Wood movement

[Casey Carr]

Beginning stages of designing a bed frame. I’m borrowing heavily from mark love’s edo bed frame with my own preferences.

https://www.marklovefurniture.com/edo-bed

What is the movement in wood going to do to these pieces of wood that run through each other. Right now I’ve got the vertical pieces 1” thick and the horizontal pieces 1/2” thick. I live in the Mojave desert with a swamp cooler, so summer/winter humidity swings are pretty large. Is this going to be an issue? If so, any suggestions on what to do instead? Cross lap wouldn’t be a bad alternative I don’t think. I just liked the look on what mark did.

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[Jim Becker]

There will be minimal movement with those narrow pieces, honestly...

[Edward Dyas]

The wood movement from the through mortise won't be a problem. The panels in the headboard and footboard will if they are glued in. You could run a dado on the rail and the verticals and put the panels in loose such as a cabinet door panel and it will be fine. Leave a little slack around the panels so if the wood swells it won't press on the frame's joints. Where you are the wood is more likely to shrink so I would stain the panels before you put them in so if it shrinks it won't leave a white line on the edge where it isn't stained.

[Jim Barstow]

I built a somewhat similar bed with panels made from figured cherry. I was worried about wood movement so sliced 1/8” “veneers” and laminated them to 1/4” birch ply using a vacuum press. (I had read somewhere that the ply had sufficient strength to stabilize “veneers” of this thickness.). The bed has lived for almost 10 years in northern CA where the humidity ranges from soggy to desert dry. Not a sign of wood movement. The other advantage was that I made better use of the figured cherry.

[Casey Carr]

Sounds like movement won’t be an issue then, great! I’m not doing the panels either. I think I like it well enough without them. I don’t think the footboard will be tall enough to justify them. I like to sleep with my feet hanging off the end, so I don’t want a footboard taller than my mattress. Haven’t got to the headboard yet though, can still change things if it doesn’t look right to me.