All,

I scored some really cheap maple at a local Habitat ReStore – apparently some guy was going to redo all his kitchen cabinets with solid maple, bought the stock, and THEN showed his wife the plan. She didn’t like, and he DONATED all the wood (it’d be nice to be a position to do that). Anyway, I picked up a bunch of S2S 7/4 or 8/4 stock for about a $1/bf, and now I’m wanting to make a bed.

Since some of the stock is about 10 feet long, there’s a bit of a bow lengthwise, even though the surfaces are parallel. When one makes a bed, does one normally face joint the whole ten feet? How does that work if your jointer bed isn’t nearly that long? Or do you do it by hand? Is it acceptable to have some bowing that will be squared out once it’s all assembled? How much is acceptable?

I have access to a jointer that isn’t mine, but even though the width is 12″, the length of the tables is only about 4′, which seems to me that it would be impossible to take the bow out of the board because the two ends will never be on the same plane when jointing.

Hope this makes sense. I’ve attached a highly detailed and technical drawing to demonstrate what I mean. 

(My drafting skills can be commissioned if anyone needs to send plans to important government types.)

Thanks in advance for the help.