I've got an old but physically unsound french bed and I want to build a crude
but free standing support structure with its own legs within the bed's existing
side rails. To this end, I've just bought 15 x 140 cm slightly bowed plywood
slats. Can anyone give offer any insight as to how the slats are normally fixed
onto the side rails? I've noticed many slatted double bed bases seem to have a
solid centre rail.

help appreciated.

Typically the end of the slat is affixed with a screw to a ledger on the
side of the rail.
Running a solid center rail will stiffen things up a bit when the loading on
the bed is not even as it spreads a point load across more of the slats.
Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

Why not repair/reinforce the unsound bed instead of making a new structure
inside it?

-j



"Jim" [email protected] wrote in message
...
I've got an old but physically unsound french bed and I want to build a
crude
but free standing support structure with its own legs within the bed's
existing
side rails. To this end, I've just bought 15 x 140 cm slightly bowed
plywood
slats. Can anyone give offer any insight as to how the slats are normally
fixed
onto the side rails? I've noticed many slatted double bed bases seem to
have a
solid centre rail.

help appreciated.

I'm sorry, I can't offer much guidance aside from pointing you to the
book "Beds" by Jeff Miller. It is an excellent resource for bed design
IMO. It comes with plans for around 10 beds, but the techniques are
what make this book truly worth having. Most (all?) of his beds use
slats which are held in place by dowel pins on the rails and slots cut
into the ends of the slats.

It just so happens that I am beginning work on my own bed. I've been
looking for a good source for a slat set and have been utterly
unsuccessful. I saw a bed in a furniture store with flexible plywood
slats which were inserted into slots in a square steel tube rail on
either side of the bed. I'd love to get my hands on that, but it seems
silly to spend 5000 for a set of slats. Your post is the next closest
thing I have found. Any chance you'd be willing to share your source?
Thanks in Advance and sorry I couldn't be of more help.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:07:18 -0800, "J" wrote:

Typically the end of the slat is affixed with a screw to a ledger on the
side of the rail.

Running a solid center rail will stiffen things up a bit when the loading on
the bed is not even as it spreads a point load across more of the slats.
Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

Why not repair/reinforce the unsound bed instead of making a new structure
inside it?

Many thanks for the response. The bed is called a 'corbeille' and is
intrinsically a weak design - although my own bed isn't antique it seems to
embody all the worst aspects of the original it's copied from. Also, the side
rails are much to low for my liking so I want to raise the base by 6 or 7 inches
anyway.



"Jim" [email protected] wrote in message
.. .
I've got an old but physically unsound french bed and I want to build a
crude
but free standing support structure with its own legs within the bed's
existing
side rails. To this end, I've just bought 15 x 140 cm slightly bowed
plywood
slats. Can anyone give offer any insight as to how the slats are normally
fixed
onto the side rails? I've noticed many slatted double bed bases seem to
have a
solid centre rail.

help appreciated.

On 19 Nov 2004 12:22:01 -0800, "noOne" wrote:

I'm sorry, I can't offer much guidance aside from pointing you to the
book "Beds" by Jeff Miller. It is an excellent resource for bed design
IMO. It comes with plans for around 10 beds, but the techniques are
what make this book truly worth having. Most (all?) of his beds use
slats which are held in place by dowel pins on the rails and slots cut
into the ends of the slats.

Would that be to allow some movement when the slats are flexed?

It just so happens that I am beginning work on my own bed. I've been
looking for a good source for a slat set and have been utterly
unsuccessful. I saw a bed in a furniture store with flexible plywood
slats which were inserted into slots in a square steel tube rail on
either side of the bed. I'd love to get my hands on that, but it seems
silly to spend 5000 for a set of slats. Your post is the next closest
thing I have found. Any chance you'd be willing to share your source?
Thanks in Advance and sorry I couldn't be of more help.

I'm in france and have picked these up from a DIY chain called Mr Bricolage (I
haven't yet figured out why they don't call themselves Monsieur Bricolage).
They're pretty unexceptional and expensive I think at 80 euros for the set of
15.
I've also spotted a slatted bed-base which seems to me to be good value from a
chain called IKEA

http://www.ikea-usa.com/webapp/wcs/s...ts=10103*13740

- they're pretty much world-wide although the european model appears to be
available in 3 different widths . Also they appear to have given the design a
bit of thought where spine-support is concerned. I also like the way they've
used a sort of rubber anchor for the slats. I'm seriously thinking of buying
this and returning my slats to Mr Bricolage if I can modify their design to fit
my weird bed.

