Bed Rail Joints

[wobblycogs]

Hi, I'm planning on making a bed soon but there is (at the moment) one bit I'm stuck on. Most modern beds seem to have a bolt through the legs to hold the long rail in place. If possible I would rather not have that bolt visible.

I've done a bit of research and there are bed rail hooks like this http://www.locksonline.com/acatalog/hagenia-hook-in-bed-connector-143-mm-2017.html but they don't really look like they would put up with a lot of, shall we say, lateral movement. That company is the only place I've been able to find them in the UK as well and I wouldn't mind a bit more choice.

The woodworker in me says use a big M&T but then the bed can't really be knocked down and moved. I have a feeling that I'm going to end up with a bolt but I'd like explore all my options first.

 

[Shultzy]

One option is to counterbore and make a button (like a mushroom) to fit in the hole, without glue.

 

[Digit]

What about table leg fastenings?

Roy.

 

[Oryxdesign]

Hafele do lots of different types, perhaps you can find someone local to you who uses them.

 

[pren]

Hi.

When I made a bed for a friend, I used M+T's secured with an L bracket. The bolts for this screwed into some M8 pronged tee nuts that were counterbored in from the other side. The counterbore was then plugged with some contrasting wood.

I chose this method because I felt that the bed bolts that are drilled into the side rails were too weedy looking for the job. This bed has been up since april last year and has been ..... tested ..... with no complaints, not even a creek.

 

[Mr Ed]

I made a bed using dowels and aluminium angle brackets to reinforce the joints and found it failed after a year or two.

I changed to use the Axminster bed bolts, which were excellent and has never had an issue since. That said, its in the spare room now so not used much these days.

Ed

 

[Doug B]

I had similar concerns when i built my sons bed, as i didn`t want anything coming loose when an over active 7 year old is trampolining on it.
I didn`t want to see the fixing & also as the bed goes wall to wall a bolt fixing from the end was impossible.

I came up with this.

There is a mortise & tennon above & below the bolt, the fixing is a wash hand basin fixing, with the screw threaded section of the bolt screwed & araldited in to the leg, easy access to the nut from the side & i turned a dome that fits into the hole to hide the nut.

These are the basin fixings

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/71804/Fix ... Fixing-Kit

 

[wobblycogs]

Nice idea that basin fixing. I had considered but dismissed the idea of epoxying a piece of threaded bar into the leg as I thought it would be too weak but something like that would be perfect.

 

[BradNaylor]

After having sold and delivered hundreds of pine beds I can state categorically that the best way of building a bed is using luna washers and threaded bars fixeed into the corner posts using hex drive inserts.

http://www.scfhardware.co.uk/product.ph ... una_washer

A 35mm hole is drilled into the inside of bed rail to accomodate the luna washer and a nut tightened up in very much the same way as in Doug's photo, except that it is invisible from the outside.

I've got a load left over; if you PM me I'll send you a set FOC

Cheers
Brad

 

[Wood Monkey]

As Brad said above. That's what I used. See my Thread.

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... highlight=

Regards, Jon