It’s funny how time just seems to disappear during the summer months, even with the longer days. I finally had a weekend to catch up on some wood working. I built two small 4’-0” wide T-frames for the raspberries, which despite not having many berries this year, have put up some serious canes that I would dare say are 6’-0” tall!
I also had time to disassemble one of my potato box frames and re-work it to fit on top of the asparagus bed. The bed I put my asparagus in was woefully shallow, and I have read that asparagus need to be buried deep, so this 2×12 box will add some much needed depth. The asparagus is tall! I have some that are close to 3’-0” high and all bushed or “ferned out…
With some of the chores out of the way I made room for the real task which was finishing the fabrication of the top shelf of the headboard, that I made and actually moved upstairs to the bedroom.
Due to the width and length of the top shelf and the real shoddy selection of pine at Lowe’s, I decided to build my top shelf with a hybrid design using some 1/2” plywood and a couple 1×4’s that I picked up a couple weeks ago. Now because the plywood is 1/2” thick and the trim is 3/4” thick I needed to gut a rabbet to accept the plywood. The shelf is 96” long by 11-7/8” wide which just gives me a solid 1/8” over hang on the bottom of the top shelf before the detailed edge begins.
The first step was to rip a groove that is about 3/4” of an inch high and just a smidge deeper than a 1/2” on the table saw. I learned the hard way when doing my Cornhole Boards that I would much rather have the 1/2” plywood sit a little lower that the 1x trim, because sanding the trim flush to the plywood would is so much easier! After I ran the front trim board that was 96” long through the saw, I followed up with the two side pieces which I left long at 12”.
Now it was time for the second cut on the table saw, which creates the nice rabbet pictured above. The idea is to set the saw up once and run all your pieces through before resetting the saw.
Moving outside, because it was such a beautiful morning, I clamped down my trim pieces in preparation for routing! As you can see in the photo above I have a simple round over bit that will create the profile that the boss wants!
I would make one pass where there were no clamps, stop, reset the clamps and finish the edge. Man I need to make a router table!
I flipped the stock over so you can get an idea of what we are doing. In the photo above the trim is oriented how it would sit on top of the headboard. The 1/2” plywood would then rest on top of the rabbet to the right, and the profile on the left would overhang the headboard edge.
With the trim milled, I simply cut the 45-degree miters, glued and clamped the joints and trimmed the 1/2” plywood to fit the top shelf. I left out a few steps to get to the picture above, but if you have been following along I don’t need to bore you with the details. I did slap on some wood filler and knock it down with some 15-grit sand paper before bringing it up stairs for a mock-up.
The profile is consistent with the other trim on the piece, slightly boring, but I think is works. Without the router table I was limited on what router bits that I had that I could use for a profile. I was playing this one cheap and not trying to buy a new tool to finish the project.
Some primer, paint, and some grommets, and I think we will be in business.
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