Thanks for the suggestions and comments.
The butt joined corners of the bed and two shelf frames are definitely going to be joined with dowels as that method is stronger than either regular screws or pocket hole screws, all glued of course. Plus dowel joining is kind of fun and feels old school.
I intend to join the four upright leg pieces together with dowels too but since they’re 86 inches long, I might seek out some professional advice because I’ve never tried to dowel join something that long before and I’m not sure if regularly spaced singles or regularly spaced groups are the way to go? I might make a practice/test piece first?
For joining the three assembled frames to the uprights, I did consider using lag bolts but really want to keep the exterior free from any fasteners, however, this would facilitate disassembly should the need arise.
Most of my ideas came from this video although not with pocket holes. At about 6:40 as he begins assembling the components, he just uses wood screws to connect the bed frames to the ends. I’ll probably do this for the two upper shelf frames but for the lower, I might still use screws but set them deeper and cut plugs to cover them? I realize that in spite of my planning and having a good vision of this in my head, I may have to improvise a bit along the way?
I figure for the bed layer, the slats topped by a ¾” sheet of MDF will be strong enough? The mattress weighs 70 pounds and at 5’5” I am not a large person. I acknowledge the bed will be a bitch to change sheets on without walk around access to both sides as I have discovered with where it is now on the floor but I’ll deal with it.
Using joist hangers for the two shelf layers came from another video. I’ll probably cover the underside of the middle shelf with something to make it pretty and so I don’t have to look up at rafters.
I would love to have a surface planer but will make do with sanding. I jointer would be nice too but I have a low profile hand plane and a 10” bench plane to use if needed. There’s something satisfying about hand planing a board and seeing the long thin curls of wood it makes and there’s just something about the smell of wood when you’re doing stuff with it that I find engaging.
Thanks again. I am hoping to get my initial lumber run on Thursday when hopefully it will have stopped raining here.
The butt joined corners of the bed and two shelf frames are definitely going to be joined with dowels as that method is stronger than either regular screws or pocket hole screws, all glued of course. Plus dowel joining is kind of fun and feels old school.
I intend to join the four upright leg pieces together with dowels too but since they’re 86 inches long, I might seek out some professional advice because I’ve never tried to dowel join something that long before and I’m not sure if regularly spaced singles or regularly spaced groups are the way to go? I might make a practice/test piece first?
For joining the three assembled frames to the uprights, I did consider using lag bolts but really want to keep the exterior free from any fasteners, however, this would facilitate disassembly should the need arise.
Most of my ideas came from this video although not with pocket holes. At about 6:40 as he begins assembling the components, he just uses wood screws to connect the bed frames to the ends. I’ll probably do this for the two upper shelf frames but for the lower, I might still use screws but set them deeper and cut plugs to cover them? I realize that in spite of my planning and having a good vision of this in my head, I may have to improvise a bit along the way?
I figure for the bed layer, the slats topped by a ¾” sheet of MDF will be strong enough? The mattress weighs 70 pounds and at 5’5” I am not a large person. I acknowledge the bed will be a bitch to change sheets on without walk around access to both sides as I have discovered with where it is now on the floor but I’ll deal with it.
Using joist hangers for the two shelf layers came from another video. I’ll probably cover the underside of the middle shelf with something to make it pretty and so I don’t have to look up at rafters.
I would love to have a surface planer but will make do with sanding. I jointer would be nice too but I have a low profile hand plane and a 10” bench plane to use if needed. There’s something satisfying about hand planing a board and seeing the long thin curls of wood it makes and there’s just something about the smell of wood when you’re doing stuff with it that I find engaging.
Thanks again. I am hoping to get my initial lumber run on Thursday when hopefully it will have stopped raining here.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.