How to attach "pickets" question

2/14/19, 5:44 PM #1

Barry Irby
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How to attach "pickets" question

Barry Irby

I am building a bed for my Son and DIL. Sort of Arts and Crafts style. Has a row of vertical slats about an inch wide and spaced about an inch. About 36 of them.

How to attach them?

I could cut a slot and then put a spacer between them.

I could punch square mortices and insert them.

I could use Dominoes.

Or???? What?

How would you do it?

Re: How to attach "pickets" question

2/14/19, 8:11 PM #2

Jack Guzman from Maine
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Re: How to attach "pickets" question

Jack Guzman from Maine

I did something similar in a crib side. I made a groove in both rails and put spacers between the slats.

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I am a carpenter by trade.Also a handyman/Jack -of-all-trades.I work around my neighborhood mostly helping people keep up their old houses.I have a fairly large woodworking shop in my house where I work with both hand and power tools. At the moment I'm focusing on Windsor chairs building.I will build most anything if needed. I'm always learning,adapting,changing trying to broaden my woodworking skills.I work mostly with hand tools in my shop but will use power if it is a better way to get the desired result. My wife,Donna,and I live in the woods of Maine with our dogs,cats,and birds. We have 5 grown kids and six grandchildren. Woodcentral has been central to my growth as a woodworker. I pass through this place every day.

Re: How to attach "pickets" question

2/14/19, 10:53 PM #3

David Yoho
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Re: How to attach "pickets" question

David Yoho

I'm assuming these will go between two horizontal rails either on a headboard or footboard. Make life easy on yourself and go with the dominoes.

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I live in Mechanicsville, VA (not far from Richmond) and I've been building furniture and cabinetry for well over 20 years now. It all started with my frustration of not being able to cut a straight line with a hand saw. About this same time, a guy named Norm appeared on my local PBS station. The more I watched, the more I learned. I also started thinking, "Hey, I can do that"! And so, I began with small projects and soon found myself moving up to increasingly advanced work. Word of mouth started the ball rolling and before I knew it, I was building all kinds of things for people. While this is not what I do to pay the bills, it has provided me with a means of equipping my shop over the years. The main downside to all of this is when my wife looks at a finished project and says, "I want one of those" and I know I don't have the time to make that happen right then. I take advantage of any slack time between commissions to work on things we want and this seems to keep her "on my side". She even surprised me one day with a new Tormek sharpening system. Sometimes it pays to leave that tool catalog lying around open! For me, woodworking is a type of therapy. I can go out to the shop and totally forget about the world outside. There have been days when I get out there early and before I know it, it's dark outside and I have no idea where the time went! I also enjoy challenging my skills and learning new things. Most of the time, since the majority of my work tends to be custom pieces, I'm working on projects I�ve never built before. While this takes me longer than if I were doing production work, I find it more appealing because there's always something new to learn. I haven't had any formal training in woodworking. My teachers have been experience, the many books and magazines I've read, WoodCentral, and of course, a guy named Norm.

Re: How to attach "pickets" question

2/15/19, 12:37 PM #4

John McGaw
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Re: How to attach "pickets" question

John McGaw

With the equipment I presently have I'd select slot and spacers as the easy way and mortises as the hard way (I don't have a vertical mortiser and would use my horizontal but it makes rounded ends which would need chiseling). I don't have a Domino machine and I don't know how thin your slats are but I'd be a bit concerned about cutting endgrain into thin wood on general principles.

How to attach "pickets" question

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