New bed for my son.(long)

Al killian

Member
Messages
1,940
Location
Floydada, Tx
Here is a drawing of a bed that I am going to make for my son. The dresser will be walnut for the main and flame birch for the drawer fronts. He wants drawers under it in place of his dresser and a bookshelf for a footboard. It will hold a queen size mattress. The main frame will be around 100" long including the headboard and footboard and around 63" wide. The heights of the center section will be 26" tall and the footboard will be 3' tall. The headboard is still undesided (open to ideas on that). The bottom drawers will be 26” wx10”hx28”d. The top drawers are 26”wx6”hx28”d. There will be six drawers on each side for a total of twelve. The bookcase (footboard) will have walnut for the sides, top, and bottom. The supports for the shelves will also be walnut. The shelf them self are going to be made from birch ply and covered with veneer. I am thinking that it should be flame birch like the drawers? Here is a drawing that I made up.
Robbysbed.jpg

So far, I have rough-cut all the pieces and ran them thru the jointer and planer. Tomorrow I will start gluing up the board to make the sides. Then order the hardware that will be needed to attach the headboard and footboard to the center section.

I have a question that some of can answer (I hope). When I get ready to cut out the opening for the drawers, should I make a cut all the way up from the bottom on both sides of the drawer openings? Then reattach the needed pieces to keep the grain looking good? Or since I will be using a different wood for the faces of the drawers should I just cut the openings with a jigsaw and a guide? If there is a better way the let me know.
 
Al, the drawing image came out too small to see. Can you upload a bigger version? If you're having problems getting it posted, let us know...we'll work something out.
 
Al, I can't see your drawing, so I can't really comment on your main question, sorry, but one thing I will pass along, whatever you do, use bed bolts, with either some mortise and tenon, or some large dowels etc.

DO NOT use these stupid things.........

bed_hardware_bad.jpg
........ I used these, and I regret it every day, the darn things loosen up, well the screws do, and yes, I put hardwood dowels in crosswise to give the screws (big screws!) something to bite, but they have still come loose :doh: :bang:

Use Bed bolts..........

bed_hardware_good.jpg
........no harder to work into your project, and they can be tightened up.

FYI!! :wave:
 
Hey Stu,

Though I like bed bolts as well, I've also used lots of these things. As long as they're nice and snug in their mortise they're plenty strong and shouldn't loosen up any more than a typical butt hinge. Main advantage is there's no need to do the big mortise and tenons that go with the bolts. I swiped the pic from Woodcraft, so they've got em, lots of other sources too.
 
Last edited:
DO NOT use these stupid things.........

View attachment 8385

I echo Stu. My wife and I have a hand-me-down bed from my sister, and it had those. They get loose and squeek. 'nuff said. ;)

I wanted to put on some bed bolts, but the legs on the bed are 8x8 posts, and the bolts aren't long enough. So I bought some of these from LVT:
94k0102g1.jpg

Unfortunately, I don't recommend them either. No squeeking, but still, after a half year they've loosened a bit. :( I want a bed frame that is solid and does not move.
 
Hey John, that is just about exactly what I have, the bed is a big one, and I got the largest hardware I could get, these things are about 8" long, a good 1/4" thick and about 3/4" wide, mortised into the frame, just like the pic you posted. On the headboard & footboard, they are into 5x5s and I put 4 hard beech dowels about 1" in diameter into the side of each 5x5 for the screws to get a good bite on, predrilled the holes, and used an impact driver to drive the screws, the screws are a good 3 1/2" long VERY thick screws, about 3 times as thick as the normal wood screw, but not as thick as a lag screw. Into the bed rails, same thing, the bed rails are 2x10", same thing with the beech dowels, one for each screw, predrilled etc. The inside of the rails have a ledge rabbeted into the rail, to provide a good solid ledge for the platform the mattresses sit on, the platform is screwed to the ledge, all the way around, and the whole unit was rock solid.

About 3 months after finishing the bed, it started to squeak, get into bed, or get out of bed, "Squeak" :doh:

I took the whole shebang apart, and tightened up the screws, this time using some white glue on the screws to hopefully get them to not back out............... six months later.......... "Squeak....... :bang:

I really thought I'd over engineered it, but I had not, bed bolts would have been much better............. I think :rolleyes: :dunno:

For a smaller bed, for a child, yeah, I'd use them again, but for a kingsized bed? Nope, never again!

Cheers!
 
Wow. I'm amazed, but then I've never lived with those things (M-T and bolts on ours). We never had a bed come back to the shop where we used those though, so I figured they must be ok as the customers there were a picky bunch on the whole. When I saw your pic of the hardware, I figured the lack of mortise was the problem, like with the typical overlay hinge.
 
Sorry about that. Lets see if this is better.
Robbysbed.jpg
nope. I see a tiny thumbnail, at most 1.25" on a side on my screen.
I followed the url back to photobucket and looked at it there... nope, the largest size is tiny.

Is this a scan? Can't imagine why it is so tiny. Did you scan at 300dpi?
 
OK, here is a rough drawing of the bed and foot board. The funds are tight so for now only the platform will be made. It will have for darwers per side. The bottom drawers will be 28" wide x 10" high x 28" deep. The top drawers will be 28" wide x 6" tall x 28" deep. There will be 8" between the ends of the bed and the drawers and the vertical spaceping between the drawers will be from bottom up, 4",3",3". The drawer fronts are going to be Tiger( Flame) Birch and will be set flush with the sides of the bed.
RobbysBed.jpg
 
Top