Bed Build

[Brian Holcombe]

All finished






thanks for watching!

ps the green paint is on its way out the door. Soon to be white which fits more with the austerity I prefer.

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great! I'm developing a bed design and may well adapt your design. May have been mentioned before, but can i ask what your source for inspiration was?

Cheers,
Chris

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Chris! Couple things I would change in this one thing being that I would move the legs out about 2" per leg. I went by the golden ratio for proportion, but infact I think they would be better slightly further apart.

My inspiration, Chris Hall of The Carpentry Way really has pushed me to delve deeper and I believe that encouraged me to take this a step further than I had originally planned.

My style is heavily staked in Modernism and Japanese aesthetic. So I find inspiration in the work of Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, Nakashima as much as I do narrative of Soetsu Yanagi. I also have found inspiration in the work of many unknown craftsmen.

[Derek Cohen]

Nice work Brian!

The whole piece is deceptively simple - the clean lines are counterbalanced by the complex joinery.

Next time just Domino it together.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Brian,

Chris' work and blog are amazing--are you taking any of his courses? My aesthetic sense runs in the same vein(s)--thanks for sharing names as I haven't heard of a couple of them and will pursue in future research.

Best,
C

[Brian Holcombe]

Hah! Thanks Derek!

Anytime Chris! If you need more people to research let me know I have plenty. I took the advice of Gordon Bunshaft (not directed at me, just general advice) to live life, travel, visit many museums and take in as much as you possibly can to build up a mental design reservoir. Draw from that reservoir as you design not by copying but just having good design in your mind as you create.

Regretfully I haven't signed up for Chris' courses, but I do have his e-books and have studied his work. Unfortunately October is about the worst time of year for me to try and leave for any period of time.

[Ryan Mooney]

I might say its somewhat over designed given its simplicity, but delightfully so Nicely done indeed.The joinery on the leg dovetails is particularly attractive.


Looking at the finished product the only Q I really have is how stable the bed is front-back with the legs set that far back if you sit on the end of it? I messed up a bench by setting the legs in a smidge to far from the end a couple of years back so am somewhat over-sensitive to that part of the layout

[Brian Holcombe]

Hah, that's certainly true. I'm guilty of making this one a bit complicated. Thank you though, I also really like how the dovetails look on the legs.

I would move the legs out a bit on a second version of this, however I can actually sit on the far end of the bed without it lifting or even starting to lift. If two people sat on one end it might be a problem.

When I build another one for our master bedroom (I built one about 5-6 years ago in a hurry so I have designs on rebuilding it) I plan to take a wider stance.

[Ryan Mooney]

I would move the legs out a bit on a second version of this, however I can actually sit on the far end of the bed without it lifting or even starting to lift. If two people sat on one end it might be a problem.

Hard to argue with success, and seems fairly unlikely that more than one person would sit on the end of it given its a single bed.

[Brian Holcombe]

I agree, infact I've seen daybeds with a similar layout. I've come to find that in most of my builds using the golden ratio puts the legs a little far in for the most part. I think I will change my layouts to show a golden ratio layout inside of the legs rather than to the outside of the legs.

[Brian Holcombe]

It's been three years since I made this, I recently was commissioned to build it again and have been doing so for a bit. I made some changes and thought I would outline those changes, given the comments in the 'artistry' thread.

I planned around chamfers for the legs by continuing the dovetail, then chamfering under the rail before installing the legs. This made a neat connection where it was not so neat the first time around:



I like how it affected the shape of the leg, moving from square to slightly chamfered (14 degrees).

I was careful not to apply knife marks at the top of the bed, but they are there underneath. Unfortunately I find them hard to avoid but also a PITA for stuff like this. They always cause a minor chip out in this case.



I changed the proportions slightly, putting the legs farther from center, the original is fine unless you stand on the end of it, but being that this is a full size and for a client rather than myself I decided that it would be best to be on the cautious side.



I cut through dovetails on both sides this time, simplified the joint in doing so making the cutout easier and cleaner. There will be another dovetailed connection joining the bed together as it did previously but in this case the top will be capped with a short dovetail that is non-structural.

[Brian Holcombe]

View from the street:





Overhead, just showing the tight fit, this gets trimmed then the entire upper gets chamfered.

[brian zawatsky]

Brian your joinery is air-tight. I have achieved that level of tolerance with machined joints, but not yet with hand tools. Your pic-heavy threads inspire me to continue to practice, seeing that the level of accuracy you attain is indeed possible. Thanks as always for taking the time to document & share.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks, Brian. The first iteration is near entirely hand tools, the second is a blend of hand and machine tools.

[Patrick Walsh]

First and I can’t help it but...

Do you realize you have brought back a three year old thread. Couldn’t help it as people have coranary attacks over such on these forums often. I get the context of you bringing this back and that it does not apply but I can’t help but be a jack ass.

Second you really have stopped with all these machine tools Brian. I. Very disappointed lol

Thanks, Brian. The first iteration is near entirely hand tools, the second is a blend of hand and machine tools.