Bed Frame Angle iron frame

Hardware
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I decided to spin this off from the topic it was part of. I had some time to work on this again tonight and figured I would give a quick recap, and I had a change in thinking.

So far I have pulled two identical “pop together” bed frames out of my pile of inspiration. With an angle grinder ($14 list at HF) and cut off wheels, I have dissected them into 6 major pieces of angle iron and a bunch of other little pieces; 4 do dads that act as legs the wheels slip into, and 2 do dads that the headboard would bolt onto if you had a headboard, and 4 little square pieces that keep the arms from over extending.

This is not enough for the entire project, but it is enough to build the two sets legs and the bottom supports. I am basing this so far on Bar’s bolt together frame design.

To that end I have gotten a bunch of pieces cut out. Leg A is 79 inches. None of the pieces are that long. I have used one entire long piece of a bed frame and cut one short piece to be 79". I have also cut a little 4" piece to potentially use to bolt the other two pieces together with. I broke down and bought a $79 HF metal chop saw the other day with a 25% off coupon. Great purchase, I am not sure on the leg A’s if I am going to bolt them or weld them or bolt weld one piece of the 4" piece and bolt the other. I figure this way all of my options are still open. I have a gas mig welder so I can potentially make nice welds, but I am not a good welder. Practice makes perfect though and at least with this, it won’t be catastrophic if a weld gives. Thoughts on this aspect are very welcome.

I have also cut two leg B’s, they are just a bit shorter than the bed frame long members so that worked out well. I think the bed frame long members are about 69" or so if I am remembering correctly.

And lastly I cut out the two 25" supports from two of the short pieces. Each frame has 2 long pieces and 4 short pieces, So far we have used all of the long pieces for the legs, two of the short pieces for the legs, the change from one of the legs short pieces for the piece to bolt the other pieces together with, and two of the short pieces for the supports. That leaves a lot of short pieces left.

I have the spines from two old fotuns I think I am going to use for the top support and I have a few more bed frames for the bottom and what ever else.

My goal is for this to be bolted together enough so it will be portable. Probably not easily portable but it should come apart enough to fit in a car. My goal also is to spend as little as possible on this, so that means looking at my pile of inspiration for ideas on stuff I can recycle into different pieces. And the third goal is for this to be at least as strong and flex free as it’s wooden counterparts.

I am planning on having a 3/4" plywood back board that will be bolted into the agle so I suspect that will stiffen it right up if the steel is not stiff enough to begin with. I got that free too. 3 sheets on the side of the road in a free pile.

As an aside, if you are in or will be traveling to the Ithaca NY area this summer and have any interest in this or a host of other projects, please contact me.

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A bit of progress. I got the long legs welded together. I used little 4" pieces on the inside to overlap the joint and migged the two pieces of the leg together on one side and the two ends of the little piece on the inside. I grond away some of he ugly on the outside and it does not look too bad.

I got started drilling the holes. Luke much of life this is turning out to be a bit of an adventure in itself. I needed a prick punch. I have enough holes to drill that I don’t want to be pricking them with a sheetrock screw. They are hard steel and that will work in a pinch but it lacks elegance… After not being able to find a prick punch, I was able to find what looked to be a piece of drill rod or something like it. Perfect. I grond that down to a point on the bench grinder by rotating it while pushing it into the stone. I got a nice sharp pont. Figuring that I am going to be using this a lot I ought to try hardening it. I wound a coil around it and hooked it to the induction heater for a few minutes until it was glowing bright orange. Normally I toss hot stuff into the pond but I read that the bubbles from it boiling keep it from cooling too fast. People recommended an oil bath. I had a couple quarts of used motor oil kicking around and one of the jugs was not quite full. So I dunked the part in it with a pair of long needle nose pliers. It smoked like crazy, smelled really awful and it heated the oil up enough to deform the plastic jug. Youza. However on the first prick punch, the point caved in. MOre reading, and one of two things. One was I did not get it hot enough and two I may not have held it hot for long enough. I reshaped the point and this time wrapped it up in a few layers of fiberglass insulation and held it in there for 20 minutes. FWIW the stuff he treat the paper with on the insulation is good stuff. The paper all charred black but never smoldered. Some of the insulation melted, and lost most of it’s color. The pice cooled down more than I had waned as it was kind of melted in with the insulation and I figured this had enough heat in it to totally melt the oil jug so I opted for the pond. I used gentler tapping and so far, so good with this version of he prick punch. See, if you don’t mind wasting 3 hours and learning a bunch of new processes you can save $10.

Anyway, the 1/8" holes went in like a dream. Just slow and easy and lube the mess up with waste oil. The full sized “H” holes on the other hand. It is like night and day. The little bit went right through and the big bit, with a pilot hole is not cutting at all. I have tried two of them now. I may have to invest in some bits…

Sadly that is where this activity ends. The garden got in the way and I spent 2 days getting my 1950’s vintage rototiller purring again. I probably could have done that plot faster with a pitch fork, but whats the fun in that?

Any ideas on the holes? I have a bit bit index but I dread the idea of having to step each hole up more than twice…

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Progress pictures please :grin: That’s a lot of words for no pictures lol.

