The Woodshop Shed

Custom Cal King Bed

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Here's the bed project I finished up recently.
Everything is plywood construction, with the outside parts veneered for appeal.
Dark gray finish per the clients request.
Finish is sprayed on polyurethane, 3 or 4 coats.
Most of the plywood is actually a cedar veneer, which gives a nice odor inside the drawers.
The veneers and solid wood is alder.All the drawers are on 30” Blum undermount slides, heavy duty version.
Baltic Birch plywood for the drawers. I was NOT expecting Baltic Birch to triple in price. But when I stopped to think about it (BALTICS), it made sense I guess, in today's current shipping industry…
The drawers actually are about 34” deep and have a funky little ledge for the last 4”, to allow for ALL of the depth of the bed to be used for drawer storage.The bed comes apart into headboard, footboard, and 2 “box spring” base pieces (where the drawers are). There's no way this thing would fit into a house if not able to be disassembled.I can't claim any credit for the design – the client had in mind exactly what he wanted and the dimensions and everything.Below are a few pictures of the veneering process. It went really well, and I'm pleased with the results. Only thing I wish is that the stain color wasn't so dark and obscures some of the grain. In hindsight, I perhaps should have put a conditioner on before staining to keep it a little lighter and more consistent.Veneers were re-sawed to a little over 1/8”. Then I ran them thru my drum sander several times to get them all fairly consistent and remove the blade marks. They ended up almost exactly 1/8”. Worked out pretty well, because they aren't too inflexible, but yet not so floppy that you can't keep them flat and together easily.
I cut and laid out the veneers, using lots of painters tape to hold them together.

Then apply glue, and pop them into the vacuum bag. I have a 5'x9' vinyl bag, with a venturi style vacuum pump. I use mosquito net over the veneer to allow the air to evacuate and get even “clamping” pressure.
Headboard assembled:
Footboard assembled:
the bases assembled:

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