Twin Bed Frame #2 - Headboard and Footboard

This post covers building the headboard and footboard, which are most of the work in this projects.

I started off by making the the posts out of 2x4's. After cutting the pieces to rough length, I jointed then to get them flat for glue-up. After the glue dried, I cut them to rough 3" x 3" on the table saw, than jointed them smooth.



Here is the first assembly step for the footboard. The cross-piece is 1x6 pine, fitted into 1" deep mortises. I used wood glue and a couple of corner-joint screws.


Here is a close-up of the bed rail hardware. I routed in a slot to hold the hardware on the right, plus a deeper slot to receive the connectors.


To start the headboard, I glued a piece of 3/4" plywood into the mortises, same as the footboard piece. Note that I sand each piece with 120 grit before assembling. This is way easier than sanding afterwards. I will do a final sanding before painting, but that's a minor effort.


The assembly after this is simple - cut and fit the pine pieces, then glue and nail them to the plywood. One the things I always do is "manage your revels". The cross piece sits below the post (called the reveal), and the uprights are thinner than the cross pieces. Rather than trying to get the joints exact, its better in many cases to keep them offset.


Here is the headboard once assembled. I decided to use less upright pieces than my design in the last post. After laying the pieces out, this had better proportions. Both sides of the headboard are done the same way.


The completed headboard and footboards are now read to have the nail holes patched and get the final sanding.


This took about 4 hours of work to complete.