I finally completed my very first project. A twin bed for my son made out of maple and cherry with poplar mattress support slats. The finish is BLO, blonde shellac, and paste wax.
It took just under 6 months to do. A lot of that time was spent on researching what tool or technique was needed for the next step. And if you have read any of my other posts, you can see I did a lot of that research here. Almost every tool and/or technique used, I did for the very first time. I'm sure I would have had many more mistakes had it not been for the advice given here. Thanks for the all the info from everyone.
The plans were largely based on the bunk bed plans available at Rockler. I did make some noticeable changes that I will illustrate in the photos.
The most noticeable are the posts. The plans called for laminating 2 boards together, but I didn't want the glue line visible. So after some experimenting I ended up with the one shown in Figure 3. It's 4 boards that have 1/2"x1/2" rabbett on 1 side. Butted up and dominoed to each other. It leaves a nice 1/4"x1/4" rabbett reveal that seemed interesting. There was an added advantage that it left a hollow down the middle. I'll be making another bed for my other son in the spring, and these are designed to be bunked. So the hollow will serve to connect the two.