This was not designed to instruct you in doing the same, but it is how I have done it through the years, and in no way do I encourage anyone to follow this procedure or the like and to do so, the viewer assumes all risks for personal safety and injury.

I used 13/16th Oak, and mitered the corners on the table saw but not like most would consider and will show a better way to miter on a saw for those who want perfect joints everytime. This is how the set up looks, and I had ripped the stock long enough to get two posts rather than do a whole bunch of short as shown.

First, set the saw blade to 45. I use this Chinese miter gage to get it perfect. Note how clean the cuts are.

Next I place a sacrificial fence against the saw fence.

I raise the blade so it's above the stock that I will be cutting, then slide the fence in real careful so I know where the entry point will be. I lower the blade so it just clears my stock about 1/8th. Once I have that mark its time for the rabbet. I make the rabbet about 3/16th to 1/4" in, and only tall enough so that the top edge of my stock will ride the main portion of the fence as shown (sorry for the pic) Note that the edge is only riding about 1/8th or so on the fence.

The reason for the rabbet is that it gives a place for that cut off piece to fall in without (most of the time) the rotating teeth grab it and shoot it back. Now..... caution and common sense needs to be applied here.

DO NOT STAND DIRECTLY BEHIND

in case one does get out. If done right, you'll be able to slide one piece behind the other, and they will just go forward. Note the gap in the rabbet between the fence and chamfered pieced.

Once the rabbet is done, and blade angled back to 45, and fence positioned....... try sliding a board through to see where your cut will be and make any adjustments to the fence or blade. I like to have mine break exactly on the corner and not more. If anything...... a tad less (thickness of a piece of paper).

Once your satisfied, now place two pieces of the same thickness stock on the saw table at each end and against the fence, and clamp a long hold down. The two pieces act as a thickness set up for the material to be ripped.

Once through, just rip the other edge the same way. Its important that your stock is perfectly flat to have perfect joints. If lumber is being used, I recommend it going through a drum sander to get it flat. This does an incredible job with plywood. I learned this from an early mentor (Gene) back in New England 30 yrs ago and have been doing this since. Once you've made a sacrificial fence, drill a hole in it and hang it for the next time.

Now that the pieces are cut, I glue up all 4 pieces with masking tape, then put a band clamp on over night or at least a few hours. This post was notched to support the foot rail, and side rails of the bed frame. Once dry, I sand it starting with a 60 grit, down to 100 then use a 1/8th round over bit and get the edges. At this point, 90% of all miters are just about unseen and if a slight detection is seen, I use a filler, let dry and sand to 150. I sand the corner using no block, but just a loose paper so as not to distort the edge.

on the bottom end, I insert a piece and use some pocket screws as an extra measure

For the fitting to the bed, and consideration of removing later The post will act as a boot and slide over some permanent blocks attached to the ledge. I fit each one individually and numbered so that it is tight. Reasoning is that it won't sway later with movement, but can be slid off for transport. The blocks are glued and screwed permanent, and if the boot wanted to be a permanent member, all that's needed are a couple of screws and plug, or pocket from the backside.

I guess I should have taken a few more shots as I was going along but just didn't see this as something that was going to be all that complicated, but more straight forward and pretty simple. The bed is designed to be 16" off the floor to the top of mattress. It has an apron on 3 sides as a picture frame so the mattress sticks out proud. I used 2" Oak for the frame to compliment the wall unit I did for this client a few months ago.

For the side rails, I used 3/4 oak plywood with a 1 1/2" cleat supporting the mattress board of 3/4" oak plywood. The rails are wide enough to accommodate only a 3" depth for the mattress, plus plywood thickness and cleat which is a total of 4 3/4". I rabbeted the Oak 2" x 8" frame for the rail thickness leaving 3/4" of frame left from the top and inset 3/4" so it would be flush with the inside frame.

I then dadoe'd a 3/4 x 1" tall rabbet to receive the rails, then on the radial I ship lapped the ends of the 3 frame pieces. It didn't take me long to figure, the floor wasn't the place to assemble this puppy, so I hoisted it onto my mobile bench

The top of the square should indicate the height of the mattress

It got to be a tad bit more serious up on the bench ;-)

Up on the bench, I could lock everything in better. The corners are clamped and fitted closer, then screwed from the under side

Didn't take long after that I realized I would need the work bench for the other project I have going, and rolled my bench to the other side and slid the bed on to some horses.

I used a belt sander to sand everything flush, then a wooden smoothing plane to blend anything the eye couldn't detect before the finish goes on. Once I was comfortable, then I used a 1/8th round over bit and did the edges and corners

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