John Deere Tractor Bed

The load of lumber is here and ready to go. We’ll start tomorrow afternoon.

Here we’re beginning to cut the 4 side boards, 2 for each upper and lower bunk:

These last 3 photos show 2 varieties of hand planes: the larger is a jack plane for smoothing long boards like these side boards and the smaller one with the red handle is a block plane, used for touch up of small areas after using the larger plane.

These small pieces are to hold the bed slats into place, 22 per bed, 44 total.

Here are the slat holders being clamped while the glue holding them in place dries.

Here is one set of side rails with the slat holders in place and ready for the next sequence in the build: the end rails.

Bottom bunk almost done

All 4 corner post have been cut and are partially assembled. Once the glue dries, we’ll start the assembly by putting the top and bottom bunks to the corner post and standing the unit up.

Here we’re attaching the legs to the upper and lower bunks.

And here it is standing up. I’ll point out that due to space limitations in my shop restricting how far back I can move to take a photo, that even though they look as if they’re splayed apart, the 4 corner posts are all standing straight, square and parallel to each other

Safety rails are built and installed on the top bunk.

Working on the ladder/grill.

The ladder/grill is complete. In the next day or so, I will make the cab and be all done with assembling the bed, and then it on to the sanding!

Test fit for pieces of the cab.

And we’re done with the main body!

Here we’re using a large compass to outline the wheels. This particular one is the front wheel. I have to use a larger, handmade compass to lay out the larger rear wheel.