My bed frame grew legs!

 Sorry for the delay in posting this. I had put the bedframe up on legs a while ago, gosh the photo claims on the 8th!. Here you can see the legs. Nothing fancy, and I really don't like them. They didn't sit down as square as I would have hoped. No bother, they can be re-made I guess. They are rock-solid though. The bed doesn't move at all!



 I have been sleeping in the living room for 2-3 weeks now! When I trim the bed out, the posts will be notched for the bed frame and will occupy some of the empty space in the legs. The legs will get trimmed out square and have the posts step out a little bit. It should look pretty neat when I am done.

Bedframe basically complete.

You would think that 07 07 07 would be a lucky day, right? Katy has a terrible headache today, so I can't do ANYTHING right. I tried to make her supper, but I was out of eggs, I went to Taco Bell as my backup plan, but their card reader was down. I cut out, over the curb to get out of the drive through as I was parked in and bottomed out my truck on the curb. I don't see any damage to the underside though. So I guess it is all good. I learned that I can drive over a taller then normal curb with my truck, but I really shouldn't.


 Anyway, back to the topic on hand... Here I am cutting the notches into the 2x4s for the 1x12 planks can sit flush with the top of the 2x4 stringers. THese are my new saw-horses. The jury is still out on them, but so far, they are looking good. How do you like my high-tech push-stick sitting on the saw?


 Fancy, eh? I didn't even cut my fingers!


 The finished product. The planks all set flush, they don't slide around. There is no sqeaking as I walk across the bed. It supports my weight pretty well. All in all, I am happy! I am going to cut the legs tomorrow and put the bed into the bedroom.

Floor Joist Bracket Jig

 The floor joist brackets want to stay too far open for my taste.


 So I made a jig to hold it closed using a peice of scrap 2x4.


 The jig is just two screws set so that the stringers are held closed against the 2x4.


 I also added a centerline mark on the 2x4 so I can accuratly center my brackets where they need to be set on my bed frame.

Putting the bedframe together.

 Last night, Matt and Jessica came over for dinner (we all went out) and to play cards & Cranium. While they where deciding what they wanted to do, I started to screw the bed frame together.


 Matt had to help me as the one short end board had started to twist already. I put 3 screws in each end, and also used these metal brackets. To my great surprise the frame ended up perfectly square.


 Matt and I did a lot of figuring to try to get these floor joist brackets positioned right. We ended up getting it right on paper. I am quite proud that I got it figured out being that it was midnight and all. The outside ends are what made things work out weird. As you can see, my cat Sister was supervising, making sure her latest scratching post/ toy/ whatever she wants it to be is properly assembled.


 As you can see, All that is left for this part of the bed is to notch the 2x4 stringers so the 1X12s drop in and lay flush.

Stymied by the rain.

 Sunday I went to Lowes and picked up some 2x4s, 2x6s, 1x12s, and a box of floorjoist hangers and other overpriced metal connectors. I spent a lot more then I needed to if I was just to screw this thing together, but I want it so it can be disassembled fairly easily (trying to back out dozens of screws with rounded off heads doesn't count in my book).


 I cut all the pieces to length.


 My rough assembly showes that I measured about right, the cross peices will need to be cut down as they will be too long once I include the thickness of the metal brackets they slip into. I need to cut grooves into the 2x4 stringers to accept the 1x12s. This will allow the 1x12s to sit flush with the top of the 2x4s and lock into place I am hoping. I really hate beds that groan louder then you do when you get up in the morning.


 Here it sits. I got everything out today, and it started to rain. Just my luck!

The best laid plans of Mice and Men

Ok, I am sleeping in the living room right now. I figure after a year and a half of living in a bedroom, I can sleep in the living room for a month, right?
 My queen sized bed is in storage in Wisconsin. I bought a really nice Coleman queen sized air mattress for the time being. I want to build a bed frame that will allow me to have ample storage underneath it. Ok, my idea of ample storage is to put my table saw and other tools, plastic storage bins, and so forth underneath it. In my typical fashion, I want the whole thing to be easy to move - either by folding up, or easily disassembled (my idea of easily disassembled might be a bit more involved then other peoples as I can take the dash out of my 83 Mercury Cougar XR7 in 7 minutes and 38 seconds - ALL of it).

This basically means that I will need to strap the pieces to the roof of my Ford Escape as I don't have a trailer to haul a sheet of plywood.

I am going to make the frame out of 2x4s and 2x6s and use that pre-cut shelving material to surface the 'deck' of the bed frame. The whole thing is going to be about 30 inches tall, so I have 24 inches of clearance underneath. That will put the bed at nearly 40 inches tall.

My ultimate plans are to wrap the frame in oak 1 inch material to make it look nice. It is either going to be a big 4 post bed, or have nice tall bed posts. I have a ceiling fan to work around - it will actually be INSIDE the bed frame if I end up doing the 4 poster idea - how is THAT for fancy?

Anyway, off to Lowes to see how long I will be eating PB&J sandwiches...