The most important thing to do before you begin is to design the bed you want.  To understand the construction of the bed, you must understand how the flute and bead bits attach to recreate the smooth curves necessary. 

 

 

 

The curves of the bed are somewhat limited by the width of the machined panel pieces.  You can of course make tighter curves using ½” wide pieces, but that it is up to you.  For the sake of this example, the bed I built has a ½” wide groove in the head and foot boards into which the panels will fit.   

 

After you have the rough design, figure out the shapes of the panels.  The shape of each of the panels will determine the shape of head and foot board respectively.  The first step will be to route out a ¾” groove that fits the outer diameter of the template guide into the ¼” hardboard.  This could take several attempts depending on your skill with a router.  It may be helpful to cut the 4’ board into 6” or 7” strips. The ¾” groove you machine will later cut out the groove in the head and foot boards.  Don’t forget to keep one side flat where the bed rail will attach.

 

If you have a CAD program, designing the head and foot board and curves is vastly simplified.  The drawings can easily be printed full scale.  With the full scale prints, routing the ¾” groove and cutting the legs with a jig saw is much easier. 

         

(Free Hand)

 

(Using full size CAD plans)

 

After you have the two templates cut out, simply attach them to the leg blanks through screw holes located where the dowel and end rails will be attached.  There will likely need to be some C Clamps to help keep the template tight to the jig.  Trim the legs just outside the lines of the template with the jig saw(if you are not proficient, cut further outside in case the saw blade flexes toward the inside).  The final step of this process is to trim the legs using the bearing guided template bit.

 

 

As you can see, excess wood anywhere from 1/8" to 1/4" is fine.  Do not exceed the width of your bit, it will make things much more difficult.  Again, be careful when roughing the legs out with a jig saw(saber saw) the blades have a tendency to flex inward, so you cut will likely not be the same as the blade path from the top.

 

 

With the template bit set as high as possible to both ride the template and trim the leg(you may need to make two or more adjustments) follow the contour of the leg.  If you have left a significant about of excess wood, work your way in slowly toward the template to keep the bit from grabbing.  Make sure you more in the standard router table direction to keep the bit from tearing out or throwing the leg.  It is a good idea to have at least part of the fence(if your fence is in to pieces) or some sort of stop attached to the table to maximize safety.  As you get near the top, take it very slow.  The bit will grab the wood and tear it out if you are not careful.  If it takes seven passes, use seven passes.

 

If you need to make height adjustments, do it after the bottom portion is shaped to the template, then just adjust up.  The remaining height can follow the leg profile instead of the template. 

 

After you have router the pair of legs, you will need to make one a left-hand and one a right-hand.  Attach the template securely and break out the guide bushing.  For my router(a Ryobi...same manufacturer as Craftsman) the template guides(available at Sears in this case) are made of plastic and come in various sizes but the largest was 5/8".  I improvised and purchased a 3/8" straight cutting bit to get my 1/2" groove in the legs.  Here is what my template guide and bit looks like installed:

 

 

Set up the leg and template so you can machine the with a minimally obstructed view.  If you have a plunge router, things are easy.  If you do not, set the depth in increments, start the router outside the groove then ease it in.  Be careful that it doesn't cut the template or wood outside the groove.  If it does, you may want to patch the template or leg before proceeding(you may be able to sand it out of the leg).  Get your desired depth then remember to flip over the template.  Lest you end up making two sleighbeds.

 

The route should look something like this in my scenario.

 

After you complete both sides of one leg, set them apart and marvel at your craftmanship.

When you have finished this, you are 90% done with the difficulty of the project.  The rest is just time consuming.

 

Machining the Strips

The next step in the process is to cut and machine the strips.  It is important to cut the strips as smoothly as possible, if you saw in not set up with a ripping blade, it may be worth wild to get one.  You will also need a feather board to keep the board held against the fence.  Cut the strips slightly under ¼”, leave some room for glue and groove variance.  The panels will be ¼” over the width of the end rails in the case of the queen bed that would make them 60-1/2”.  It is a good idea to trim the stock prior to cutting the strips; it will save time later on.

 

The number of strips you need depends on whether you use a ¼” panel or the ½” panel used in my bed.  Cut extra strips regardless.  You will make mistakes and encounter wood that will not machine properly when machining the pieces on the router table.

 

After the strips are cut, the last major machining step is routing the flute and cove using the router table.  Ensure the bit is centered on the strips as best as possible, if mistakes are made, the strips will not center on each other properly and may not fit correctly or well enough in the panel grooves.

 

The only remaining machining steps are trimming the rails, attaching the angle iron, routing the dowel, and mortising for the rail hardware.  No really, it isn’t much I promise!!!

 

Trimming the rails is probably the simplest of the machining steps.  You need to decide if you tenoning the end rails are something you want to do.  I did not tenon my rails. If I could machine better, or was on year two I probably would have.  For a queen bed(which is generally 60” wide) the end rails should be 60-1/4”.  The ¼” leaves just enough wiggle room for the box spring to fit easily in.

 

Note: I did tenon the rails and dowel for the mini-bed.  It is well worth the extra time, and if the length of the tenon is the same as the depth of the panel groove everything is simplified.  For the dowel tenon, I set a stop on the router table and rotated the dowel and adjusted the height until I got a "uniform" 1" tenon.  Then I used a forsner bit to cut the mortise.

 

Trim the bed rails, I made mine almost 3” longer than the box spring(Remember that there is room past the ends of the bed rails(if the panels are centered).  This actually works out wonderfully for changing sheets and tucking in bedding.  The length is entirely subjective decide what works for you. Routing the rabbet for the angle iron is simple and makes the bed a lot more secure.  Of course, you do not need to use the angle iron at all.  A 1 x 2 glued and screwed into the rail would work well enough. 

 

The route is simply 1/8” deep and ¾” wide.  The difficult part of the steel is boring the countersinks, pre-drilling, painting to prevent rust(I use a wire brush and automotive primer).  You can use a drill for this, but a drill press is easier.  I put a screw about every 6”, with a little construction adhesive along the back.  It seems incredible secure to me. 

 

Routing the dowel is very simple.  All you need is a 1 x 2 and the dowel.  Attach the dowel with some small screws to the 1 x 2 along the full length of the dowel.  For the dowels I routed, it only took 3 screws.  For the route(1/2”) let the dowel ride against the fence and hold the 1 x 2 securely on its edge to keep the route square.  The route should be about ½” deep.  While the router table is set up, it is a good time to route the slots in the top of the end rails.  Center the groove as best you can, so there will be plenty material on both sides of the panel.

 

Note: Do not feel limited in your selection of wood based on what is available for purchase in dowel/closet rod form.  You can, as I did with the mini-bed, purchase a large radius roundover bit and create your own dowel.  They are expensive($45-75) but better than sleeping in a pine bed when your heart(or more likely her heart) was set on Mahogany.

 

The mortises for the rail hardware were certainly the most difficult for me. This is probably because it was the last step that I did.  I set up the router to remove most of the material and finished it up with a chisel.  Line out the area for removal using the rail hardware.  You will of course have to machine deeper in the center to mortise for the hook portion, but that will make more sense after you have the rail hardware.

 

All that should remain now is assembly of the head and foot boards and the bed itself.          

 

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