Lumber for bedroom project

[Jenny Trice]

I am excited to get started on a new bedroom suite and have chosen this plan from plansnow.com

http://www.plansnow.com/heirloombed.html

I aquired a bunch of white oak a while back and hope to use it for this project, however, it is all planable to a max of 3/4" and the bed rails and the dresser rails are 1". I am already planning to glue up boards to get to the 1-3/4" legs on all pieces. My question to all of you is whether it is a good idea to try to glue up boards and plane to 1" for the rails?

It seems like it might be a little waste of lumber to glue up and plane but I do have some boards that are not quite cleaned up at 3/4". They can be planed to 1/2" for drawer sides (I am planning to use the drawer lock router bits rather than doing dovetails) but could also be used to glue up for 1" rail stock.

Am I overlooking anything with this approach? I'm thinking if I plane them well and clamp well in the glue up, the seam will be very discrete. What do you think?

[Lee Schierer]

Without knowing the height of your bed rails or if you have a band saw. I think I would plane the wood to 3/4 and then glue three boards of the correct length for the rails face to face and re-saw down the middle. This would waste the least amount of wood while getting the thickness you want.

[Jenny Trice]

Lee, that is an interesteing point that I had not thought of. I have a bandsaw and the Kreg resaw guide. The rails range from 6-8 inches in height. My only conern is that I do not have confidence in resawing a board that tall and that long within 1/4". At least if I glue up two and and plane them down, I'm pretty sure I will end up with a usable board. My experience with resawing so far, which is limited, is that I still get a lot of drift. Any advice to point me toward better resawing would be helpful. I plan to start with the nightstand(s) and the rails on those are only around 16" long and 4-6 inches high so that may be a place to try resawing!

My saw is the Jet 14" with the single casting (no riser blocks). I use it mostly for rough cutting turning stock.

[glenn bradley]

I use glued up blanks for large parts when the show faces will allow it. The legs in your plan had large stopped chamfers that would pretty much set the thickness of your 'veneer' piece. I did this on a current project. Sorry the construction is not real clear. You can see the rough blank here; three 3/4" boards glued up with an 1/8" veneer face attached gives me three good show faces as required:

Kit-Hut-(18).jpg

You can see the ends once cut to match here; the veneers are facing each other:

Kit-Hut-(36).jpg

In other cases, I hide the veneer seam with a chamfer of that depth or if the figure allows, I simply let the seam disappear. Here's a seam down the long corner edge in walnut:

Stile Joint Test (4).jpg

And one in mahogany:

hh-GnG BC-1-vert-rabbets.jpg

[Lee Schierer]

Look up Alex Snodgrass on the internet and set up your saw using his instructions. Then glue up your boards and joint one edge so you have a flat surface. Use a combination square or marking gauge and draw a line down the center of the glue up where you intend to cut. Place a feather board against your resaw fence to hold the bottom of the board to the fence while you watch the top. Use a wide blade with 3-4 TPI. Start your resaw and let the saw determine the feed speed. You should have about 3/32" for error on each side of your cut line for clean up. Try a scrap piece glue up to check your technique.