photo.

Oh, yeah, the bed looks great, too!

[Dave Avery]

I'll give your suggestions a try.... in the meantime, I managed to get a little better quality PIC (I think)..... attached

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Very nice design...

KC

[Don Farr]

Very nice work Dave. The bed is beautiful.

I use Paint Shop Pro to resize my pics. Somewhat of a learning curve but a very smart program. Resize, reduce color depth, and it remembers for the next time.
I believe you can download a free trail copy atPaint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com)

I don't know if this link will work. my first try on that.

[Paul D. May]

Sweet looking piece of work.

Paul

[Jim Becker]

Ah, yes...this just reinforces my addiction to cherry. Nice job, Dave!

[Bob Lasley]

Dave,

Very nice! Is this your own design? A king size bed is on my want to do list, but its down the list a ways.

Bob

[Eric Apple - Central IN]

Really nice...

[Dave Avery]

Bob,

My own design - don't typically use plans. Most of what I make is either shaker, A&C (really like Greene & Greene), or a hybrid. You can't see it from the pic, but there's a chamfer on the edges of all pieces that stops just before the ends of the pieces - sorta G&G style. LOML doesn't like the contrasting color pegged tenons typical of G&G, so they are omitted

Truth in disclosure.... LOML and I are arguing over who gets credit for the design - my initial design, she reworked it, and I made some final changes during constuction. I guess it really was a collaborative effort.

One thing to think about if you make your own KS bed..... I cheated and used a steel bed frame to support the mattress and box spring. The bed itself is ornamental and supports no weight. This eliminates the need for the infamous KS bed middle support. It also allows for easy fitting of dust ruffles or whatver those things are that LOML cares about. Dave.

[Chris DiCiaccio]

That's a wonderful looking bed! I know what it is like on this one, I built a cherry bed a couple of years ago. I now enjoy it every day, as I know you will. Keep up the great work.

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Dave

Very nice looking bed you have there! I missed it when it first came up, or I would have said something sooner. Of course, now you have to make the rest of the bedroom suite to go with it right? :D

Bill

[Ron McNeil]

Dave,

The bed looks great. Nice work.