The Sassafras BedPosts

In the last post, I made sides rails for a Sassafras bed.

Now it's time to make the bedposts.

This may sound strange, but when I'm building a piece of furniture, I can pretty much see all the details about it in my head. Like all the joints, the edges, the lines. Everything.

I know, weird. Right?

I pulled out a few more boards and sorted through them, picking out the most attractive ones for the headboard. The ones that weren't my first choice were perfect for the posts - which are going to be laminated into big, beefy columns.

These boards have been planed and cut a little longer than needed, for trimming later.

It's a good thing I have a lot of clamps!

I sorted through the boards, matching color and grain, for the most attractive posts I could achieve.

These are the footboard posts.

And the longer ones, for the headboard.

The next morning, I squared them up, and then cut them to their final length.

The bed hardware is really easy to install with a plunge router outfitted with an edge guide. I can't tell you how much I rely on Porter Cable routers; they're like extensions of my hands.

Here I routed a sample groove in a piece of scrap, to test the depth of the slot. It was perfect.

Here is the slot routed in the post, you can see my stop and start pencil marks.

Again, I squared off the rounded corners of the slot with a chisel, and then put the hardware in place.

This part of the hardware requires an additional slot, so I marked the area that needed to be removed,

and then routed the smaller slots with a narrower bit.

A perfect fit!

When all the hanger slots were cut, it was time to mortise the bedposts.

This was a lot of work to do in one day; it was hot in the shop and I was exhausted! I have an idea for a headboard carving rolling around in my brain, and I need to sleep on it.