On the Rails

The last couple of days in the shop I focused on the top rails of the front and back. In the previous post you can see that each rail is a slab of cherry 6" wide and about 1 1/2" thick. In the design these rails curve forward and backward to match the curve of the legs. The rails are then attached to the slat assemblies.

Shaping the rails involved several steps. First, I made a 12 degree cut on the edge of each rail so that when butted against the slat assembly the sit at the proper angle. At this point, though, the faces are still flat. Next I made two very shallow angled cuts on the face of each board that roughly follow the intended curve. Then I used a combination of planing and sanding to finish the curve.




Attaching the rail to the slat assembly presents a challenge. The joint needs to be strong, but it's difficult to clamp because of the angle. My solution is to use a spline. First I cut a 3/8" groove in the mating edges of both parts. I then cut a strip of hard maple (the spline) to join the two pieces. The spline not only strengthens the joint, it also helps keep the parts aligned during clamping.

Here are a few pictures of the front with the legs -- it's really starting to look like a bed! Tomorrow I'll glue the rails and finish shaping the legs.