Toddler bed

[Commander]

We found out recently that we will be adding another member to the family close to the middle of the year, unfortunately we will most likely not be able to move to a larger house, so we had to think about a couple of options to maximize our space. So first item on the list is a toddler bed for the eldest, so we have enough space to fit both the cot and bed into the room available. The wife wanted to buy a bed initially, but seeing the cost v.s. quality available she decided that we could do a better job ourselves. I will be building the bed (within some strict design parameters) and swambo will be in charge of finishing.

The wife loves the idea of the bed having a roof turning it into a little house, so that is the basic idea. I have also tried to make the bed modular as far as possible so that it van be taken apart for transport as well as being turned into bunk beads should the need arise in the future.


Here is the basic CAD model, the head board will change as swambo doesn't like the look of it. The far guard rail will also change to something closer to the near rail, and will likely fully close both sides with access being granted from the foot of the bed.

I was able to make a start on the weekend, unfortunate I spent an awful amount of time on prepping the lumber (I'm using a lot of recycled pallet wood), so the photos aren't very impressive, even though I did make some good progress.

I managed to cut and glue the 4 legs:




I also spent some time setting up the big router and rounded some of the edges:




And here is a mock-up of what the legs will look like once the are attached to the long rails:




\

(My apologies for the poor image quality, the details didn't show up nearly as clearly as I had hoped...)

Thanks for looking! bscene-drinkingcheers:

 

[Phil]

Erich, nice looking project.

There is a lot more satisfaction in building than buying some pine c r a p, and especially with the inhouse finisher/decorator doing the finishing. (you will end up doing it! )

The timber certainly looks better than what I have seen at "mr Pine".

 

[AndyP]

That looks a challenge Erich. Don't forget to base the measurements on the size of available mattresses, sheets etc.

 

[Malc2098]

looking good!

 

[Pinch]

Yes, great little project.

I made something similar for myself years ago when I was living the single life. I was living in a flat of a large old Victorian house which had high ceilings - it look fab! My old lady friends (back then) loved it.

:eusa-whistle:

 

[Commander]

Thanks Phil, the pallet lumber was in a right state, I even ended up cutting into a hidden nail at one point (luckily I was prepared and could back-off the saw quickly), but it looks MUCH better than it did before I started!

And I was very pleased with the project, I felt like throwing R1200 down the drain for a wonky piece of plastic c r a p would be a real shame. Regarding finishing, if the missus wan'ts to start using it in the near future she would have to do the decorating as I'm terrible at that last step. The next project always seems much more interesting right at that point! :lol:

Thanks for the tip Andy, I actually measured the cot mattress we have at the moment and then correlated it back to the actual sizes available (it was pretty close, but not perfect), apparently it is a "standard cot mattress" measuring in at 1180x560x(80)mm.

I also forgot to add that the idea was to fit the drawer (its a basic box on caster wheels) from the current cot under this bed, but due to the different leg design the drawer under this bed will be slightly smaller. This won't be a problem as we will use both the cot and bed at the same time.

 

[Commander]

I have managed to make a bit of progress over the past weekend.

I cut the head and foot of the bed out of some old pine shelving I had lying around, I did a quick mock-up just to see if all the dimensions looked correct and also had SWAMBO in to have a look:





I wanted to incorporate a "step" into the had and foot of the bed, and the board looked a bit chunky as it was so I decided to cut a hole for the step and remove some material creating "feet".

I used a hole saw to add the radius and then very carefully used to TS to do some accurate plunge cuts:



I did this for both the head and foot of the bed. I then proceeded with a small jigsaw and file to take out the excess:





I then rounded the edges with the router and started scraping off the old varnish:



The next step was doing a lot of sanding and filling on the legs as well as rounding the rest of the edges. I also cut the 1st half of the slots that the safety rails will mount to. The second half will still be added to the top part of the leg and it will have a matching slot.





My initial router cuts were too deep and also against the grain which caused a bit of chip-out, lessons were learned...

