Tonight I took an hour or so to joint and glue up the two boards that will make up the headboard. I had planned to use a reversible glue joint router bit from Freud. But I'll be honest while I like the results, I've always struggled to setup the bit. Due to time constraints I decided on the simpler approach of just using old faithful dowels. I used my Dowl-it jig to drill the dowel holes and Johannes and I glued it up. We alternated the clamps top and bottom to make sure that the boards didn't bow under the clamping pressure.
Normally I would have alternated the direction of the growth ring arches on the end grain so that on one board they pointed up and the other down but unfortunately, both boards came from a single board and there is only one good face. Thus in this case I had no choice but to have the growth rings going in the same direction. Hopefully I won't regret this decision.
I didn't bother to trim the end of the longer board as I figured I would trim both ends when the glue dries. Normally I would try to wipe off any excess glue with a damp sponge, but I've read a number of times that its actually better to allow the glue to set and then scrap the excess off later. This is supposed to prevent the water from the sponge from diluting the glue and filling the wood pores preventing uptake of stain/finish later. Normally I spend a lot of time sand off any residue so this is a test to see if this will be an easier approach.
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