In the process of building a bunk bed for my girls. I am using beadboard for the headboard. The bottom rail is straight 1x4 and the top rail is curved 1x4 with a depth of curve of 2.5 inches.
My issue is how do I run a dado to accept my beadboard in this curved stock? I am guessing I need to fabricate some sort of jig, but some pointers would be greatly appreciated.

go to www.woodcraft.com and check the whiteside 3 wing slotting cutters. you will need the arbor to go with the cutter in the size that your router handles. If it can use a 1/2 " arbor get that one for its sturdiness. you will need the cutters that when stacked equals the thickness of the beadboard, or you can get only one and vary the depth till you get the dado width you need. You dont need a template, the arbor bearing will follow the panels curve. Another option is to get a rabbeting bit and make a rabbet on the rear face as deep as you need for the panel. You will still need the bearing though.
Don't glue the panel in, as it will need to float so as to accomodate thw wood movement as it expands or contracts. Screw it in just snug with oversize holes and washers under the screw head

My best guess is that you're using softwood lumber to build what really should be called "furniture".

You see, lumber warps as it dries. So, companies that produce lumber will dry it in a kiln so that it's moisture content is at or below 19 percent before they ship it out for sale. The typical moisture content of wood indoors is 16 percent, and so drying the wood to a 19 percent moisture content is close enough to avoid problems with warpage once the lumber is installed. Or, at least, that's what they're telling you.

What they're not telling you is that the monkey that checks the moisture content pushes his meter into the END GRAIN of the wood, and moisture evaporates out the end grain of wood 15 times faster than it evaporates out of the wood across it's grain. So the end of a board is ALWAYS going to be much dryer than the middle of that same board. So, when the chimp that measures the moisture content of the lumber in the kiln reads 19 percent on his moisture meter at the end grain, the average moisture content in the wood is probably closer to 30 percent, or not much below the fiber saturation point at which wood cell walls start to shrink in thickness as they dry.
That is, the wood has barely even begun to "dry" for the purposes of avoiding warping of the wood as it dries.

The result is that companies that produce lumber ship out product that starts warping as soon as the straps holding the lift of lumber together are cut.

Hardwoods are different. Hardwoods aren't cut to size until they're fully dried. That means the gentleman that tests the moisture content pushes his moisture meter into the middle of the board to get a maximum moisture content. This is why, when you go to any lumber yard that sells hardwoods to the woodworkers in your area, all the pieces of the different kinds of hardwoods will all be either straight as an arrow or "au natural", being the way they were shipped from their country of origin. (In the local Windsor Plywood store here in Winnipeg, I've seen the entire stump from a Cocobolo tree for sale for $499. The tree musta been cut down for some other reason and some enterprising African then dug up the stump to make a few bucks for himself. (Obviously, wood like that isn't sold in the standard dimensional sizes that lumber comes in.) Cocobolo is darn near as hard as ebony, so I don't know what whomever bought that stump planned to do with it, or how he/she planned to shape it into something worth the $499 selling price of the stump.

I think your best bet would be to change your plans and pay a bit more to make your bunk bed out of "CLEAR FIR", which is the "paint grade" wood most commonly used to make wood moldings (such as door frames and baseboards) for houses. Fir is still a softwood, but clear fir (meaning wood with no knots or splits or other blemishes) will be fully dried before it's cut to size (just like hardwoods) making for a much straighter wood to work with that won't warp on you even if you leave it for years before using it.

Any place that sells hardwoods will also sell clear fir. And, clear fir will be sold in the standard lumber dimensional sizes; the same way as spruce lumber; as 1X1's, 1X2's, 1X3's, 1X4's etc. all the way up to 2X12's. I've never seen clear fir for sale in the really large sizes like 6X6's or 8X8's.

If you make your furniture out of clear fir you won't be paying the high cost of using hardwoods, but you won't have a problem with warping either. And, clear fir can be stained and varnished (insteada painted) to make it look like good quality hardwood (kinda). (The pews in the church I usedta go to were made from clear fir.)

Staining and varnishing construction grade spruce lumber is kinda like painting concrete blocks. No matter how good a job you do with the staining and varnishing, it still looks like he11. Painting spruce lumber doesn't make it look appreciably better, either. It's too rough to do anything with except hide behind drywall.

I'm presuming that this is your first "furniture building" project, and that you opted for spruce lumber because of the low cost and the fact that you weren't aware of the pitfalls of using construction grade lumber to make "furniture".

Hope this helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

Are you putting a dado in the bottom edge of the curved 1X4 ? If so a router w/slot cutter will do it fine. Nona has the right advice on that. If you have a router table it would be really simple touse a slot cutting bit and if your bit isn't "wide" enough just route one pass then raise the bit up and make another pass to equal the beadbord thickness. As Nona stated your bearing on the slot cutter bit allows you to do this with no jig. It's possible to freehand this with a router, but a table makes it very easy and simple.

wood is never dried to 19%, fresh cut trees aren't that high in moisure, if they were, you could probably wring the water out, at 19% the tree would be almost 1/5 water.
When a tree is cut down, hardwood or softwood, the logs are stacked with the ends painted to slow drying and identify the species. they are then shipped to a lumber mill where they are cut to dimension, stickered, and either air dried to about 9% moisture, or kiln dried to about 5%. all lumber is checked for moisture with a meter at the center of the board.
Spruce or fir is a poor choice for furniture, If you don't want to use a furniture grade wood, oak, cherry, maple, etc, then my choice would be poplar that has been conditioned , gel stained then coated with whatever suits your fancy
Why is spruce or fir a poor choice ? You would be hard pressed to find truly clear wood without any knots. Clear spruce or fir can include sound and stable knots If you're lucky, you might be able to find sitka spruce,but the cost will be comparable to the furniture grade woods
Of course, you might opt for knotty pine which is commonly use in cabinets, but that type of pine is also expensive

quote:

Originally posted by nona:
wood is never dried to 19%, fresh cut trees aren't that high in moisure, if they were, you could probably wring the water out, at 19% the tree would be almost 1/5 water.