Here are the feet bottoms, all sanded and rounded, the foot closest to the camera still has a bit of a step, unfortunately the belt sander packed up before I could finish sanding down the step.



Thanks for looking!

 

[Phil]

Coming along nicely Erich.

I do, however, suggest you start pulling finger as your "finishing" assistent might soon be in no condition to do the finishing!

 

[Tusses]

I'll have a proper look at the thread in a bit , but , as someone that has looked into making children's beds , and decided against it .. can I suggest looking at the safety regs for gaps and traps etc. , if you haven't already ? .. some real horror stories out there !
Another one of my post, where I just wouldn't like to say nothing after I thought it

 

[Commander]

Thanks Phil, the wife is very keen for me to work on it, so that helps a lot! Normally there is 101 other things that are of higher priority for her...

Tusses, I haven't really looked into it, I will do some googling and see what I can find, the only item I can think of at this point that could be a concern is the spacing of the gaps in the safety rail so a toddler can't get a head through. If I look at some of the stuff that is available on the market I'm sure my design would be just fine. I don't plan on selling these but naturally I don't want to put my own child in any danger.

Can you elaborate on the areas of concern?

 

[Tusses]

nothing specific, just think about everything ... you know what kids are like .. they won't just get into bed and go to sleep, especially if it looks fun, or they can climb up or get under or through a gap etc.
Just be mindful

It's really hard to find the safety spec's for free !

I think it's something like 60mm between rails.
there is a min gap for the slats that the matress goes on.
a min height from the top of the mattress to the top of the safety rail

some are aimed at high beds or bunk beds, but I'd err on the side of caution.

There should be no where a head can get through ..
Even with non wood parts, like fabric canopies roof covering curtains etc.
worst case they climb up to get to it, put their head though and slip !

This is the kind of horror story that stopped me from making them
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tragic-dea ... 519304.amp

along with the difficulty in finding out the safety regs .

I can never understand why british (and other) safety standards charge for a copy of something that could save lives ?

Similar to building regs/elec regs/gas regs ...

 

[9fingers]

Whatever precautions one might think adequate, there are kids that can defeat them.

An example from the recent news. there are two stair gates vertically in this clip..


[youtube]9UrjmsFed0A[/youtube]

Bob

 

[Commander]

Some food for thought right there Tusses, I will make sure my daughter's head won't fit through the pars on the safety rail, for the rest I will be using a solid base for the mattress as I don't think the mattress we have will work well with slats, the construction it self will be sturdy, so no chance of it falling apart or breaking (I have designed it to hold my own weight as I want to be able to sit on the bed to read bed time stories). The "roof" won't have any draping or covers, only the frame. As Rob said I'm sure there will be some eventualities I can't cater for and can't envision, so selling beds would also be out of the question in my mind.

I do want to thank you for raising this as it has reminded me to spend some extra time thinking of any additional safety concerns.

Rob, that clip is astonishing! I'm sure the mom filming it doesn't help the matter, but I would probably want to capture such an event myself! :lol:

 

[AndyP]

Erich, are you sure a solid bed base is a good idea? Mattresses need to breathe. Suggest you do a quick google before you go down the solid ply base route.

 

[Commander]

Thanks for the input Andy, Our own bed has slats and I know that this would be the right way to do it for a "grown-up" mattress, the cot mattress is very floppy, so I'm not sure if it would at all be comfortable on slats, also the cot we have has a solid base, so I was also taking my cues from there. I will give it a google and see what I can find though.

 

[AndyP]

Erich,
If you intend to use a waterproof mattress protector it is even more important that the mattress can breathe from underneath.
Perhaps a ply base with LOTS of large holes might be an alternative to the slats.

 

[TrimTheKing]

When I made our children's crib (there's a thread about it on here) I used a thin play base and drew a lattice of squares around 3x3" and drilled an 8 or 10mm hole at the intersection of each for just that reason, to allow the mattress to breathe.

The holes don't need to be massive if there's enough of them.