You can re sharpen your bits before spending more :moneybag:, even with that angle grinder if you don’t have a bench grinder/sander or bit sharpener. the key is to not let the tips/edges get so hot that they start to change color, and try to copy the same pitch. its worth a shot if the bit is already dead, and you might end up with one that tears through the metal quicker then it did new once you get your sharpening technique down.

I admire your resourcefulness, cant wait to see how it turns out.

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I Have some pix from the first outing, but things have changed so they are dated. I don’t have pix of making the prick punch or my drilling. I will snap some pix once I get holes in the first 6 pieces and have the A shaped side pieces bolted together.

I will take a look at the bits, you have a really good point, there is nothing loose by trying to hand sharpen them. Thank you for the tip!

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Good job! I wish I could do smth like that by myself:sweat: I had purchased a mattress that started giving me back pains within 5 month. During the first inspection, results showed that the mattress indentation was indeed more than normal level. However, the Company said there were some damages to my original frame and springbox. In order to satisfy the warranty, i would have to buy a new boxspring and frame (reviews are here https://sleepmentor.net/how-to-find-the-best-bed-frame/). so i did. Second inspection comes and results say that my mattress was fine. Can this be correct? can changing frame and springbox really have helped the mattress? im still getting back aches and bad sleep. I also do not want to just throw my $$ away and not fight this. I don`t know what to do…

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A man after my own heart! I was looking at the old work bench I have to remove to make space for the Maslow and was thinking… I own a welder and angle grinder… there is probably enough SHS for most of a maslow there… I will most likely be building my frame from that, no flexing issues !

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@poliq I have a memory foam mattress in the guest room and I needed storage in there so I took an old regular bed frame for a box spring and built 4 risers for the legs so they are about 8" taller then normal, and I took one of the long struts from another bed frame and bolted that into the existing frame going across the skinny way and right at the half way point. After that I bolted two two pieces of 3/4" plywood into each of the openings. That worked well for the memory foam. I tried it and I could not feel the strut below the plywood. You may be able to do similar with your sleep number… It sucks they are dicking you around with the warranty on it. Thank you for the warning.

Firewuff PLease share your progress with me! I am always open to ideas.

BetterBuilds Thank you for the tip on sharpening the bits. I tried it and I was able to take a bit that would not cut anything and I was able to drill through some really gnarly oak with it.

As for me, I have not gotten back to the project yet. I hot an unexpected boon of vegetable plant starts and I was cranking out large grow boxes like crazy for a while, and than these neat wooden tomato cages that my girlfriend wanted. She saw them in the godfather movie, so call them the godfather cages. And to be honest we have been in a heat wave and I have been doing a whole lot of nothing except taking the dogs swimming. It has just been too hot and humid for man or beast.

I am getting itchy to return to the project though. Especially before I forget what all the pieces I cut are for!

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Progress is going to be slow for me. I’m traveling heavily for the next month or so. I got the old work bench cut up today so a start but I think I’m short materials, now I know what I’ve got it will be time to start the design phase.

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I wish you were near by. Lots of material here! It has been just too repressively hot to want to work in the shop, but I live in a very college area and I have scored a few road side bed frames in the last few weeks. Not a single futon though. Perhaps those metal framed ones have gone out of style.

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Cheap furniture never goes out of style in a college town!

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Any pictures yet?

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Sadly no, this is still about where it was a month ago. Work and other more pressing projects got in the way. It wall cycle back up to the top. Also I realized that the machine will not fit where I had thought about putting it, so building the frame is now behind building some more space to house it. I still like that idea though and a smallish space should suffice. Not like my friend who has a full horizontal machine. That takes up alot of space.

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Can you show some pics of your work?

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I have not really re-visited the project. I wound up taking on a big part of the electronics collection of a friend who is moving and that is now occupying the space the machine was going to occupy. I need to find another place to expand. As of now I have taken all the rivets out of the pieces and cut them to size and I believe that I have welded the long sections that needed more than one piece of frame together. I still need to drill holes and bolt the overall frame together. I do not want to weld the overall frame as I want to be able to knock it down. When I again have space I will get back into the frame. FWIW, I did assemble the pieces last summer with vice grips and it looked pretty good.

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You know you’re doing it right when you buy $100 worth of new tools to save that ten bucks.

Not a hardening expert, but I would have guessed that pond would have cooled quicker than old motor oil. Otoh the oil could be introducing some carbon and case hardening, and the flames (do this outside in a non flammable area :fire:) add to the fun

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Actually oil is supposed to cool more quickly. Water instantly boils and the boiling action makes a protective layer around the thing you are trying to cool.

At this point in time, if is not a matter of centering the holes or drilling the holes, it is a question of where to put it if I were to build it. Right now it is totally in the

way but at least it is a ow profile pile of angle iron that is easy to walk over.

A fellow electronics nerd in moving and I am inheriting a lot of his collection. I have a pole pig and big choke and variac coming. Can you see a 3’ wide jacobs ladder? Oddly enough the pole pig is easy to house. I can keep it outside. They live on power poles, but I have absorbed like 5 or 6 truckloads of goodies. I can just sit down in my shop…

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