J wrote:

Typically the end of the slat is affixed with a screw to a ledger on the
side of the rail.
Running a solid center rail will stiffen things up a bit when the loading on
the bed is not even as it spreads a point load across more of the slats.
Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.
and a king post (humping post) 5th leg in the centre of the centre rail
will also help stop it giving way.....Kev ended up in hospital when his
failed (no king post)

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 20:31:40 +0100, Jim [email protected] wrote:

Can anyone give offer any insight as to how the slats are normally fixed
onto the side rails?

They're not. If you fix them, they squeak,.

Instead you should merely locate them. Most beds I've made are welded
steel, so I just weld an upstanding pin and drill a hole in the slat
(4" x 3/4" softwood, or ash if it's good work). Then place the slat on
top, thump it to mark the pin position, then drill the slat to fit the
pin.

For wood, drive a screw in and cut the head off. You can do this by
pre-driling the slates neatly, avoidng the need to number them and tie
them to particular positions (welding is a wobbly process, unless you
spend an age on it).

The really quick way is just to lay them loose and staple a tape in
place (underneath) to hold them roughly in place.
--
Smert' spamionam

"noOne" wrote in
ups.com:

snip
Any chance you'd be willing to share your source?

Try this for some inspiration:

http://www.sleepworks.com/

Patriarch

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:30:19 +0000, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 20:31:40 +0100, Jim [email protected] wrote:

Can anyone give offer any insight as to how the slats are normally fixed
onto the side rails?

They're not. If you fix them, they squeak,.

Yes I suspected this would be the case

Instead you should merely locate them. Most beds I've made are welded
steel, so I just weld an upstanding pin and drill a hole in the slat
(4" x 3/4" softwood, or ash if it's good work). Then place the slat on
top, thump it to mark the pin position, then drill the slat to fit the
pin.

For wood, drive a screw in and cut the head off. You can do this by
pre-driling the slates neatly, avoidng the need to number them and tie
them to particular positions (welding is a wobbly process, unless you
spend an age on it).

The really quick way is just to lay them loose and staple a tape in
place (underneath) to hold them roughly in place.

thanks for the reply. I've now purchased the IKEA slats which I'll use as you
suggest here.

If anyone else is interested, IKEA (no I'm not on their payroll sadly) do an
amazing range of slat kits at ridiculously low prices.

The type I've just bought (called SULTAN LILLÅKER) incorporate an adjustable
double slatted section for the central hip area (perhaps this would obviate the
need for the humping post suggested by another poster?) and two outside
rubberized spacing strips to keep the slats in place as well as providing an
additional element of suspension. They're dirt-cheap. These seem to come only
in 70/80/90 cm sizes but can be combined to suit.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:34:22 +0100, Jim wrote:

I've now purchased the IKEA slats which I'll use as you
suggest here.

OK, come back when they've split and you need to make some real ones.

Bed slats are probably the worst thing you can buy from Ikea. They're
the absolute epicentre of Ikea's "Simplificate and remove quality"
design process. They're made of solid timber, which is a material with
a high price / quality dependency (always a bad sign in Ikea) and
they're invisible so that they can use the very worst quality and get
away with it.

I shop in Ikea a lot. My two rules are to never buy anything for its
original purpose (how I came to buy a kit-form Trebuchet from them).
Alternatively to only buy things made of materials that they can't
ruin by switching to a cheaper grade; glass, cast aluminium,
cardboard. Timber is something I particularly avoid - past experience,
particularly with solid timber, particularly with bed frames, have
been most disappointing.

Mind you, I bought some red glass candleholders there on my last
visit. Wondered why they were marked "no dishwashers" until I realised
the "red" glass was only painted !

--
Smert' spamionam

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 12:55:37 +0000, Andy Dingley wrote:

I've now purchased the IKEA slats which I'll use as you
suggest here.

OK, come back when they've split and you need to make some real ones.

I'll let you know when it happens....