Sunday October 27th 2024

The lower humidity and high temperatures in the low to mid eighties that come with Fall in Florida have aided my bed building activity. My work area is under my car port roof. It is taking longer to build my queen bed than I anticipated. Getting the tools out of the shed in the morning and putting them away later in the day is part of the extra time, but most of it comes from not having the right tools and general rusty skills.

So far I have cut all of the pieces for the bed frame, screwed and bolted them together and then took them apart to stain them. Along the way I have had to deal with imprecise cuts on the legs I made on the first day of the build. I’m going to blame not having the right tools for that one. Bad board selection also caused some issues. The dimensional lumber I am using came from close to the pith of the log resulting in cupping. In general good joints are difficult.

It has been an interesting, but slow process. I’ve learned and relearned many things. The mistakes that are the result of rushing through steps are the worst. I really should have sanded more to a finer grit than I did. Some of the imperfections in the stain job could have been avoided. I have at least two coats of polyurethane to go with a sanding in between coats. After that I’ll assemble the frame in my bedroom, add the slats and mattress to have a usable bed. I plan to add a headboard later. A kitchen/dinning table probably comes next. I am trying to the get the majority of my leaning curve issues worked out on the bed before tackling the more challenging project.