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Hey guys, I’ve never done anything DIY before so I’m looking for advise on how to get started on building a bed like the the one below for my son. What sort of tools would be needed and any tips on how to get this done. Any and all advise would be great. Thanks
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Zach20. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your question.
The very talented @Dark recently contributed their DIY kids house frame bed and we've featured it on our front page. It's almost identical to what you want to build and I trust they would be more than happy to answer any questions on how they went about constructing it.
You'll most likely need a drill driver and a circular saw, though @Dark used a handsaw for their project.
I've rendered the build so you can see slightly better all the individual components. Personally, I'd build the two end frames first and then join them together with the side runners.
Let me mention some of our keen woodworkers @JDE, @r23on and @Poppop to see if they would like to join the conversation.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
The first thing you need to do is a sketch with a few dimensions. Once you have the idea or concept in mind take a trip to Bunnings to the dressed pine area and have a look at the material available, you may just find the sizes in one of the piles of timber saving time in sizing and cutting.
Failing that not sure of the cutting service Bunnings has these days you may be able have the material cut to size and all you need to do is assemble.
If you take a good look at the photo you supplied there are two side rails to support the ends of the slats as well as the middle rail. don't forget to include these in the material list
Tools need:-
Drill
drill bits for pilot holes
Impact driver and bits ie. Roberson bits (square drive bit) or Philips drive bits
Tape measure
(multiple pairs of hands)
Screws to suit timber sizes
A good to have is a combination mitre saw The miter saw can also be used to cut your tenons
just to add It sounds like you are new to the world of DIY. When drilling pilot holes for screw it is important to use the correct drill size attached is a chart as a guide for the various screw types you will come across.
When choosing the screws look at the packet for the gauge size then relate to this chart for the drill bit
Hey @Zach20
Welcome to the club! When i first started building my girls bed i googled some designs to get an idea of complexities of designs and just some vision. The theme that came up the most was the concept of kids montessori bedrooms or montessori beds. Basically the ideas are toddler bedrooms designed at their height which ment you would build the bed to the kids convenient height. The bed designs were simple frames with either the frame built around the bed mattress as the mattress rest on the floor or mattress off the floor sitting on the frame.
The next step was pen on paper drawing my design ideas. I first measured the mattress i was using then drew around it what i envisioned. Because i had drawn everything to scale i was able to go straight to bunnings and look in the dressed pine section as well as trades for the wood sizes. My base frame was 140mm by 19mm by 2.4m and posts were 42mm by 42 by 2.4m dress pine my side rails were the 42mm by 18mm by 5.4m primed pine and the top beams and roof were the frame start 70mm by 35mm by 2.4m. The extra stuff were 65mm chipboard screws 8mm dowls for rails
I built everything in stages. Stage 1 the base 2 the rails 3 the support beams and roof. Just kept it easy for me.
Stage 1 was base so that was simple measure cut and screw accordingly to my drawing
Stage 2 was cut everything to size drill holes for dowls glue and fit rails together sand and clean then fit to base frame and drill holes to screw
Stage 3 measure support beams cut but dont fit till last. Prep post for roof cut the angle on top posts cut roof according to your drawing fit roof on then attach support beams.
The tools i used
measuring tape
Ruler
Compass for angles
Speed square
Tenon hand saw (i like doing things without power) alternative you can use a circular saw (not a fan of it better to use mitre if you got money)
chisels
Drill
Speed clamps
Pencil
Safety glasses
Ear muffs
Face mask
Phillip screw driver
And last but not least a good coffee machine and some music.
Hopefully this helps with the idea of whats ahead. But dont hesitate to give us a shout this was a fun project for me and id be more then happy to provide advice. Heres a pic of what i built not sure how to link my story in but hope.it helps
