Platform Bed...

[Ed Peters]

Another option is that I have some 2x6's kicking around and was thinking that I could rip them in half and use them instead of 2x4's. The idea of using the 2x4's was bad enough, ripping 2x6"s into 2 pieces with a cross section of about 2.7" (optimal) is obviously worse in my opinion.

Is there a way I could make a torsion box which would be lighter and stronger in this situation but still be easily taken apart? The bulk of the strength achieved in a torsion box is due to the fact that the skins are glued in place making the seperate components act as one.

Thanks for any advice.
Greg

A better idea (in my mind) would be to fabricate a couple of boxes with drawers to act as the base as well as providing some additional storage for those items seldom used but impossible (?) to live without. Making them as seperate assemblies makes them easy to move when necessary and breaks the project up into easily manageable chunks.

Ed

[Greg Cuetara]

hmm. Ed not sure if you are just doing a gut check here or not. If I assume about 50 pounds per square foot and use 2x4's I have a stress of about 600 psi with an approx. allowable of 1,163 psi. This would give the bed an overall load of about 2,000 lbs. If I push the load up until failure it would give an ultimate capacty of about 4,000 lbs. I know I might need to go on a diet but not sure I am close to 4,000 lbs.

If I were to rip a 2x6 in half and consider it to be 2.5" x 1.5" I would come up with a stress of 824 psi. Still under the allowable.

All this is not even considering that I will be screwing plywood to the top of these members which will create composite action and increase the load capacity.

Not sure I am really keen on building storage under the bed just yet. Don't really have time but that might come in the future.

Greg