Trre OnIGINAL HONAE WOOOWORKING RruN ... - Wood Tools

FITflilG IHE RAI]S
Everything drilled and counterbored
for the end frames? Great -
now you can bolt those assemblies
together. Press each carriage bolt in
through an end leg and rail, and tap
the head with a hammer to seat it.
Then run a flat washer and nut onto
the other end and tighten. Because
the nut will be recessed in the
counterbored hole, you'll need a
ratchet wrench and a7/rctt socket.
After you've assembled both end
&ames, cut all of the longer stock to
length. This group includes the rear
foot rail, the desk rail and stretcher,
two platform side rails, two mounting
rails, and two safety rails.
The most reliable way to get
these parts attached to the end
frames is to secure them with
clamps, then drill through both the
legs and rails at the same time -
Glamp the long stock to the end frame Fasten 1112 cleats to the inside faces
assembliGs and check fior alignment of the platfiorm rails. Theae support
and squarc. Ihen drill the boft holes. the plnvood panel fior the mattrcs$
the right place. Use a framing square
to check alignment of the frame,
then drill the
just like you did with the end
frames, but with one notable difference.
Handling larger components
- the longer stock and preassembled
end frames - makes benchtop
assembly impractical. You have to
stand the end frames up to fit the
rails into position, and recruiting
someone else to help will make this
task much easier. It can be done
solo, but it will take longer.
Even ifyou have to borrow a few
clamps to do it, try to get all the
long rails and stretchers positioned
before you do any drilling. Having
all the parts there w'ill make it easier
to determine if everything's in
l,/ail-dia.
GUARD RAII Al{D LADDER
holes through
The guard rail assembly at the front
of the bed bolts together like the bed
the side legs and rails (EIc. 7).Watch frames (cuaru RAIL ELEVATIoN).
the exceptions - the rails that get Cut 1x4 stock to length for the
fastened with screws, for example, uprights and rails, and cut the curve
and the front side legs, which dont on the rail corners with a jig saw.
get safety rails.Unclamp the rails Like before, I did the drilling on the
and repeat the counterbore procedure
you used earlier for the end
clamped-up assembly rather than on
the individual parts, but now I had
rails, but this time orient the jig for plenty of room to work, so I coun-
the side rail ofiiet. Bolt the frame terbored and drilled (in that order)
together now, but keep in mind that without having to unclamp the
you'll be disassembling the bed later boards. Once I bolted the guard rails
for finishing and final setup. and uprights together, I clamped this
Complete the platform frame by assembly to the front platform rail,
fastening support cleats to the plat- then drilled and bolted it in place.
form rails (FIG. 8). I dso fitted the
3/+"-thick plywood panel (uc. 9),
The ladder is almost as simple to
build as the guard rail assembly, but
but didnt screw it to the cleats yet. it relies more on joinery than fas-
Having the panel in place will keep teners (LADDER ELEVATToNS). To
the whole bed assembly square as add strength, the rungs fit in dadoes
you fit the desk top and other parts. in the uprights. I could have routed
Use your rcuter base to check the
spacing of the guide nils on lfte dado
iig;' Ihen rccheck squan ard fasten.
You can save time and rcduce mis'
takes if you ma* identical pails, like
these ladder uprighls, simultaneously.
Wth the ladder upriglrts still clamped
togpthef align the dado jig wih layout
mads on the rvo*piece, then ruut
46 WORKBENCH tr MAY I JUNE 1999