Bed, Box joints

Hey Max
They are usually mortise and tenon.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Thanks Jim; can always rely on you to help out.
I presume you are talking about a glued joint. Do you think this will be strong enough without any mechanical fastening?

-- Max, New Zealand

Oh the bed that I built I used lag screws to attach the legs to the head board and foot board and covered the holes with a decorative strip of wood, I used a set of the extra heavy duty bed fittings like what’s here http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Fasteners%20%26%20Screws/CatID/Bed%20Fittings/showprod/1 to attach the rails to the head and foot board. When it was finished, there wasn’t any metal showing when the bed was put together. Here’s the bed I made to give you an idea of what it looked like http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11119

Hope it helps

-- "At its best, life is completely unpredictable." - Christopher Walken

Wow, that’s fantastic – far more audacious than I am attempting. I want a very minimalist design comprising four sides without legs on the corners. Obviously there will be legs but I don’t want them to anchor the corners

-- Max, New Zealand

Check out my blog on making a bed frame

-- There is no such thing as a mistake. Its called a design modification Rick Kruse, Grand Rapids, MI

You could always pin your mortise and tenons. Since you are using sizable pieces of lumber you could use two 1/2” pins per joint without them looking too big.

Good luck.

-- P.O.C.