First, we affix the template to the workpiece. We screw it to the rail in spots that will later be covered by ebony plugs. We have to be precise about where we drill the holes so that we don't have to put plugs where we don't want them.
The lines in the picture above show where the spindles will line up, and where each ebony plug needs to line up in order to be centered on the spindle. We then center the screwhole on the plug lines, 1/2" from the edge of the template. That's exactly where we will put the plugs, so the screwhole will be hidden.
We then flip the piece over, so the template is on the bottom, and take it to the router table. The router has a flush trim bit, which consists of a bearing on the bottom and a cutter on the top.
The bearing rides against the template, and the cutter cuts the workpiece flush with the template. Since our workpiece here is 1-1/2" thick, that's too much for the bit to take in one pass. So we start by trimming the lower half of the workpiece:
Then we remove the template, and we have a rail that is halfway there.
Next, we take the workpiece back to the router table. We use the flush trim bit again, this time with the bearing riding on the surface that we previously routed, and the bit cuts away the rest of the material flush with the routed surface.
And now the top of the rail is exactly the same shape as our template.
It's hardly pretty at this point. We'll need to cut the joinery for the spindles, sand it, round over the edges, cut the mortises for the plugs, and inlay the ebony plugs. But it's starting to look more like the overall shape that the bed will have when finished. Here's a random picture of the top rail connected to the uppermost bottom rail with the middle two spindles in place:
From that point, we worked on some tasks that I've previously shown -- we squared the corners on about half of the mortises, but still have half to go tomorrow. I also cut the mortises for about 2/3 of the ebony plugs that go on the top rail. I trimmed the veneered panel and spindles to their final lengths.
When I was trimming the pieces to length, I discovered that somehow this headboard is 1/2" shorter than I had intended. I'm not sure why. I went back over all of the dimensions, and I couldn't find my mistake anywhere. The good news is that it really doesn't matter. Mistakes that don't make any difference are my favorite kind.
Absent any major missteps, tomorrow we should be able to dry-fit the headboard. You'll finally get a rough sense of what this is going to look like!
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