Posted by Clint Dixon [172.70.100.100] on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 13:22:59 :
In Reply to: Re: 2nd Series Bed 1st Edition Bed Questions posted by Keith in Washington [172.71.147.95] on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 12:48:02 :
If I ever replace the bed wood, that is the way I am going to make the boards - a combination of random width boards, edge glued, and then cut to the proper widths. Then painted black before installation.
I have a couple of theories on why Dodge did this.
First, it was probably cheaper. They may have been using drops from a mill that was sawing wood for some other purpose.
Second, close examination of my boards shows that the next board was flipped upside down in comparison to the board next to it (before being glued). In other words, one had the grain cup up, the next had the grain bark side up, and so forth. This would tend to make the assembled and glued pieces more resistant to warping.
Also if you look at the picture close, it appears that enough narrower pieces were glued together to make a complete slab of nearly 5-feet in width. And then this was run through a saw with multiple rip blades and dados on a common shaft, cutting and milling all of the needed boards to the proper width and rabbet.
I never noticed the front of the pocket cut for the center hinge having a radius. Almost like it was cut out with a wide woodruff cutter. This would be more efficient and quicker than milling with an endmill that would have made three 90 degree sides and two radiused corners.
I think, even though the Power-Wagon is a good example of "form follows function", the engineers and designers were definitely concerned with costs more than what we tend to give them credit for.
Good eye Keith!
Junior
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