North Yorkshire help with a child's bed project?

[dance]

Bit of an odd one, this.

My son was given a nice wooden bed by our neighbours as they were looking to convert a bedroom into an office.

Unfortunately the chap who gifted the bed caught shingles a couple of weeks later and is now bedridden for the forseeable (he's elderly), and his wife came round (in a state of some mild panic) and more or less asked for the bed back!

My son, aged six, is now bedless (currently camping on a mattress on the floor) having given his old bed to his sister.

He's happy to help our neighbour but is feeling a bit confused and sad. I can't see that we'll be getting the bed back this side of the summer and I want to make things more than right for my son.

I'd like to make him a bed. I'd always wanted to do that for him anyway but I'm so busy at work when the offer of a free, nice, wooden bed came along we jumped at it.

The problem is I'm currently without a workshop and all my tools are in storage. They're sort of accessible but they're not setup and I have nowhere to work.

I don't suppose there's a member in the York/Tadcaster/Pocklington area who would be open to me paying for bench space for a short while until the bed is built? I'm not imagining anything fancy, just a hopefully solid wooden bed.

Otherwise any other ideas how I could go about this??

thanks!

 

[Bodgers]

https://www.facebook.com/YorkMensShed/

 

[DiscoStu]

I do t see why you need a bench for a non fancy bed? I built two beds using our outdoor table and / or two saw horses. These we cabin beds with shelves and desks etc.

I'm currently building all sorts of stuff for a stage show and we don't have any benches, just a bit of floor and some 2x2 to raise sheet material off the floor.




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[dance]

Thanks, bodgers, but they only want retired people as far as I can work out from the contact I've had with them.

Discostu - I'd like somewhere to work because I'd like to be warm and dry while building. Plus I'll be building in the evenings and tools will wake the children and or annoy neighbours. But all the same your comment has given me pause for thought. Maybe I can wing it at home.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From their site -
Although Sheds mostly attract older men, some have included men of any age, women and young people. Whichever activities are pursued the essence of a Shed is not a building, which some don’t have, but the network of relationships between the members.

 

[dance]

From their site -
Although Sheds mostly attract older men, some have included men of any age, women and young people. Whichever activities are pursued the essence of a Shed is not a building, which some don’t have, but the network of relationships between the members.

Agreed - but getting the local group to agree to the wording of the national organisation/movement against their will isn't a route I want to go down.

 

[Bodgers]

Given the current circumstances: https://www.gumtree.com/p/single-beds/s ... 1215332504


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[DiscoStu]

I'd assume you just want a basic bed from what you've said so some 6" x 1" boards for the sides and bottoms, some 2x2 down the insides for the slats to sit on and some 4x1 for the slats. Maybe some 75x75mm for the feet? Headboard could be as simple as two lengths of the slat material screwed to the wall.

Could make that in a couple of hours. If you can't do anything fancy for the joints at the corners then some L shaped brackets would do.

Even if you wanted to revisit it later you'll find that the basics frame and materials will be fine.

My Dad made a single bed for me when I was about 12. Years later I took it apart and used most of it again to make a castle bed for my daughter. Years after that we took it apart again and made a loft bed for my middle daughter but the slats and the sides are still made from the pine my dad used 25 years ago.


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[MrDavidRoberts]

Sir, you are thinking way too much..
First if you want to build a bed - you don't need a fancy workshop, I built my first bed with nothing more than a £12 cheapo old knackered sander , £7 handsaw & electric drill driver & some home-made clamps , ok perhaps a tape measure &pencil as well.. :| It's still holding up fine and being used everyday many many years later.

Or... Just go to gumtree/ebay and pickup an used bed for £5-£25 depending how fancy you want to go.
The 2nd option is much faster and you will get a better result as well for much less money and effort..

These days When I fancy a quick change or need some other quick furniture change, first thing I do is Check for used furniture, as generally it's much much much cheaper to buy already-made good quality solid wood used furniture than it is to buy materials to make one! Only if I want to make something much cooler looking/much better than I can buy used I will spend all the extra time and effort to build it myself! Or when you need a specific size item..


When we bought our current house we didn't had much money left after scraping together the deposit, and I didn't had much spare time to build the furniture needed myself - so Gumtree/ebay it was, I think we furnished our 4 bed house for around £450 or less ( that's full of quality well-made solid wood items, that maybe were a bit dated but at least they weren't cheap Ikea rubbish which will fall apart if you only sneeze at it)+ All the sofas/beds/mattresses ,everything was used, but everyting we bought were very hi-end stuff and I only got stuff if it was more or less Mint and I liked the design - would have need to spend at least £10k to buy it all brand-new Or way way way more than £450 in materials if I wanted to build everything myself+ probably a couple of months to actually build everything!

 

[nev]

Handsaw, jigsaw, screwdriver, paint.
https://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/ki ... oject#noop

 

[robe_uk]

If you are not looking to make anything fancy/high quality I would recommend just getting a cheap 2nd hand one from gumtree, probably save you time and money in the long run until you are able to make the one you want. As far as the one the neighbors gave you, forget about it, if they asked for a 'gift' back they might do so again, I wouldn't have them think I owed them anything.