Cheers
Mark

EDIT : Have a look here Erich, near the bottom.

viewtopic.php?t=62

 

[Mike G]

Nice, Erich, and congratulations!

Let me just add that you are working with some of the most difficult wood possible. I learnt by working only in pine (for about 20 years!), but is was 10 times better than that stuff you've got there. What I am getting at is that if you can make a decent job out of this sort of material, you'll make some wonderful furniture when you come to working with some decent hardwoods.

 

[Tusses]

re the base ..
I too would agree on having some ventilation. You can still use slats , but just space them a few mm apart.
If you do holes or gaps, make sure fingers cant get stuck in them

Can you get the hardboard/pegboard over there ?

 

[Commander]

Thanks again gents, I will do some head scratching, I intend to make the bed so that it can be disassembled, which will make slats a bit more complicated. I think drilling holes may be the way to go, I was thinking of drilling some holes to assist with taking out the base board in any case, so a couple hundred more shouldn't be a problem! :lol: :lol:

Tusses, you do get peg board over here, I was hoping to use all materials I have already, but that might actually be just the ticket.

Mike, thanks very much for the compliment, I am very much looking forward to working with some proper wood. I'm actually getting some hard woods from a gentleman that is downsizing his shop and moving cross country, its some odds and ends, but I should be able to make a couple of smaller project form the material.

Mark, I'm reading through your tread now, I'm sure i will be bale to take some good tips from it!

 

[Commander]

When I made our children's crib (there's a thread about it on here) I used a thin play base and drew a lattice of squares around 3x3" and drilled an 8 or 10mm hole at the intersection of each for just that reason, to allow the mattress to breathe.

The holes don't need to be massive if there's enough of them.

Cheers
Mark

EDIT : Have a look here Erich, near the bottom.

http://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=62

Mark, I went through your thread and may I say very impressive work! That crib looks like an item that may very well become an heirloom!

 

[Rod]

Ideally for comfort, when reading a story, the bed should be big enough for you to lay with the child.
I speak from many years of painful experience [emoji3]

What's happened to the crib now Mark? Babies grow very quickly so they don't get much use. Ours was stored away after our two daughters used it and brought out again for the Grandchildren - now stored away again by elder daughter.

Rod

 

[TrimTheKing]

Mark, I went through your thread and may I say very impressive work! That crib looks like an item that may very well become an heirloom!

Thanks Erich, both my kids slept in it as their first bed outside of hospital, and 2 other friends have borrowed it also with 3 kids using it, so in total 5 children have used it as their first bed which is nice.

Cheers
Mark

 

[TrimTheKing]

What's happened to the crib now Mark? Babies grow very quickly so they don't get much use. Ours was stored away after our two daughters used it and brought out again for the Grandchildren - now stored away again by elder daughter.

Hi Rod

Yep sadly a lot of effort goes into proportionally small amount of use. Last time it was borrowed it got slightly damaged in that the dowels holding the legs broke but that's not a biggie as it turned out the be a weak point so when my shop is up and running I will be modifying the legs by adding a long loose tenon into the ends of the lower cross brace, cutting a through mortice in the legs and changing it to a through wedge/tusked tenon so it is easily knock down.

Currently the legs are packed away in the container and the basket is in the kids playroom currently used to store all their dressing up kit.

Cheers
Mark

 

[AndyP]

Ideally for comfort, when reading a story, the bed should be big enough for you to lay with the child.

Not so sure about that. I often used to fall asleep before the children.

 

[Tusses]

Ideally for comfort, when reading a story, the bed should be big enough for you to lay with the child.

Not so sure about that. I often used to fall asleep before the children.

then they think that is cool , and wan't you to stay every night until they sleep !
Try and reserve that one for when they are poorly !

 

[Commander]

Ideally for comfort, when reading a story, the bed should be big enough for you to lay with the child.

Not so sure about that. I often used to fall asleep before the children.

then they think that is cool , and wan't you to stay every night until they sleep !
Try and reserve that one for when they are poorly !