In fact, the wood in a living tree is typically more than 50 percent water (by weight).

When a tree is alive, all of the wood cells and the wood cell walls are full of a liquid which is mostly water.

That's why freshly cut wood is considerably heavier than the lumber you buy at a home center. Freshly cut wood is waterlogged.

Paul Fisette is an instructor at the University of Massachusettes Building Materials and Wood Technology program. You might find this article he wrote interesting:

http://bct.eco.umass.edu/publi...fictions-about-wood/

especially the section entitled "Kiln Dried (KD) and S-Dry lumber mean Dry Lumber".

I believe what you're describing about painting the end grain of the wood, drying it down to a 5 percent moisture content and checking it's moisture content at the middle of the board applies to hardwoods. If the softwood construction grade lumber at the home center were kiln dried down to a moisture content of 5 percent, it would't warp into a pretzel when you cut the bands on the lift.

Softwood lumber like you buy in a home center or lumber yard is "kiln dried" to a moisture content of 19 percent or less.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

as the article states when wood is surfaced green (fresh cut )(( pretty lousy lumber mill ))it is at 19% + , air dried lumber will be dried to 19% or lower with 19% being the upper limit, for outside use the moisture content will vary by location (i.e.
new england at 14% vs arizona to 6% ) for inside use it is usually 8% or lower
freshly cut trees are not waterlogged, if they were they wouldn't float. In old days when trees were felled and floated down river to sawmills some trees became waterlogged and sank Those that sank are now mined as very expensive wood because they were old growth timber. they are called, appropiatly, sinkers. most fresh cut trees will float, with the exception of only a few, ebony, ironwood, lignum vitae, to mention three.
quote [/b]" If the softwood construction grade lumber at the home center were kiln dried down to a moisture content of 5 percent, it would't warp into a pretzel when you cut the bands on the lift." unquote .
What happens when the softwood you claim is dried to 19% and used in construction, dries to the the 5% - 8% after the house is built ? If it is as you claim, then everybodies house that uses wood studs would look like a cartoon drawn house
I suggest you buy your wood somewhere else if it warps as you claim
The 28%, 19%, and even the 8% are the upper extreme but usually dried to a much less moisture content

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nona,

quote:

What happens when the softwood you claim is dried to 19% and used in construction, dries to the the 5% - 8% after the house is built ? If it is as you claim, then everybodies house that uses wood studs would look like a cartoon drawn house

No, and it's only because wood is a soft material that doesn't exert a lot of force as it warps as it dries. If you nail a wet stud in place, it'll stay straight only because of the nails holding it in it's original position. If you let the stud dry on it's own, it'll warp. And the thinner the cross section of the wood that's drying, the more it'll warp cuz of the lack of strength to resist warping.

That's why squeeky floors are associated with the floor joists shrinking as they dry, not because a gap develops between the subfloor and the WARPED floor joists. Since the nails holding the subfloor down also hold the floor joist in position, it shrinks, but doesn't warp. Ditto where shrinking wall studs cause drywall nail or screw heads to pop out. The stud has shrunk, but isn't warped.

5 percent isn't a reasonable equilibrium moisture content indoors unless you live in an air conditioned house in the middle of Arizona or New Mexico. At an average indoor temperature of 75 degrees F, with an average indoor relative humidity
of 65 percent, wood is going to come to an equilibrium moisture content of about 12 percent.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/emctablecalc.html

If construction grade lumber was dried in the kiln to a reasonable moisture content of 12 percent, then we'd all be a lot happier because we wouldn't have to sort through a lift of lumber to find a straight board.

ps:
Take a look at this PDF File:

http://www.nyle.com/downloads/KilnDrying.pdf

Especially the section entitled "How Much Water is in Lumber?" which reads as follows:

How Much Water Is In Lumber?
A lot. In fact, some species of wood are more than half water in terms of their weight when they’re fresh cut. Moisture content in lumber is generally expressed as a percentage of the dry weight. For example, if a fresh cut board weighs five pounds per board foot, then weighs 3 pounds per board foot after it’s been dried in an oven to 0% moisture content, that means it had two pounds of water in every board foot. Two pounds of water per board foot compared to the lumber’s dry weight of three pounds per board foot is a ratio of 2:3—so the lumber has a moisture content of 2/3, or 67%. That’s similar to oak, for example, which is usually about 68% moisture content when fresh cut.

That PDF file is from Nyle Dry Kiln Systems.

http://www.nyle.com/

They're in the business of catching gorillas in Africa and training them to wring the water out of freshly cut trees in Oregon and Washington state.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

note: if you cant dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with B.S.---or artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity--
It must be wonderful to never be wrong, and to know everything about anything

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nona,

This wouldna happened had YOU not pretended to know more than you did.

Your claim that wood could never be dried to a 19 percent moisture content because wood could never be so wet to begin with is what led to this online "discussion".

When I prove you wrong, then you get all defensive and claim I'm a problem for "always being right".

Wanna give me a break too?

you didn't prove me wrong, you proved yourself wrong, but , I'll tell you what, go on ahead and use your crappy lumber, I'll use the better stuff
"THE END "

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nona,