Bed making

[Paul Hannaby]

What's the best way to attach the side and centre rails on a wooden bed frame so it can be dismantled at a later date if needed?

 

[cambournepete]

You can get dedicated bed bolts or hooky things (to hook the rails onto the leg, but I just used nuts and threaded rod when I made my bed.
The centre rail sits loose in mortices in the ends.

 

[AndyT]

There are several different ways - the best one will depend on the style of bed you are making.

As Pete has said, 'bed bolts' are a chunky version of a fitting used on much flat-pack furniture and are quite easy to fit accurately. You ought to make a stub tenon or use some chunky dowels to locate the pieces and take the weight, with the bed bolts used to draw them up together. Axminster sell them - http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminste...nuts--packs-2-prod364429/?searchfor=bed bolts

You could easily hide the bolt heads if you wanted to.

The metal hook things aren't very strong - I did make a bed with them once, but ended up adding some blocks of wood and long screws to reinforce it.

 

[Benchwayze]

You can get dedicated bed bolts or hooky things (to hook the rails onto the leg, but I just used nuts and threaded rod when I made my bed.
The centre rail sits loose in mortices in the ends.

There's nothing wrong with those nice brass bed-bolts from Axminster, (Can be used to make workbenches too I think!) They look nice, but as they aren't often seen. like Pete, I used M10 threaded rod, 'nylock' nuts and penny washers, from well-known hardware store. I made the joints in the same way. The Douglas Fir bed is still okay, after nineteen years or so.

HTH

 

[Digit]

Same here!

Roy.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

The metal hook things aren't very strong - I did make a bed with them once, but ended up adding some blocks of wood and long screws to reinforce it.

Andy, you are just one of several posters in various forums over recent months I've seen make similar claims. My experience is rather different in that bed rails assembled using that type of bracket are more than sturdy enough. I'm assuming you mean the type similar to the one illustrated below. I've never had a problem with any of the beds I've made using this system. I can see that the screws holding the male hook part into the end grain of the rail might want to lose their grip over time. But that's easily resolved by boring holes on the wide face of the rail, inserting some stout dowelling in those holes, and driving the screw threads (of the screws inserted through the hook plate) into those stout dowels.

In the last two images, the beds were made using fittings of this general type, and they are all performing as they should. The four poster at the bottom made more than 20 years ago is, according to my friend and customer, still as solid as a rock and holding up well to almost daily use. The drapes have changed more than once I believe, and the mattress replaced maybe three or four times, but the framework is still as solid as a rock. Slainte.

 

[AndyT]

Ah, well, that makes sense, Richard - the fittings you have used are much chunkier than the ones I used. I can't find a picture of them now, or recall where I bought them, but the fittings I used were a pair of bits of stamped steel, with a wedge shape to them. Each screwed on to a part of the bed, then one fitting slid into the other.

It wasn't sturdy and it wasn't a good design.

And my bed was a lot less impressive than yours!!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

... the fittings you have used are much chunkier than the ones I used.

Andy, I suspect you are discussing the hook locking type where the hook part screws on to the face of the rail and the female part attaches to the face of the leg, something like the Noval hardware as seen in the image below from Häfele's website. The four poster bed in my earlier post was made using these fittings, or their equivalent, when I made it in the late 1980s. The cherry and harewood panelled bed was assembled with the hardware shown in my first post in this thread. Both hardware types have worked well for me a few times, not just in the examples given earlier. Slainte.

 

[AndyT]

Sorry Richard, that still looks stronger!

I seem to be giving out the quite unnecessary advice not to buy a shoddy fitting that isn't available!
But, if anyone spots a pair of long thin steel wedges where each part screws back to the wood, then one bit slides into the other, leave them where you found them, and buy the proper stuff, from Hafele, or Woodfit, or Ironmongery Direct.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Sorry Richard, that still looks stronger!

Any of these from Häfele's website look similar to the ones you've used? Slainte.

The above fitting connects to the item below, which itself goes into a threaded insert or sleeve, seen below again. I don't think I'd really trust these three items used in conjunction. The cheese nuts and threaded insert side of the equation I suspect might come loose relatively easily.

 

[AndyT]

They were most like these:

but not as stiff, so over the years the inside bit wedged itself lower into the outer bit.
They probably came from the local hardware shop.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Andy, I've never used that particular fitting, so I don't know how it performs. Slainte.

 

[Wood Monkey]

Hi Paul

I did it like this.... https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/bed-build-wip-completed-t30794.html

Blots came from here http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/Products/

Regards, Jon

 

[mailee]

... the fittings you have used are much chunkier than the ones I used.

Andy, I suspect you are discussing the hook locking type where the hook part screws on to the face of the rail and the female part attaches to the face of the leg, something like the Noval hardware as seen in the image below from Häfele's website. The four poster bed in my earlier post was made using these fittings, or their equivalent, when I made it in the late 1980s. The cherry and harewood panelled bed was assembled with the hardware shown in my first post in this thread. Both hardware types have worked well for me a few times, not just in the examples given earlier. Slainte.

I once made a bed with these fittings and one of them snapped! All of the hooks snapped off and one side collapsed. Luckily it wasn't for a customer at the time. I now always long coach bolts through tennons into nuts sunk into pockets in the rails. Much sturdier and can be tightened later to stop any squeaking. I have made many beds this way and never had a problem with any of them. HTH. :wink:

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Thanks all for the advice, it will come in very useful when I get this project under way.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I once made a bed with these fittings and one of them snapped! All of the hooks snapped off and one side collapsed.

mailee, I can't say I've ever experienced anything like that with that type of hardware when I've used it. Your report of a failure has me speculating about just what was going on in that bed when the fitting failed ... heavyweight category (upwards of 200 kg) five-in-a-team Olympian synchronised trampolining perhaps, or something similar, ha, ha? Slainte.