I am in the process of building a queen sized bed and had a question about how to support the box frame. In his book Beds, Jeff Miller advocates using either a wooden cleat or metal angle brackets to support the box spring. Is this sufficient? Far be it from me to question Jeff Miller, but I am having trouble believing that such an arrangement is all you need. That said, I think that using a sheet of plywood is overkill. Anyone have any exerience with this? Guess I am looking for some reassurance that my box spring is not going to crack in the middle of the night.
Thanks in advance for the time and effort.
BVL
Replies
The box spring only needs to be supported along the edges.
...and a sheet of plywood is indeed overkill and adds quite a lot of unneccessary weight.
1x4 (or so) Pine slats.
A quality mattress and box springs say in a queen size will be too much for the arrangement suggested by Miller.
Agree with BC... take a look at a QUALITY sleep set and decide if you think L brackets would work. Run slats, what's the big deal?
Thanks to everyone for the information.
The matress and box spring are good quality (as far as I can tell). I don't weigh a ton, but I am 6'6"/285 (with 12% body fat, mind you). My concern is that with me and the occassional additional 125-145 pounds of legs and blonde hair, that I would be pushing the envelope. :) I was leaning towards an arrangement like Rick503 suggested, but wanted to avoid overbuilding the bed.
I will probably run the cleats like Jeff Miller recommends and then put two hangers on the head and foot rail and run a support with a foot in the middle - like he does with the King sized beds. It may end up being unnecessary, but it will alleivate my fears.
Keep Safe-
BVL
Edited 8/10/2005 1:12 pm ET by VanderLaan
BVL
Send the blondes over to my house & you won't have to concern yourself with that obstacle.
Seriously, hey I was serious.
No really - it all comes down to physics & stuff we learnt in school about load transfer.
If your box spring is designed to be supported at the perimeter then that should be OK. Some are not & have a centre support rail or leg. My experience with making beds is that you need to get the 'load' (in this case the box spring perimeter) bearing as vertical as posible on the bed rails, transfer that load to the foot & head again in as vertical a line as you can & you should be OK.
Don
My concern is that with me and the occassional additional 125-145 pounds of legs and blonde hair, that I would be pushing the envelope...Oh God... the floor better? Have fun!
"My concern is that with me and the occasional additional 125-145 pounds of legs and blonde hair, that I would be pushing the envelope."
You have to plan for the future.
What happens first, is the blonde hair is occasional. Then, it becomes frequent. The next stage is marriage with some degree of permanence. Then the 145 pounds slowly starts changing, kind of on a bi-monthly basis. It normally peaks out around 200 lbs.
Good idea to have a center support using a 6/4 beam with two removable legs down the center of your box-spring.
Then the 145 pounds slowly starts changing, kind of on a bi-monthly basis. It normally peaks out around 200 lbs.NOT my wife! She got skinnier.. She had to feed the kids on MY wages!
My concern is that with me and the occassional additional 125-145 pounds of legs and blonde hair, that I would be pushing the envelope.
"Pushing the envelope". I guess that I need to take a class in recent euphemisms and slang. I didn't know that's what it's called these days.
Seriously -- your question about support is a valid one. For me it boils down to what you want to build. Do you intend for this to be a truly great piece of woodworking, or will it be "just any bed"?
If it's to be just any bed, then the platform idea is probably best. If it's to be a great piece of woodworking, one that your grandchildren will fight over while you're at your own funeral, then think VERY differently.
For the great bed, there should be one head-to-foot slat, placed at the halfway point. It should be dovetailed, or half-dovetailed, into the head and foot boards.
There should also be a number of side-to-side slats, at least two of which are dovetailed. These sideways slats rest on the sideboards, and on the center slat.
The dovetails absolutely prevent the outside members from spreading -- one possible couse of a falling event.
And falling events are somtehing that you generally don't want when you're "pushing the envelope".
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
I have seen other info - might want to try archives to be safe, but from what I remember, boxsprings used to be made of good hardwood, but not so anymore. The result is that you need a center brace - side to side or down the middle with a support to the floor. If this is not done, any warranty on the boxspring is voided.
If you look at any new bed frames for queen beds, the have the metal rail that supports the edges and a center support with a leg in the middle of the span.
I would suggest the cleat with a support down the middle and in the middle of the span a support down to the floor.
If you got a good bed and the 'sticks' on the side will not hold it..
Either ya weigh a ton or got ripped off on the thing under the mattress!!
Again, you don't need slats running perpendicular; they add nothing.Cleats hold the boxspring, the boxspring works by supporting the mattress. Jeff Miller is right. I've built beds for others this way - never any callbacks.
I had the same project a while back and the Knotheads here convinced me that a box-spring was just a waste of space, to accommodate a piece of junk.
I ended up building a platform bed instead and I believe the advice was the best ever.
You can see the project here.
Edited 8/10/2005 1:35 pm ET by Willie
Hi
I built a queen bed with angle irons to hold the box springs and it worked fine for 10 years when I gave it to my daughter. I then built a king sized bed which has the split box springs (2 parts). I used an angle iron bed frame that came free with the mattress set, screwed it into the bed rails, and then made a new center post because the wood bed frame was taller than the metal frame. This arrangement basically is the same as my previous bed's angle iron, but with the added middle support allowed by the center post. This type of arrangement may work with you, and at 6'6" you should consider a King sized bed! Good luck
nice work, but this is a canopy bed, not a platform bed, right?
Guess it's a canopy/platform bed.
The base uses 4/4 Maple slats, 4" wide with 1" spacing and a center support added. There is no box spring.
I did a lot of research after some advice from Richard Jones and others, and came to the same conclusion, that most box springs are of very cheap construction, takes up valuable space and adds no value. The mattres manufacturers promote their box springs by saying they are necessary, but this is purely a sales thing.
Willie, either you HAD a chrry forest in your back yard or thats the most expensive bed I have ever seen!Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
LOL
Cherry is real expensive here in CA, what hurts most is when the $$$ changes into bags of sawdust, going into the green bin.
you must have taken a loan out against your MB S-500 for that woodWicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
$$$ changes into bags of sawdust..Yes.. It's called 'Part Of Woodworkin'..Better en' that 8/4 stick ya cut one inch short!EDIT:: And falling events are somtehing that you generally don't want when you're "pushing the envelope".AND just when she says 'enough'!
Edited 8/14/2005 11:55 am ET by WillGeorge
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