DO YOU MOVE A LOT FROM ONE HOUSE TO ANOTHER? you need nomad furniture and this bed is really good to move it around, just take it apart and put it together like a puzzle, No Nails, no screws. It is also really simple to make and looks very good.
Step 1: How to begin.... What you need
You need basic tools for carpentry and wood working, manual or powertools. This bed can be made using only a saw, a screw driver and a steady hand for straight cutting..... Im a bit on the lazy side so I used a jigsaw and a drill (a battery screw driver could work as well), you also need 3/4" or 1" x 6" x 10' boards and a pole 6" diameter. (How many boards you need or how long the pole, depends on how tall you want your bed to be. (standard height of a bed is about 2 feet) and the size of your mattress so you will have to do those calculations yourself...... lazy side remember).
1" board will make a stronger more sturdy bed so I recomend those. You will also need about 20 screws, and 3 or 4 hours of your time.
To make the fire finish you will also need a plumber's torch or any other gas torch but of course this is optional.
ONE MORE THING... REMEMBER TO TAKE ALL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS DURING WOOD WORKING
1" board will make a stronger more sturdy bed so I recomend those. You will also need about 20 screws, and 3 or 4 hours of your time.
To make the fire finish you will also need a plumber's torch or any other gas torch but of course this is optional.
ONE MORE THING... REMEMBER TO TAKE ALL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS DURING WOOD WORKING
Step 2: Measuring and Measuring and then cutting
So, take your boards and put them beside your mattress to be sure you will have a perfect fit.
Mark the boards with a pencil on one side and measure the lenght and width of your mattress. You need to measure only one side, obiously the other side should be the same (unless is a weird non-square mattres)
Mark the boards with a pencil on one side and measure the lenght and width of your mattress. You need to measure only one side, obiously the other side should be the same (unless is a weird non-square mattres)
Step 3: Cutting the first joints
Really important!!!! make 90 degree cuts as precise as you can, If you do not do this at the end you will not have a strudy bed.
This step is really easy to understand just by looking at the pictures so please go ahead and look at the sequence of pictures below.... you simply cannot miss.
Just remember two things:
VERY STRAIGHT CUTS
And,
to have a TIGHT FIT you must cut just a little bit smaller than the width of the board (about 1/32" less than the width of the board)
When you put togeher the boards you will need to tap slightly with a hammer to make a good fit.
This step is really easy to understand just by looking at the pictures so please go ahead and look at the sequence of pictures below.... you simply cannot miss.
Just remember two things:
VERY STRAIGHT CUTS
And,
to have a TIGHT FIT you must cut just a little bit smaller than the width of the board (about 1/32" less than the width of the board)
When you put togeher the boards you will need to tap slightly with a hammer to make a good fit.
Step 4: This is the almost screw-less part of the instructable, the side board
You will need to attach a side board in the inside of the "square" you've just finished so take a 1" X 3" X (lenght of your mattress)' and screw it to the inside of your, almost finished, bed using 10 screws on each side. This board will be used to support the boards (plancks) that will hold your mattres, so it must be well screwed unless you want to fall through your bed in the middle of... the night.
You also need to leave about 2 to 3 inches from the top to fit the plancks and your mattress so that it will not slide while...sleeping.
Once again just look at the pictures and you will know exactly how to do it.... really easy. I don't think there's need to explain how to do the transverse plancks, is there? just make sure your 90� cuts are good enough
You also need to leave about 2 to 3 inches from the top to fit the plancks and your mattress so that it will not slide while...sleeping.
Once again just look at the pictures and you will know exactly how to do it.... really easy. I don't think there's need to explain how to do the transverse plancks, is there? just make sure your 90� cuts are good enough
Step 5: The tricky legs....
Now, THIS is the step that will decide how strong your bed is so.. be careful.
First decide how tall you want your bed to be (in my case 23") and cut the pole, but take into consideration, the thickness of your mattress, the 6" of the board that will slide into the pole. AND ONCE AGAIN 90� cuts must be very well done!
You must cut a cross shape into the pole at 90� angles, the cuts must be as deep as the boards (6") so that they will slide all the way in, also the cuts must be a little bit smaller than the width of the boards to ensure a tight fit and no movement, you should be able to put them together tapping sligthly with a hammer.
Once more, just look at the pictures.... they are worth a thousand words.
First decide how tall you want your bed to be (in my case 23") and cut the pole, but take into consideration, the thickness of your mattress, the 6" of the board that will slide into the pole. AND ONCE AGAIN 90� cuts must be very well done!
You must cut a cross shape into the pole at 90� angles, the cuts must be as deep as the boards (6") so that they will slide all the way in, also the cuts must be a little bit smaller than the width of the boards to ensure a tight fit and no movement, you should be able to put them together tapping sligthly with a hammer.
Once more, just look at the pictures.... they are worth a thousand words.
Step 6: Check point...
