emeraldgryphon
Posts: 122
Joined: 6/29/2007
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I have a 6 foot tall, 6 foot long, five foot wide rope bed with a canopy. I built it out of 4x4 cornerposts, mortised to accept the 2x8 siderails, and drilled through every three inches on all siderails. The canopy poles are heavy aluminum pipes that can support three hundred lbs. and support a large Celtic tapestry. I use two 150 foot long nylon ropes 3/4ths inch thick for the bed ropes. As they pass from side to side from top to bottom and weave through from end to end they tighten the siderails so they cannot slip out of the side mortises. A headboard drops into two slotted channels on the inside of the head cornerposts. The real upshot of this is that the whole bed comes apart for transport, and can be set up easily inside my 16x16 Panther Primitives canvas Regent medieval pavilion. Cuffs and restraints can easily be attached to the underlying rope weave, which supports a thick futon mattress, but I plan on adding large Lion doorrings to the cornerposts where restraints can be locked to the metal rings.
The bed can be easily set up by one person, as you fit one canopy pole in place between your two end posts and then fit the side pole in place between the the head and foot posts, giving you a free-standing tripod. Fit the last two canopy poles to the fourth post and then set up your siderails. This is where it gets tedious, as you have to start threading and pulling 150 feet of rope back and forth and back and back and back and forth... then you move to the ends and start it again, but this time you're basketweaving the ropes over under over under over under over under etc. etc. etc. And every course you start must alternate with the one prior to it, so if pass 10 started by going under the perpendicular rope, then pass 11 must start by going over the perpendicular rope. Once the rope platform is tightly woven you throw your mattress on and start making your bed.
I paid $5 for each 4x4 cornerpost, $12 each for two 2x8x12's that I cut into two 6 foot siderails and two 5 foot rails, $10 for the wood to make the heardboard, $3 apiece for the aluminum poles, and $4 apiece for 8 pipe flanges to accept the canopy poles. The ropes cost the most, running about $90 for two 150 foot runs, so about $182 all told for the bed without the futon mattress, which I already had.
$200 for a 6x6x5 four-poster bed that can be taken camping and is solid and strong as a mountain.
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< Message edited by emeraldgryphon -- 10/12/2012 4:35:15 PM >
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Bed Frames! - 
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