On 1/29/2013 10:19 PM, Shannah Miller wrote:
> I love the bunk bed: that looks really nice!
>
> I can think of several projects I'd love to do
> on one of those.
This was the first time I'd ever done anything like that, it's mostly
3/4in plywood routed out on the Shopbot at Techshop in Menlo Park, glued
and screwed together.
As with any such first-project, I made some mistakes in all of this, the
drawers came out just a little too wide and I had to break out the
router and notch the bottoms of the sides for track clearance. I got
some of the mounting holes in the bed frames in the wrong places, so if
you look around the edges of the mattress from underneath you see a
couple unused holes. And the finish could have come out a little
smoother, really what it probably needed was going over the last coat
with 2000-grit which I didn't do.
Daughter got the full-extension Blum tracks ($24 a set) but Daddy's shop
cabinets had to make do with the simpler 3/4-extension Blum side-mounts
($5 a set).
I decided the upper side rail wasn't quite tall enough (industry
standards say minimum 5in above the mattress and that's what I've got
but it just doesn't feel like enough to me) and it needs another
hand-hold for the ladder, so I made another upper rail to fit inside the
existing one that'll extend the rail up another 2.5in and add a handle
at the ladder end. And the steps in the plywood are just fine for the
7yo gymnast but Mommy and Daddy's feet are too tender so I've cut a set
of smile-shaped pieces to add to the ladder to widen the steps. This is
all sitting in the garage waiting for me to sand and finish it.
If anyone wants the drawings I'll put the DXFs up, but you assume all
risks for doing anything with using them...
Once you figure out how to lay out rabbets and dadoes with the right
depths for the material you're using then the whole world becomes a
cabinet box, in addition to the shop cabinets (it's really nice to stick
a 1/16in drill bit in the Shopbot and have it run around and punch all
18-24 drawer-track mounting holes in EXACTLY the right places) a 7'6"
practice balance beam for the daughter ends up being a very long,
narrow, shallow cabinet box wrapped in EPDM foam from McMaster-Carr and
a ten-year-old marine vinyl leftover dragged out of the attic.
Then there's the 8-cell storage cubby for daughter's homework which
doesn't come out any cheaper to do yourself than buying something from
Ikea but at least you can size it to fit exactly where you want it.
Was moving my rearend collection (the assembled ones consisting of a
Toyota T-code 6.7, a Mustang II Ford 8in and a '64 Galaxie Ford 9in,
plus a 9in Versailles housing) around to be able to get the trailer out
to drag home the lathe and the Eureka! bulb went on, so I now have a
cutfile for a side piece for an axle-storage rack, one sheet of 3/4in
BCX, two 8ft studs, and some paint and they'll be up and out of the way.
John.
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