I’m in the process of building Kevin Rodels arts and crafts bed, FWW 260, and am at the point of gluing up the head and foot boards. On reviewing the video of the glue up, he does it all in one go but doesn’t check for square, which for me sems too much hoping and praying. If it needs clamping cross corner to square it, it seems it would cause the slats to rack or introduce a twist. Has anyone else built this or a similar bed? how did you deal with it? I’m thinking I should glue the slats into the bottom rail, then add the top one when it has set up.
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I'm not familiar with that specific Arts & Crafts bed offhand, but I've built a number of A&C pieces with multiple slats having mortise and tenon joinery, including a bed. I assume they are all similar to the bed you are building.
1. I would use liquid hide glue to give yourself more open time to assemble everything. It also seems to lubricate the joinery so that the pieces go together easily. I've been using it more and more (Titebond brand) and have yet to have any issues with it. It also cleans up much better than PVA and any missed spots blend in better with stain/finish, especially with a darker color.
2. I would assemble it and then check diagonals to ensure squareness. I would also use winding sticks, or weigh it down to a flat surface, if that's a concern. I think squareness is critical, and if the joinery is decent, the slat shouldn't rack.
3. I would NOT glue up the bottom rail and hope that after the glue is dry, the tenons will fit into the mortises on the top rail.
4. Don't forget to do a dry run, especially with all those M&T joints on the slats. If just one of them isn't right, the whole assembly will suffer greatly.
I have built the same bed.. I used liquid hide glue(old brown glue) because of the 20 minute open time. I did pre-glue the slates into the rails, both top and bottom at the same time because of the open time of the glue. I also assembled (w/ clamps) the rails into the legs with out glue (even the bottom rail in the head board) to make sure everything would come together when gluing the legs at a later step and to make sure things were square etc... I also only glued the wide center slates in the middle 2-3" to allow for wood movement
When gluing up the head board or foot board.. I glued them up on T-beams (see photo). I made them from milled 2x4s glued together then jointed the bottom face and then ran them through the planer too make sure the flat and bottom/top were parallel. It is easier to get 2 lines in plane then it is trying to get clamps in the same plane. plus i am not a fan resting parts against the bars of clamps when clamping.. when gluing the legs I had to use clamps from top and bottom (legs may twist with uneven clamping pressure) and the t beams help providing room for the clamps... If your worried about squeeze out cover the t-beam with packing tape were need. The photo also shows the foot board on top of the head board that is being clamped up, this was due to limited shop space...
I did a Stickley copy for my bedroom, see photo.
As far as glue up goes, a full dry fit is really necessary.
Also I glued the slats into the rails first, then the rails into the legs.
Since there were so many slats, you need to move quickly.
I agree that hide glue would be a benefit, but I used Titebond III and it was ok. I used a scrap cleat clamped to the bench as a backer to hold the tenon cheeks in place on each slat. So as you add glue to one end, seat it in the lower rail mortice, then drop it down onto the cleat. This holds everything in place until the top rail is ready to install over the tenons. Clamping the slats all in a plane on the cleat helps to line them up to seat in the top rail. Starting from one side, then rocking across the rest of the slats gets the job done. Still a nerve racking operation but it turned out fine. Then gluing the legs to the top and bottom rails was easy and could be clamped to my bench/table to ensure flat and square (check the diagonals). Notice that my rails were really I-beam rails with the edge of the I housing the slat mortises. This I-beam rail and slat structure is very solid and makes for a sturdy bed. I used I-beam rails for the bed support as well, with an I-beam mortise cut into the leg. I used regular hex bolts as the bed bolts I got were inferior. Simple bolt mortise caps adds a nice look and allows future access when you need to take it apart and move the bed. Hope yours turned out nice.
Was hoping to, but cannot see the photo.
Click on the document icon at the bottom.
Worked for me.
That bed involved some effort 😊
I did, and it requests that I download... you seem nice, but my IT guy will not let me download until the third date.
I built two of these beds. I glued it up basically in two steps. But before that I made sure all of the slats and rails were exactly matched, all the same length. Making sure that everything is standardized pretty much assures the pieces will glue up square. My first glue up was the top and bottom rails with the slats. I dry fitted the post without glue to make sure everything was squared up and the pieces would all fit together. Since the top rail is curved it is a good idea to save the top off-cut to help with the clamping. After I got the rails and slats glued up, I glued on the posts. Since the pieces are heavy it is a good idea to have some raised t-supports so you can easily run your clamps under the pieces you are glueing up. We have been using the beds form many years and no problems.
I made this bed for my son. Its a beautiful design - thank you FWW. I don't remember the glue up being too stressful. I think I did it two stages like Hotdogman above. I do remember the challenge of the curves and I saved the cutoffs for this exact reason. Also my son helped me, so a second set of hands/eyes/emotional support helps.
All good advice. I have an alternative to bed bolt covers that I used to obtain a protruding through mortise look in keeping with the A&C style. I, too, used regular hex head bolts; mine were recessed into a squared hole. I made chamfered wooden plugs to fit the squared holes that are held in place with an embedded small permanent magnet that is attracted to the head of the bolt - they don't have to contact the head of the bolt, just be close enough to it for the magnetic force to support the plugs, which only weigh a few ounces. When you want to disassemble the bed, the bolt covers just lift off.