I searched around on this quite a bit but haven't found much. A plan I am about to start on calls for 4x4 posts but the wife and I decided to make it out of red oak (we want a nice long lasting bed, everything we've made so far has been pine). Finding red oak finished in that size is near impossible. Is it feasible to use 4 1x4s and glue them together or would that be too unstable to use as legs for a bed?
You could do it, but the glue-up still wouldn't be 4 x 4 due to the size of the basic material.
I've seen columns made by mitering edges thus making a 4 sided mitered column, and you could even build this with a secondary wood as the center.
Bill
Material wise you would still have 4 sides of wood (4 pieces), and to make structurally sound, the fit to the center should be OTM to minimize stress to the mitered corners.
Actually most of the oak I've seen in the stores are surfaced to 13/16". If that is what you have you could laminate 5 pieces and get 4 1/16". By the time it was sanded you would be close to 4". Be sure to match the grain on the edges so it looks like a single piece.
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