First Question From A New Member

[Grain88748]

Hello folks. I'm new to this forum so firstly, thanks for having me onboard. I'm going to make a simple kingsize pine bed 5 foot wide by 6 foot 6 inches long and construct all the joints using pegged and glued mortice and tenon joints. I'm hoping this will allow me to not use sash cramps as I don't have any this large! The pegs should pull the joints in nice and tightly whilst the glue dries. Can I get away with not using sash cramps by doing it this way?? I then plan to cut the frame in half lengthwise and fit intermediate legs into this joint with carriage bolts so the bed will easily break into two halves.

 

[Chems]

You want to use mortice and tenon but not fix them, instead use bed bolts to pull the joints up:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ax ... ed%20bolts

If you make the bed and glue it all up, you'll never get it from the workshop to the bedroom!

Welcome!

 

[RogerP]

Perhaps he intends sleeping in the workshop, or making it in the bedroom.

Seriously, the the head and foot of the bed need to be separate pieces joined by easily removable rails - as above.

 

[AndyT]

While I agree that very many beds separate into a head, a foot and a pair of rails, to answer the OP's question, Yes, pegged M&T joints will pull up without cramps. That is one of their benefits.

Judging just how much to offset the holes to make it work properly will depend on how tight the joint is and how tough the dowels are. I strongly recommend that you do some experiments on offcuts first, before you cut the joints on the real thing.

Another option would be to use wedged through M&T which should be demountable without metal hardware - like this