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JayStPeter
03-10-2006, 9:57 PM
Last weekend I finished a pair of beds for my boys. I've been going on this project on and off since early November. The actual time spent in the shop wasn't all that great, but lots of time passed. I used this project to learn to spray finishes. So, I prepped and practiced on my router table before shooting these.
The beds are made from poplar, 8/4 for the uprights, 6/4 for the horizontal parts, and 4/4 for the panels. The top rails on the head and footboards are 8/4 hard maple. The design started as a pottery barn knockoff. But, I'm not a fan of country style so I reworked the design a little using v-grooves and chamfers instead of beads and cleaning up the lines. They are built a little taller than usual for some future underbed storage.
I sprayed all the poplar parts with Target coatings sealer and USL in blue. The blue USL was more difficult to spray than the clear I practiced with on my router table. I had problems with runs and sags. I had to wet sand the first coat significantly. I was much more careful with the second coat and didn't have the same problems.
The beds were difficult to photograph set up in the room. My customers are also shown.
I included a shot of my paint booth after the fact. It looks like a blue bomb went off in there, but does show the frame I built to hold the parts while being sprayed.

Thanks for looking,
Jay

Jim Becker
03-10-2006, 9:58 PM
They look GREAT, Jay!

Alan Tolchinsky
03-10-2006, 10:25 PM
Hey Jay, Nice job and it looks like the "customer" is very happy. I'll bet you are going to be spraying a lot in the future. What joinery methods did you use?

Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan
03-10-2006, 11:08 PM
Good job Jay, looks like those beds will hold up just fine!

Cheers!

Joe Chritz
03-11-2006, 12:22 AM
Nice looking beds and boys.

Slightly off but how did that colored USL come out? Is it more paint like or can you still see grain? I'm thinking about trying some white for some inside cabinet parts.

Joe

Dick Parr
03-11-2006, 12:29 AM
Great looking beds and those are some happy looking customers. What more can a man ask for. Nice job.:)

JayStPeter
03-11-2006, 8:32 AM
Thanks guys!

Alan,
The headboards are pinned M&T joints. I built a mortising jig for my router for this project using a ShopNotes plan. The max depth of cut was limiting for this size project so I had to chop 'em a little deeper by hand. The upper Maple rail is held on with 1/2" dowels and the bed rails use some knock down bed hardware from Rockler.

Joe,
I see grain lines, but the blue is solid. I don't see the grain through the blue, but can still see that it is wood underneath. Hope that makes sense.
My original plan was to dye the wood blue then clear over it. I wasn't happy with the test results on that one. The TransTint blue was too bright and I dont have enough different shades to modify it to my liking. I tried adding black, but it was obvious I needed something else. I'm very happy with the results, but I did spend some time and lumber getting nice grain patterns on everything that really wasn't necessary.

My wife really liked the maple. She wants me to make the dressers out of maple. I prefer to show the wood, so that makes me happy.

Jay

Jason Tuinstra
03-11-2006, 8:16 PM
Jay, the beds look great and the "customers" look more than satisifed! What more could you want? Good job.