Exactly! That sounds all too familiar! Ours is currently in a single bed, but due to space constraints when nr2 arrives I have no choice regarding size. I am however glad about it since I really wanted to make a bed/crib for my kid and the wive was always a little skeptical (sound familiar Mark? ), but now I have the chance!

I also aim to make the bed so it can be dissembled and resembled as I'm sure it will spend a lot of time in storage at some point in its life!

 

[Commander]

I was able to make some progress over the last weekend, but due to some other commitments I was only able to spend a couple of hours.

I started by attaching the head and foot to the legs, My thinking was that this would be easier than to attach the runners first. For this I used furniture screws and metal inserts. First step was to position the head/foot on the legs, and drill the 6mm holes for the bolts. I then added a small countersink to the hole.



I then separated the foot from the leg and drilled the larger (I believe 10mm) hole for the insert in the leg along with a small countersink so that the leg will sit flush up against the foot.


Unfortunately there was again some chip-out, but at least it will stay hidden.



Rinse and repeat until all four legs have been attached!






I'm not 100% happy with this detail, in hindsight I should have forgone the "leg" portion of the head and foot and just left it a more narrow board.

After that it was a simple matter of attaching the long runners and now the basic frame is complete!





I also finished all the sanding of parts that have been made, and made a start on the base/slats (I have decided on a hybrid of the two, which I hope will provide best of both worlds, as well as working well with my design.)

I very happy with the look of the furniture bolts, I think they add to the whole look of the bed.

Thanks for looking!

 

[9fingers]

Small tip:
Slow the drill right down when countersinking to reduce chatter. Towards the end you you can even run the drill in reverse to burnish to hole to a fine finish.

HTH
Bob

 

[Malc2098]

Coming along nicely.

 

[Commander]

Thanks for the tip Bob, I wasn't very happy with the finish there and tried various things to reduce the effect (I haven't had this problem before) but it didn't get much better on the other holes, so i will give your method a try next time!

Thanks Malcolm! As usual it is taking much longer than expected! :shock: :lol:

 

[TrimTheKing]

Pine is a ridiculously difficult timber to countersink unless the tool is super sharp. I suspect a combination of dull countersink and technique contributing to the lack of sharpness to the countersink. I've had the same issue myself and though it was just me, but I bought a decent CS (my previous one was a cheap one that came with a set) and it was night and day difference in performance and quality…

Cheers
Mark

 

[Commander]

Pine is a ridiculously difficult timber to countersink unless the tool is super sharp. I suspect a combination of dull countersink and technique contributing to the lack of sharpness to the countersink. I've had the same issue myself and though it was just me, but I bought a decent CS (my previous one was a cheap one that came with a set) and it was night and day difference in performance and quality…

Cheers
Mark

I actually wanted to buy a new countersink bit, but when I saw the prices I quickly changed my mind :shock:
I may have to review that decision but it really was ridiculously expensive...

 

[TrimTheKing]

Yep, decent ones are, or can be, eyewateringly spend!!

Mark

 

[Tusses]

as with anything cheap .. give it a sharpen regularly will help a bit

 

[DaveL]

I have some counter sinks like these http://www.banggood.com/4pcs-Countersin ... 29096.html they leave a clean cut.

 

[Commander]

Thanks Dave, those look well priced!

 

[9fingers]

I have some counter sinks like these http://www.banggood.com/4pcs-Countersin ... 29096.html they leave a clean cut.

I've ordered a set to evaluate. I have decent ones in the metal workshop but only a scruffy one in the wood workshop at the bottom of the garden. I will try and remember to report back when they arrive.

Bob

 

[Commander]

Thanks Bob, that would be great, I have to say that website is very well priced and they seem to ship to RSA, which is usually a bit of a problem. I spotted a couple of items that would be very useful in my workshop, so may just make an order in due course.

 

[DaveL]

Bob,

I don't have those actual ones, but some of the same type. I have bought a few bits and pieces from Banggood and most of it has been OK. Hopefully these will be a good buy.