Advise on glued up board

[georgi]

I'm trying to build a bed, but the lumber I bought doesn’t have useable lengths for the rails. My idea is to make ones, by gluing together shorter strips (60mm wide by 40mm thick), like in the picture. I wonder though, if such board will be strong enough given the application and whether to use dowels (shown in red) to add strength.
TIA,
Georgi

 

[adidat]

it should be strong enough, but eventually the lengths will shrink making gaps in the middle. why not make a frame with a panel in the middle if you drawing is correct you have enough wood for the frame.

adidat

 

[georgi]

it should be strong enough, but eventually the lengths will shrink making gaps in the middle. why not make a frame with a panel in the middle if you drawing is correct you have enough wood for the frame.

I'm a newbie, and I don't trust myself to able to do frame and panel of acceptable quality, but will consider it.
The original design (sorry can't post urls) - a tatami bed, I was after was much simpler and I thought I could do it, but the lack of long boards made me to change it entirely.

 

[Chrispy]

Hi georgi

I think your sketch shows the side rail of the bed? if so it's about 2m long by 180mm wide, it should be Ok but I think it would be a little stronger if you reversed the order ie three pieces on the outsides and two in the centre, if I'm right it would withstand bending forces better, and I don't think you will gain any strength by doweling a good cramped up butt joint is very strong and doweling will just complicate things.

 

[adidat]

ahhh think i misunderstood your post, looking at the drawing i thought it was a headboard (homer)

adidat

 

[Jacob]

If it's rails for a bed like this then it wouldn't work too well as the bottom vertical joints would all tend to open under tension and possibly break away along the horizontal joints, from the pieces above.
But you could keep them tight up with some sort of strapping across the joints to take up the tension. Ideally one piece the full length, something like this galvanised builder's strap below, screwed on to the underside.
I wouldn't bother with the dowels. Just a lot of glue and a lot of clamps.

 

[georgi]

If it's rails for a bed like this then it wouldn't work too well as the bottom vertical joints would all tend to open under tension and possibly break away along the horizontal joints, from the pieces above.

Yes, it was this design, but not having any full length boards I abandoned it, for a classic bed with headboard, footboard and detachable rails. Too bad the rest was cut to length already.

But you could keep them tight up with some sort of strapping across the joints to take up the tension. Ideally one piece the full length, something like this galvanised builder's strap below, screwed on to the underside.
I wouldn't bother with the dowels. Just a lot of glue and a lot of clamps.

I could use a T-shaped bar, to reinfoce the rail and to support the slat frame in the same time, yes, thank you.

 

[georgi]

Since lately I'm reading this forum a lot, I thought I should post the result, even though a bit late.
The bed was finished 1 year after my post and has seen a year of use. I did glue the boards without dowels and while gluing, trying to keep it straight I covered the center and didn't notice that adjacent boards slipped away from each other. After some thinking I got a little piece of ebony for knife handles, cut it into thin strips and routed it where the gap was.

Overall, even though I made every mistake possible during the build, I was quite pleased with myself (still am)