Shopsmith Forums

Want to make a modified version of a four poster bed frame for my son who wants an "urban look". Need to make the four poster out of lumber that is close to the size of a 4x4. My challange is finding a suitable, meaning straight and good looking, lumber. Don't want to use yuk 4x4 cedar, pine or fir posts. I don't think hardwood comes in 4x4 dimensioned lumber (as a last resort I could get a hardwood log, rough cut...but don't want to spend that kind of $$, or time in preparing the wood).
The only thing I could come up with is using premium grade select redwood in the 4x4 size. The main problem with redwood is that it's soft wood. I could use 3 coats of a marine varnish to toughen it up a bit, OR
make an engineered 4x4, meaning using two doug fir select and straight 2x4's and face or enclose it in 1" hardwood 1x4's using oak or popular or???. The hardwood would have to be mitered along its long edge to hide the end grain, which I suspect could be a problem. And it would be heavy, but that's ok too.
Any comments about my ideas would be appreciated, or please offer your thoughts as an alternative.

rdewinter,

Before you give up on 4X4 dimensional hardwood lumber, ask around. I am thinking that you may find some. I am sure that I have seen 4X4 Oak. Use the phone book to look for wholesalers of hardwood. They usually cater to cabinet manufacturers, and may not sell to you; but, if you were to do the "homework", your local lumber yard may order it for you.

Another way would be to use 5/4 hardwood and 45 the edges to hide the end grain, like you were talking about, but leave it hollow.

Of course you could use a fir 4X4 covered with an hardwood veneer. That would probably be the least costly.

Good luck:D !

How Urban is your son talking about. You might not even need wood God forbid. Maybe some metal work is in order. Some square metal posts or maybe even a rod iron bed, depending on age of youth of course. But if your looking for 4X4 wood then I think your idea and especialy guttermans suggestion to research local lumberyards is your best option.

Another option would be to face glue 8/4 lumber then inlay a strip of aluminum or other metal along the glue line. Would that be urban enough?

What is wrong with face glueing 4/4, 5/4 or 8/4 boards together?
If your reasonably close with you grain color match as your glueing no one will ever see the glue unless you point it out.

Buy birch, popular, maple that doesn't have a heavy grain pattern, as you pick the wood pay attention to edge grain pattern, color and tone. Joint the boards, use plenty of glue and clamp throughly, tight enough to make a good bond but not so much as to squeeze all the glue out.

Apply glue to all glue surfaces and clamp it up. Most modern glues need to be clamped around an hour so you can glue them all up fairly quick with one set of clamps (set = enough clamps to give uniform pressure the length of the post remember you can use cauls ).

After they have set at least 24 hours scrap off all the squeeze out glue and run them through a planner, or you SS with conical disk sander. If you grain and color matched, applied enough glue and clamping pressure and the boards were properly jointed you will be hard pressed to find the seams yourself.

I do this all the time and I never had anyone ever complain that they saw glue lines. If you really want to hide them run a flute down each line.
Ed

There is a store here in Arizona that sometimes caries Black Limba in 16/4. The store is Woodworkers Source http://www.woodworkerssource.net/ they will ship the wood. It's expensive to buy any wood that thick but Black Limba is a beautiful wood.

Jim in Tucson

Frank Miller Lumber in Union, City IN stocks 16/4 basswood. Occassionally, they also have 16/4 available in red oak, white oak, poplar, maple, cherry, and walnut. See http://www.frankmiller.com/default.asp?ID=216&SubID=71.

With all good wishes,

For larger lumber sizes, also check out 'WoodenBoat Magazine'.

The classifides have several dealers of large timbers for making keels, frames, etc.

Also a great Mag. for joinery and woodworking tips, wood characteristics, hand tool usage, etc., etc.

batg4, the metal strip inlaid to hide the glueline is a terrific idea. I will definitely use the idea. Thanks

I was wondering if someone would take a stab at describing "urban" look for me.

I looked it up on Wikipedia but don't know any more than before I started. I've always lived in, what I think of as urban areas, born and raised in Chicago riding the "L" long before I had a car but all that experience hasn't helped me understand the style/design.

Berry in St. Paul (I love living out in the country.)