Kids Bunkbed - simple construction, confusing attachment of stacked beds

[David Tzeutschler]

Hello,
I am in the process of building a bunkbed for my son. I am basing my build on the design in the attached image as it looks simple and solid. I am building it as two separate, stackable beds. The posts (vertical supports) are made of 1 1/2 X 2 1/2 stock and I am in a quandary about this: how do I fasten the two units together. A dowel inserted into the bottom/top of each post seems like a fair solution, but might not be as solid as something that actually fastens the two units together. One design I came up with is a sort of keyhole in top/bottom of each post with an allen screw and nut in each, pulling the two sides together but this seems somewhat unsightly. Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks so much for any thoughts!
Dave
St Paul, MN

[Jerry Bruette]

David

When I built bunkbeds for my kids I also made them as two seperate beds and I used a 3/4 inch dowel to join the beds together. It was alot more solid than I expected it to be. If you're hesitant to use wood dowels you could always use a piece of steel round stock or I suppose even a piece of pipe would work.

Getting the top and bottom posts to line up will be the tricky part.

Good Luck
Jerry

[Jamie Buxton]

It seems to me that gravity works. If you put a 10"-tall dowel between them, the upper bed has to jump up in the air 5" to get away. That isn't very likely.

However, if you don't like that, you might consider a cross pin. The dowel (or any other shape of tenon) would be fastened permanently in the bottom bed, and would go up into a hole in the bottom of the upper bed. There would be a cross-pin that goes through the upper leg and the tenon. The pin could be wood. It could be a wedge. It could be a screw or a bolt. Its basic purpose is to make it impossible for the upper bed to jump up in the air.

[David Tzeutschler]

Thanks for the replies. The consensus seems to be that the dowels will do the trick. This is exactly what I needed. Thanks so much for the replies.
Dave

[David Tzeutschler]

Ok, one more question: Any recommendations on how to drill a straight hole into posts? I have forstner bits, which seem to yield a good clean hole, but no drill press. Is there any other way to get the hole fairly straight (square) into posts?
THanks!

[Pat Barry]

If you go with the dowel idea, which makes a lot of sense, make the dowels long enough or cross-pin them. I remeber being a kid with bunk beds like that and my brother used to stick his feet against the bttom of the upper bunk while he was clowning around. The upper bunk fell off several times, once with my little brother on top. Very lucky no one got badly hurt.

[Erich Heitman]

David,
You might try something like this... http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2406&tagem=rv... with a hand-held drill. I'm not sure that Rockler's long-shank Forstner bits would get you the length you're looking for but the drill guide idea is something you should look at. There are many types out there. I'm in the early process of building some bunk-beds too, maybe I'll be back to ask you advice! Good luck! EH

[Derek Tuchscherer]

If it was me, I would make each leg out of two pieces of 3/4 x 2 1/2" pieces of stock. Rout an appropriately sized groove centered in the bottom 5" of each piece anf then laminate them together.

Derek