Photo 1 If you need clamps click here.

Make the posts and rails of the bed from 1-1/2" thick stock. If you don't have any that thick, you can make it quickly by gluing together two pieces of 3/4" thick stock, as in photo 1.

Photo 2 The dowel jig shown is the Stanley model, a versatile dowel jig. Another versatile dowel jig is the Dowl-It jig, which you can see by clicking here.

Once your stock is out of clamps, rip it to width and cut to length. You can cut these to length using a miter gauge on the table saw set at a 90o cut. Mark out the pieces for 1/4" dowels, spaced at 1/2" from the edges on the rail ends. Thus the holes will be 1/2" apart. Bore the holes using a dowel jig as in photo 2.

Photo 3 Cut centered grooves in the parts with a regular table saw blade as described below, or use a dado set. To see dado sets, click here. To see table saws and blades, click here.

Before you cut the grooves in the posts and short rails for the panels that go in the head and foot of the bed, obtain what material you will use for these panels and determine its thickness. The easiest thing to use is plywood, and for my bed I used 1/4" hardwood veneer ply. You may not want to buy a whole sheet for just this purpose, so try talking to the folks at a local cabinet shop and see if they have a few scraps they'll give you. The other alternative is to make solid panels from a wide board, or glue up pieces together to achieve the width.

Photo 4

Once you have your panels, measure the thickness and set up on the table saw to cut the panel groove as in photo 3. Use your regular blade on the saw. Run the pieces first with one side against the fence, then flip the part and run it through with the opposite side against the fence. The two cuts combined will yield a centered groove. Set the fence from the blade at a distance that will yield a groove of the correct width.