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Building a Murphy Bed |
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This next step differs from the plan. The spring box hardware
attaches to the carcass sides, but because the carcass
is frame and panel, the screw holes for the spring-box
hardware would land in the middle of the 1/4" plywood
floating panel. So, I took two small pieces of 3/4"
Baltic birch plywood laminated with cherry veneer and
screwed the spring box mounting plates to the carcass
sides. These became the attachment points for the hardware.
The Baltic birch pieces needed to be the exact same shape
as the hardware or difficulties would have arisen when
attaching the cabinet face to the bed frame. (Follow the
directions for the spring box hardware: take off the sides
and use these as a template to trace the outline on the
spring box mounting plates.) As the bed opens and closes,
the cabinet face has to swing through space inside the
carcass. If the attachment plywood plate is not shaped
exactly the same as the folding hardware, the face will
interfere with the plywood plate.
The carcass top and bottom needed to be cut to the same
width as the measured dimension of the bed frame plus
the spring box hardware.
That width, plus 1-1/2" for the width of the two
pieces of Baltic-birch plywood used for the folding hardware
mounts, became the width of the top and bottom, the three
shelves, the carcass rails and the backrest assembly.
I used 3/4" cherry plywood for the carcass top and
bottom, since those pieces would be edged by solid cherry.
I ensured the horizontal supports for the case bottom
were very shallow in profile to allow for clearance between
the bottom and the carcass front as the bed swings open
and closed.
The horizontal pieces of the carcass top and bottom are
attached using biscuits, as per the plan. |
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A
sketch of the adjusted carcass bottom showing the mounting plate with bolt holes. |
The
shelves and shelf stiffeners were made from solid cherry, which
provides strength and protection from sagging. I staggered the
depth of the shelves; the top shelf is 2" shallower than
the bottom shelf, providing increased storage.
The carcass and bookshelves are built deeper, but, unfortunately,
I forgot to make the top and bottom of the backrest assembly
a little deeper, resulting in it being slightly shallow. The
bottom backrest supports should have been made about 2"
deeper to move the bottom of the backrest out and closer to
the bed frame. I used 3/4" cherry plywood for the front
of the backrest and edged the plywood with a strip of waste
cherry. |
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Other Articles from this Issue |
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