nick winfield
Established Member
im going to make a chunky farm house king size bed ,what wood would you recommend
whats best timber for the job
- Thread starter nick winfield
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Because it's chunky I think you'll probably end up picking by cost primarily.
As custard says structural problems tend to go away when you use chunky material. I'm renting at the moment so I'm currently sleeping in a pine bed which certainly wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's very stoutly constructed so well able to stand up to use.
As custard says structural problems tend to go away when you use chunky material. I'm renting at the moment so I'm currently sleeping in a pine bed which certainly wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's very stoutly constructed so well able to stand up to use.
nick winfield
Established Member
also looking for some plans
kentish steve
Member
oak would be nice, but costly. you should be able to draw your own plans easily enough maybe do some research online for wooden beds and take the dimensions from there, or pop into a store armed with a tape measure and tell them your measuring up for your room
RobinBHM
Established Member
American white ash?
A reasonable priced hardwood which is very strong and can be stained or painted.
All depends on design really, I once made a bed with tulipwood in a shaker type style and then hand painted it with a white washed effect. Beds are quite easy to design, headboard, footboard, 2 rails, load of slats.
A reasonable priced hardwood which is very strong and can be stained or painted.
All depends on design really, I once made a bed with tulipwood in a shaker type style and then hand painted it with a white washed effect. Beds are quite easy to design, headboard, footboard, 2 rails, load of slats.
rafezetter
Troll Hunter
This is the kindsize bed I made from pallet wood (yes that stuff that some ppl seem is only fit for firewood, but I digress) the legs are 4ply pallet slats glued together, and the headboards curved sections are made from slats from a huge pallet from a construction site biscuited together.
I show this by way of example that you need not shell out for bigger sections of timber if you don't wish to and with the right treatment you'd hardly even notice.
The biggest bit of advice I could give from making this myself is the connection of the head / footboards to the runners (?not sure if that's the proper term) - I did it the same way as commercial ones with long bolts threading through the leg into nuts sunk into the runner ends about 1.5 inches in, but with energetic use one of these has blown out the corner of the wood making it much weaker and prone to racking. If I were to do again I'd get some heavy gauge angle plates and drill more screw holes for the side runner - I'd also make the runners thicker than the 20mm.
the sort of angle brackets I'd use next time:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/90mm-HEAV...cb1b73&pid=100338&rk=1&rkt=17&sd=151318667943
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Depends a bit on your desired "look", budget and method of working.
Softwood will be most economical, if you were going for put and out cheapness and have a Planer Thicknesser and powered sander then sawn whitewood carcassing would be fine. For a Hand-tool approach unsorted redwood is much nicer to work and achieve a good finish by hand. Softwoods have a distinctive knotty appearance and pronounced differences in early wood and latewood which are not to all tastes through.
In traditional hardwoods, ash would give a cleaner look at a reasonable price, and beech would give a very clean look at a slight increase in expense. Oak and elm both give a very traditional aesthetic but further increase expense (and with oak, preclude using iron or steel fittings), for a dark look without staining black walnut is the only choice in this catagory but is as expensive as many fine exotic timbers.
Finally exotics give a broad colour pallet, but also the greatest scope for expense, Keruing is cheap, strong and tough with a lovely light brown colour, but hard to achieve a fine finish and tough on cutting edges, Meranti comes in a light and dark shade of red-brown with the darker being rather stronger (and more expensive), it also has lovely working characteristics, Mahogany is at the expensive end of the market, (still cheaper than oak though!) But as it's now from plantation sources and used mainly in fine joinery/furniture it's not as commonly sold in the large sectional sizes you might want. Darker woods start to run into issues with expense or working characteristics (often both) but look wonderful. Good prices can be had sometimes on very unusual timbers like purpleheart, but whether you'd elect to use them is rather another matter.
What your OP causes me to envisage is a simple, rectilinear bed made of 4"×4" or 6"×6" legs and 2"×8" stretchers with 1"×3" boards forming a slatted headboard and footboard, made from elm or ash and finished with a mildly coloured varnish which imparts an aged yellowish-brown hue.
Softwood will be most economical, if you were going for put and out cheapness and have a Planer Thicknesser and powered sander then sawn whitewood carcassing would be fine. For a Hand-tool approach unsorted redwood is much nicer to work and achieve a good finish by hand. Softwoods have a distinctive knotty appearance and pronounced differences in early wood and latewood which are not to all tastes through.
In traditional hardwoods, ash would give a cleaner look at a reasonable price, and beech would give a very clean look at a slight increase in expense. Oak and elm both give a very traditional aesthetic but further increase expense (and with oak, preclude using iron or steel fittings), for a dark look without staining black walnut is the only choice in this catagory but is as expensive as many fine exotic timbers.
Finally exotics give a broad colour pallet, but also the greatest scope for expense, Keruing is cheap, strong and tough with a lovely light brown colour, but hard to achieve a fine finish and tough on cutting edges, Meranti comes in a light and dark shade of red-brown with the darker being rather stronger (and more expensive), it also has lovely working characteristics, Mahogany is at the expensive end of the market, (still cheaper than oak though!) But as it's now from plantation sources and used mainly in fine joinery/furniture it's not as commonly sold in the large sectional sizes you might want. Darker woods start to run into issues with expense or working characteristics (often both) but look wonderful. Good prices can be had sometimes on very unusual timbers like purpleheart, but whether you'd elect to use them is rather another matter.
What your OP causes me to envisage is a simple, rectilinear bed made of 4"×4" or 6"×6" legs and 2"×8" stretchers with 1"×3" boards forming a slatted headboard and footboard, made from elm or ash and finished with a mildly coloured varnish which imparts an aged yellowish-brown hue.
