Competition WIP - bed & desk. updated

[jlawrence]

Hi all.
Well, I've finally made a start so I thought I'd better post my design.

My brief:
to design an build a loft style bed with desk underneath - both to safe for use by a 6 year old.

materials:
The whole lot is going to be made of recycled wood - in this case pine as that's what all my son's bedroom furniture is made of.

First design:

The picture shows some of the ideas I had. I've settled on using the square (ish) legs - these have worked out at 100mmx75mm.
Although I've shown external dimensions in the picture, the only dimensions set in stone are the internal ones which obviously need to be able to allow his matress to fit. The dimensions in the picture give a rough idea of the sort of sizes I'm using.

I'll post some more WIP pictures shortly.
The wood has all been purchased and prepared.
The long safety rails and frame sides have ended up being 40mm x 150mm x 2100mm. The length has been left over size and will be brought to the correct length later on, the reason for this was that swmbo hadn't decided on what sort of legs were needed at the time I prepared the rails.
Joints on the bed will be pretty simple, just a trench out of the legs with all the rails and ladder parts bolted in place. This will make it easy to take the bed down should we move.

The biggest issue I've had so far is the size of the wood I'm working with, it's difficult to manoeuver around my small workshop and sizing wood this size has proved a big challenge.

I think from dry fitting a few bits that this will be one very substantial bed - certainly more than capable of supporting a 6 year old safely.

The design of the desk won't be completed until after the bed is built. This will allow be to check the exact amount of space avaialble and check sizing against my son and his chair.

 

[johncs]

Those are long legs...

I have twin daughters. When that were small (I don't remember _how_ small, maybe as soon as they could climb a ladder) we bought bunk beds for them. The suite included a desk.

The beds were pretty much standard beds, and one could be stacked on the other, using steel dowels to keep them aligned. The legs were pretty solid, 50 or 100 mm square at a guess (the twins are now in their 30s).

There was a leg in the middle of the side of one bed, so they could be stacked crossed over, the top one partly covering the other. The other end was supported by the dowels plugging into the desk.

 

[jlawrence]

It certainly is big. The desk will actually go underneath the bed - hence the height of the bed.

 

[jlawrence]

I've finally got around to some WIP photos.

The wood store:

All the various bits of wood rough sized and ready to go:

Picture of the legs, rails and safety rails dry fitted together:

leg rails sanded and slats sanded:

legs and safety rails sanded:

All the wood is recycled, though what the main pine planks were I've no idea (£5 each of ebay was too good to miss out on).

After dry fitting everything the whole lot was taken to bits, a few alterations made to the sizes and then dry fitted again. Happy that the sizes were right, back apart again and time for sanding. 60, 120, 240 grit and it's about ready for the final assembly and finishing.

Now I'm going to have to decide what to do at the head and feet ends.

I'm still not certain of the finish. There is a visible difference between the legs and the rails so I think I'll probably have to add a little stain to try and make the colors equal before putting a wax on (which is what there is on the other furniture in the room).

As you can see from the dry fit, there isn't a lot of extra room in my little workshop when the bed is together - mainly as half the garage is full of other c**p as well.

 

[Dave S]

Somehow or another I managed to miss your first post, or I would have responded sooner.

Will the desk become part of the bed structure? I ask because I'd be a bit concerned about the bed racking in the end to end direction. 6 year olds don't stay 6 years old for long!

My stepdaughter had a bed like this when she was of a similar age. The desk was attached to one end of the bed and afforded a lot of strength to the structure.

It looks to be coming together nicely, though. Hmm - all these people who are finishing, and I haven't got my design sorted out, yet!! :shock:

Dave

 

[jlawrence]

Cutting the various trenches in the legs proved to be a challenge.
I tried first of all using the scms - it worked but didn't really do a good job.
I ended up using the hand held circular saw with bits of wood front and back to limit the breakout. These were then tidied up with a chisel until the various rails fitted fine.
I have to say I'll be glad when this side of the project is finished and out of the way. I'm looking forward to getting on with the desk which at least will be a more manageable size.
The only frightening bit will be fitting the actual mattress in - the measurements say it'll fit but my fingers will be crossed until it's actually in place.

 

[jlawrence]

Dave,
What I'm thinking of with the desk is to actually bolt it onto the legs. It's not really needed structurally (but I'm sure it won't hurt). Even held together just with clamps the bed held up to me climbing all over it without moving at all.
One thing for sure is that there are some fairly big bits of wood in this bed. Even the end rails are some 18mm thick and the safety rails over 1 and a half inch thick. When bolted together this thing doesn't move at all.
The bolts will (obviously) be done up quite tight, then lock-tite'd in place.

 

[big soft moose]

It looks to be coming together nicely, though. Hmm - all these people who are finishing, and I haven't got my design sorted out, yet!! :shock:

Dave

you arent the only one - my trojan sheep havent yet left the drawing board.

john - i take it you only going to dry fit in the shop then reassemble and locxtite in the room its intended for ? - otherwqise you are going to have major problems getting through the doors and upstairs

 

[jlawrence]

Indeed, there's no way it'd get through the doors all fitted together - even if I could find a way to lift it in one piece.
My shop is way too dusty to finish anything in there. All the bits (once the finish gets delivered tomorrow) will be moved to my office where the sealer and finish will be applied.
Then it'll just be a case of taking it to my eldest's room, assemble it, put blanking plugs over the nut holes then a final coat of wax, then hope and pray the mattress fits right.

 

[jlawrence]

Some update pics will come along shortly but I thought I'd post an update on my progress.

All the various parts have been sanded to 240 grit.
I finished up a test piece prior to going to town on all the bits for the bed. After 4 coats of wax I was quite happy with the result so on to the tedious job of putting a finish on all the bed parts.
A Liberon golden pine dye was added to all the various bits of wood, then a sanding sealer. Seemed odd to me to be applying them this way round but that's what it said on the tin. A quick rub down with #0000 wire wool and it's all ready for the antique pine wax to go on.
So far I've only got one coat of wax onto the parts but it's nice to see that it's coming together - even swmbo is quite happy with the look.

Of course swmbo had to change something. I now have to do a headboard and think of a suitable way to fit it.

 

[jlawrence]

Finally most of the finish has been applied to the actual bed.
I've had to move the bed into his bedroom as I was simply running out of space in my little garage/shop.

I've managed to get the ladder made - simply 2 bits of wood 2300x90x25 with some grooves routed to take the slats.

Managed to completely mess up one of the sides - funnily enough it won't go together with the grooves in the wrong side

Fortunately I'm not short of pine so an hour or so's work and a new side was ready.

The slats on the ladder are simply glued in place then screwed from the outside. Hopefully I'll get the finish on the ladder this week so my lad can actually use the bed.

 

[jlawrence]

Well, I failed to get this finished by the deadline - a trip to Disney Paris got in the way.
I've a finish to put on the desk and 3 drawers to put together.
I'll update this WIP anyway so people can see how it went.