Over the last few days, I have mostly been making more of these:
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I had done very little to the two boards that I had set aside for the capping rails at the head and foot of the bed. I'd cut them a bit oversize since I was unsure what size I would want them to be and because I knew they might move a bit as they dried further.
Deciding the exact size was a matter of mocking up some scraps, holding them in place and looking at them from various angles. I needed to trim about 3/4" off the width of both boards.
This gave me a choice. I could use the table saw, but only if I tidied up the entire workshop, including all the big bits of bed. That would take too long. I could cut them by hand, which would be relatively quick. I couldn't hold the boards in the vice - they are too long. The most suitable space was between the metalworking lathe and the treadle fretsaw. I have an old, utilitarian tool chest which just tall enough to use to saw on. I'd been using it to store the bits of bed that I wasn't working on, which is why there's an off-cut of carpet on it. That's also good for my knees.
Here you can see the saw posed in place making the cut.
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Now I've had comments before about these "ghost" photos where the tools do the job unaided. People say I'm cheating and don't do the work myself! To quash such slanders, I asked my photographic assistant to come and take a proper view, showing exactly how I do this sort of cut:
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I hope that will satisfy the moaners who think I am camera-shy, and let me get back to the tools.
I don't do this sort of long rip by hand very often, but it isn't as bad as you might think. The first one took 13 minutes, the second one 11. I'd gauged the size and then run a pencil along the gauge mark and sawn as close as I dared, leaving just enough to plane off smooth.
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There was then a reasonably lengthy session or two getting one side of each board flat, followed by gauging to thickness and flattening the other side. Not many photos of this but this gives the idea - I was mostly taking thin shavings only, wanting to leave a finished surface after removing the least wood possible.
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With that done and the boards cut to 60 3/8", it was time to cut the chamfers. I kept this fairly simple. I pencilled in lines, 3/8" down from the top and 1/4" in from the edge. I marked these with a pencil and a try-square. I could have just held the pencil in my fingers but I was aiming at consistency across the two pieces.
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I set up a bevel gauge to whatever angle the lines gave and marked across the ends.
The planing started on the end grain first. Here's a board with one end accessible
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Chamfering the ends was done with a block plane, trying to keep the finishing lines in sight and cut consistently. That was made much easier by the quality of this air-dried ash - I wouldn't have been able to cut the kiln-dried boards I used for the sides like this.
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That second picture was posed of course - I needed both hands on the plane - but the drop of sweat on the end grain was not staged!
The long chamfers were done with a mixture of planes - a jack at first, then a no 4, then a block plane to finish. Getting the angle right was a mixture of tilting the plane or moving it across the work so only one side is planed, like you do when aiming for exactly 90 degrees when edge jointing.
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Some of the edges have an entertaining mixture of reversing grain, so I needed to switch to taking very fine shavings before too long. Here you can see that I have managed to get the angle right; from that point it's just a matter of carrying on planing until both lines disappear.
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And after some time, here's a completed piece on the bench
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and posing, stood on top of the bed foot.
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What doesn't show up in the photos is just how much I have been enjoying this project, especially in the last few days. It's just possible, in the space that I have. I have the tools that I need and they do what I want them to. It may be slow and a bit fussy, but that just means I can carry on playing for longer.
The end is still a few weeks off, but I shall miss having this project on the go once I have finished.