what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

tmbg,

BAD had a similar sort of question (see "Wide tenon question...") there are
a lot of good answers there. My best advice is to get the FWW (Fine
Woodworking) issue # 165. It has the perfect article describing wood
movement and how to work with it when doing wide tenons (he shows several
methods for what you're asking about).

Good luck,
Mike

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

Pin and float the footboard, pin the bottom rail. Should be all you need.
There is a bottom rail, isn't there?

If not, make blind sliding dovetails about 5" down from the top, 4" long.

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

Is that a recent issue? If not, how can you get back issues?

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:49:17 +0000, Mike in Idaho wrote:

tmbg,

BAD had a similar sort of question (see "Wide tenon question...") there are
a lot of good answers there. My best advice is to get the FWW (Fine
Woodworking) issue # 165. It has the perfect article describing wood
movement and how to work with it when doing wide tenons (he shows several
methods for what you're asking about).

Good luck,
Mike

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

Yeah, it was last year in the fall. If you go to their website
(www.finewoodworking.com) you'll find a link for ordering back issues. You
might be able to download just the article (though I liked the article in
there about rough milling your wood for your project as well -- probably my
favorite FWW in the last year). It would be worth purchasing.

Mike

PS. If you can do it, George's floating dovetail sounds like it would work
too.

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
Is that a recent issue? If not, how can you get back issues?

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:49:17 +0000, Mike in Idaho wrote:

tmbg,

BAD had a similar sort of question (see "Wide tenon question...") there
are
a lot of good answers there. My best advice is to get the FWW (Fine
Woodworking) issue # 165. It has the perfect article describing wood
movement and how to work with it when doing wide tenons (he shows
several
methods for what you're asking about).

Good luck,
Mike

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62"
long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather
large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for
movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with
the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

Floating dovetail, eh? Sounds neat... is that in that issue too?


On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 22:48:54 +0000, Mike in Idaho wrote:

Yeah, it was last year in the fall. If you go to their website
(www.finewoodworking.com) you'll find a link for ordering back issues. You
might be able to download just the article (though I liked the article in
there about rough milling your wood for your project as well -- probably my
favorite FWW in the last year). It would be worth purchasing.

Mike

PS. If you can do it, George's floating dovetail sounds like it would work
too.

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
Is that a recent issue? If not, how can you get back issues?

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:49:17 +0000, Mike in Idaho wrote:

tmbg,

BAD had a similar sort of question (see "Wide tenon question...") there
are
a lot of good answers there. My best advice is to get the FWW (Fine
Woodworking) issue # 165. It has the perfect article describing wood
movement and how to work with it when doing wide tenons (he shows
several
methods for what you're asking about).

Good luck,
Mike

"tmbg" wrote in message
news what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62"
long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather
large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for
movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with
the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

Oh, that floating dovetail. Replied too fast to Mike...

No bottom rail, the footboard is at approx the same height as the bottom
rail. Not sure what you mean by float the footboard, and by pinning I'm
assuming you mean pinning a M&T like I described. How would the sliding
dovetail help?

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 16:57:16 -0500, George wrote:

Pin and float the footboard, pin the bottom rail. Should be all you need.
There is a bottom rail, isn't there?

If not, make blind sliding dovetails about 5" down from the top, 4" long.

"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.

If the 11" panel is solid wood, there will be a fair amount of
expansion/contraction across the grain. A good way to handle this is with
two tenons on each side at the top and bottom of the panel. I would
probably make the tenons about 2 1/2". Make the lower mortise a good fit.
For the upper mortise, make a firm fit for the thickness of the tenon, but
enlarge the length of the mortise about 3/8" overall (depending on species
and finish). Glue the bottom mortise and tenon, but not the upper tenon.
It is allowed to float up and down. However, you should pin the upper
tenon. The pin should go into a slot in the tenon to allow for movement,
yet won't allow any withdrawal of the tenon. You could also offset the slot
slightly deeper so the pin draws the tenon tight into the mortise. The pin
could be decorative or placed in the back and concealed.

Preston
"tmbg" wrote in message
news
what's the recommended way to join the headboard and footboard to the
bedposts? I'm working on the footboard now, it's an 11" wide by 62" long
panel, and was planning to M&T it to the bedposts, with some rather large
2" deep tenons. should I leave room at the top and bottom for movement?
seems movement would be considerable across the width of the footboard.
Should I pin it from the back of the footboard, to be concealed with the
rails? Anything special I need to know about pinning?

wood is Jatoba, btw.