By now your bed should look like the picture below..... If it doesn�t, you screw it very bad in one of the previous steps (that's why is named the "almost screw-less bed".
At this point you can choose any kind of wood finishing procedure (barnish, ink, paint, etc) or you can continue and see the fire finishing method.
I should thank the author of one instructable from which I took the idea of making " fire finishing" of wood but honestly i do not remember which instructable was it and i can't find it anymore. Please if anyone finds it let me know so that I can give proper credit to the person who wrote it.
Thanks
At this point you can choose any kind of wood finishing procedure (barnish, ink, paint, etc) or you can continue and see the fire finishing method.
I should thank the author of one instructable from which I took the idea of making " fire finishing" of wood but honestly i do not remember which instructable was it and i can't find it anymore. Please if anyone finds it let me know so that I can give proper credit to the person who wrote it.
Thanks
Step 7: Playing with fire
So, Now you need to take that little pyromaniac inside of you and let it out...
Take the plumbers torch (propane torch) and slightly burn the surface of the wood (between 3 to 5 seconds will be enough) constantly moving the torch to avoid total charcoal finish. Try it and you'll get the hang of it really quickly.
Once you are done with the whole surface you are DONE you have a new bed..... no wait.... just put the mattress on to and some clean sheets and now you are DONE.
enjoy your new puzzle bed that you can move around to any house easily.
All comments are welcome.
Take the plumbers torch (propane torch) and slightly burn the surface of the wood (between 3 to 5 seconds will be enough) constantly moving the torch to avoid total charcoal finish. Try it and you'll get the hang of it really quickly.
Once you are done with the whole surface you are DONE you have a new bed..... no wait.... just put the mattress on to and some clean sheets and now you are DONE.
enjoy your new puzzle bed that you can move around to any house easily.
All comments are welcome.
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I'm in the middle of making it, and do have one major thing to note for anyone else making one.
Do not use un-reinforced cedar for the main planks, and do not use a corner post that is too small.
I'll explain.
When you cut the planks off right after the main joints to make them sit flush, you're left with an approx. 1" piece of wood sticking up, with nothing to prevent it from easily breaking off. This leaves a weak piece, and potentially a very weak joint. Allowing the board to protrude from the post, or using a thicker post, allows more wood to remain to reinforce that piece. The reason I advised against cedar is because it splits too easily... I've already had three of these pieces break off!!
If the fix described above doesn't work too well (i.e. you either have space limitations, or you've already cut them, both of which describe me) I've got another one. Buy some small metal sheets, less than the thickness and width of the board, and screw/glue them on the ends. If they're made of brass or another nice-looking material, they will still look nice and hold up. For further reinforcement, you can drill holes in the posts and reinforce with bolts that can be removed to take the bed apart.
Unfortunately, this might ruin the aesthetic of the bed; just shop around to get something that can fit your tastes. It's either find something that works, or start again from scratch!!
Here's a traditional Japanese finish called Shou-sugi-ban. It entails charring a type of cedar, washing and then applying an oil finish.
materiadesigns.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/shou-sugi-ban-terunobu-fujimori-charred-cedar-siding/
pursuingwabi.com/2007/11/05/shou-sugi-ban/
remodelista.com/posts/outdoors-shou-sugi-ban-wood-siding
lumberjocks.com/projects/23574
I used your guide, but with a few minor alterations, to make a king sized version of your bed. I used larger boards for the sides and also used three 4cm x 4cm beams to support the planks - gotta be strong enough to hold two people. The mattress I have is a Tempur one that measures 1.5 metres, by 2 metres. I've got a little more work to do on it like trim the ends of the main boards so they are flush agains the legs, then apply some sort of finish (my gf probably won't like the pyro idea though).
Thanks for the guide, I had a lot of fun building my own bed =)
Probably a carpenter reading this could give a better advice?
Disclaimer: I'm not a professional carpenter, either, but I have done quite a bit of carpentry and woodworking, from barn lofts to finish work.
Bunk beds shouldn't be much of a problem if you keep everything nice and tight, but a loft with no lower level would be harder to stabilize. You'd definitely have to use slats on the end for bracing, like a standard headboard & footboard on a bunk bed. A loft would need at least one slat or some sort of bracing long-ways so it doesn't want to fold up.
(Also - six inch posts would probably still be adequate. Cutting two perpendicular 1.5" slots still leaves you with the approximate equivalent of a 4x4 post.)
For the lower bunk frame, the frame would slot in pretty much the same as the instructable. The only difference would be that you'd have to put the slots right through the post instead of just in the top. One of the slots would be 1.5x as tall as the slat board to allow it to slide in and drop over the other. (Doing this on the top as well would provide more structural integrity.)
End slats would probably need some sort of peg to secure the slats into the slot in the post. Also make sure kids know "if you pull this out, it falls on your head". Could save more than one kind of headache.
Darn, now I want one. Need to go sketch this whole thing up...