Looking for basic information, guidelines, tips, for basic bed component design, and tradeoffs in terms of joinery, long life, disassembly for moving, and so on. Some example questions include tradeoffs for different rail height off floor, width of rail, size of (apparently typical) gap between headboard panel and headboard rail, proportional height of footbard vs headboard, rail tenon conflict, rail height and placement especially with much thicker mattresses, when and whether to eliminate foundation/box springs, supporting the bed, and so on. Mattress manufacturer specifications certainly have to be taken into account, but at the same time a well built bed frame should out live several mattresses.
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Replies
don,
can't add much to what dmd's already told you. each time i have started with the mattress dimensions in mind. one should also consider enough room between rail and mattress for tucking in needs. when using bed-rail-to-headboard hardware it will be necessary to make a router jig, as these parts are let into the end grain of the rails. bed making parameters are what they are, have fun with the design aspect. the sky's the limit as far as that goes.
eef
Measure the actual mattress. A queen may be 60” but they can vary. Also determine space needed in between rails and mattress. Some old four posters had high mattress heights wile modern beds are low. Depends on style category.
Jeff Miller's book ("Beds") has a lot of good general info and detailed instruction for building a few different style frames
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