LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Comments

· Registered
Joined
·
19,753 Posts
They turned out very well.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,175 Posts
Thanks Jim. These were easy to do :) Cleared up a lot of scrap too, now I have even smaller scrap though lol.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,759 Posts
Hey Eric! Great job! My fiance bought some of these for like $20+

ever since then I have her check with me before she buys stuff like that…..Could have been easily made from scrap (like you)

Thanks for posting! I hope all is well
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,175 Posts
Dakremer, thank you. We own a pair of the plastic cones and they suck. Not to mention we had a guest stay one night and they collapsed on him. Those things are pieces of junk. These scrap made ones are nice :)

Today I'll be attaching them, but I'm worried I may have gone too wide at the base. They may stick out from bed a bit but I could be wrong. I should have probably done tiers starting with 6 and going to 2 instead of 7 through 3. I think 3 inch is the clearance to the edge of the bed but I'll find out later. Also, if they do stick out, I'll need to bandsaw the edges round or something to prevent me from hitting my toes against the corners. We'll see….

Thanks CJ.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1 Posts
Kudos on a well documented, detailed set of steps. I like clarity. My plastic risers busted at about three this morning, not all of them, just on the starboard side. Made sleeping a bit of a chore. I want to make risers myself this time. I am worried about bumping a toe on the sharp, square, extended edges. If I cheated on the outsides, say only extended 2 inches from center (7 inch base, center is 3.5 inches in from edge) but left the full 3.5 inch for the insides; would the risers be stable enough? I also thought of rounding the outside edges as well.

Thanks !!!

James Pacific Northwest
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,175 Posts
Hey James, thanks for the compliments.

If I were to make them over again, I would definitely make the tiers round, or at least the bottom one. I've stubbed my toes so many times at night on them that I've decided to wrap the edges in foam. However, even with that one design issue, they still are a million times better than the cheap plastic crappy risers. If I decide to take them off, I'd run the bottom tier through the bandsaw to round them since I have nails too close to the edges to turn the entire thing at this point.

Also, I think I could have probably made each tier an inch narrower and it would still be stable and then wouldn't stick out from under the bed. These things are very sturdy though.

So yes, make them round or at least soften the sharp edges. I wish I had.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1 Posts
Hey Eric!
I went a little different route; and now I'm at a point where I need ideas. I used standard 4×4 for my risers. I drilled a 7/8ths diameter hole in the tops to receive the bed frame legs minus the rollers originally on the bed frame. Eventually I'll put felt or some other fabric on the bottoms to save the flooring. It's not pretty right now, but I intend to ease the square corners of the risers with my router and paint sometime soon. Purtified is always better, eh?
Take a look at the "lifetime" guaranteed plastic bed riser I photographed these lasted 10 years. The way they worked is that the rollers on the legs of the bed frame rested in the square depression at the top of the riser. When the riser failed, the bed frame twisted on the way down and punched a hole in the side of the plastic riser; pretty much making it trash. So not only did the riser fail vertically, but it went down laterally, trashing two other risers on the way.
The 4×4 isn't going to fail in quite the same way, but if the bed gets pushed sideways, the wooden risers may want to tip to the side. This would cause strain on the drilled hole and possibly split the wood.
My thoughts were to use braces; first across all three risers at the foot and the head of the bed; and then two more braces to link the risers at the foot and the risers at the head. A regular 1×6 would work and, I believe, provide the lateral stability I want. But a 1×6 would also prevent us from using the under-bed storage that we now enjoy. The under-bed storage was the reason for risers in the first place.
So what I need is a good plan. Look at the drawing. If I use plywood to make the braces, I can pretty much run the plywood fully up and down the riser itself. Then I can narrow the plywood between the risers to recover some of the under-bed storage space that we currently use. I'm not worried about access from the foot of the bed or from the head; just from both sides.
Any help out there?









 

Attachments

· Registered
Joined
·
1,175 Posts
James, sorry but you may want to post it on the forums instead. I don't have any good suggestions for your needs. Sorry.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
47 Posts
You must admit: software engineer → hanoi towers, no mayan piramids (LOL)
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,175 Posts
Alejandro, lol. If one leg was shorter than the other or flipped upside down then maybe ;)
 
Top