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Handling large glued-up pieces

965 views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  newwoodbutcher 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm in the midst of building a king size bed. Looking for some tips here.

The rough head board is 7'x3'x1" at the moment. I will be about 10% smaller when cut to shape. I'm a bit afraid of baning it around after i've done the sanding and in gluing up, etc. Just trying to anticipate problems. Have you done any work with pieces this big? Have you found any good ways to handle the material?

Thanks, Charles
 
#3 ·
I built a king size bed a few years ago and you are correct, handling the panels for the footboard and headboard was a challenge without bumping into things. A lot depends on how big your shop is, or if you can temporarily store the panels outside the shop somewhere safe. Perhaps cover the panels with cardboard or packing blankets in the shop?

The real challenge will come when you have to apply finish…
 
#5 ·
That's not much different than a 36" x 80" x 1 3/8" interior door. I have lots of experience with those. My best advice is to have a construction surface that's as large as the piece and keep it clear of things that can damage the wood. My table happens to be made from a solid core door, so the dimensions were perfect. Even then, I had a couple of incidents. On one, there was a flat head screw on the table that I didn't see and as I moved the door around it was busy cutting into the surface at all sorts of unfortunate curves and angles.

Get someone to help you when you reposition it, or just be very cautious. In any event, odds are you'll make a scratch somewhere. It forced me to take time to learn lots of repair techniques using hard fill and other methods.
 
#6 ·
Just to state the obvious, be sure to do a dry glue-up run to ensure everything is in place and at the ready when you join the pieces together. The process can be complicated by the size of the work (bracing, supports, fit, clamps, etc.) so it helps to do a dry run to find any issues that could arise before you are actually gluing everything.
 
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