Bed stretch project

[Cord]

Here's a bit of a different project. My wife saw this bed at an antique store and the price and style was right, but it was a full not the queen she wanted. She asked if i could help and I was happy to oblige. The bed was both too narrow and too short so I had to stretch it in both dimensions. It turned out to be a bit more involved because I didn't think about how many welds would be required. In all, it was 28 butt welds with a few extra when I decided to reinforce the rails.

Finished pictures were supposed to be taken last night, but storms prevented that from happening. I'll try to get some tonight.

 

[Cord]

Working on the bed rails

 

[Cord]

I wasn't satisfied with the torsional stength of the rails so I decided to add a second piece of angle to the underside. The orignal angles were 1.5"x1/8 L and I added some 1" angle inside of it. Made a big difference in strength.

 

[Cord]

Working on patching the head and foot bars back in. I split the rails in two places so the pattern would remain symmetrical. This means I ended up with 4 welds at the top bar, 4 welds at the bottom bar x2 for the head and foot.

 

[Cord]

Working on the paint. I primed the piece and then sanded out the primer at the welds to fill in the last of the scratches. Primed again and then painted it using a Rustoleum hammered gloss white. Once this paint dried for several days, I then mixed a glaze with a dove gray. The glaze was rubbed over the entire frame and then the excess was wiped off. This gave the frame a distressed look with some extra shadows in the castings.

 

[dieselscout80]

Great work. :thumbsup:

 

[dragoneggs]

Nicely done, Cord! Great idea on how to position and hold the tube in line with the existing members. Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

 

[Gordon Gould]

Yes very nicely done indeed. You know what they say - You've made your bed now you will have to lie in it.

gg

 

[3Ts]

Very nice and I like your paint job. I'll have to try it on a project I'm working on. However, a question, when you added the 1" angle on the inside of the bed rails - doesn't the bed slats or box springs sit on those? Meaning, how is the mattress held up?

 

[two_bit_score]

Very nice work. Bet some of that took a little bit of patience.

I hope you got to buy a new welder or something for all of that.

:drink: