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A bed with LED lining at the bottom which makes it look like it is floating.
I needed a new bed and I went around looking in furniture shops and online stores like urbanladder.com and pepperfry.com. All the good stuff was priced 40-50 K INR. Not wanting to spend so much, I decided to make my own.
LEDS
I bought the LEDs from ebay. Make sure you choose one with a AC to DC converter, or you will have to buy that separately.
Take the LED strip to your local electric shop and ask for a plug. They usually attach it themselves and give it to you. ( if not just attach it yourself and wind some electric tape around the exposed points ). All in all you should have a fully functional strip in INR 600.
Now attach it to the nails we had hammered in the lower base.
By Siddardha
Polishing
I did what my local carpenter recommended. I got some soft sand paper, colored wood polish powder and some varnish from a hardware store ( the paint stores). They have different powder options, rosewood being darker and teak wood color being lighter. You mix the powder with the left over fevicol ( yes fevicol) and then spread a thin layer all across the ply and top frame. To make the layer as thin as possible I used a metal plate that my carpenter loaned me. you basically apply the fevicol + color powder mix and then scrape off as much as possible. Don’t worry if you apply it too thick., because after it dries we need to sand it again. Use the ssoft sandpaper to sand it down gently AFTER the fevicol dries. Now apply the first coat of varnish and let it dry. After that , the second coat. Varnish can be applied with any soft waste cloth.
By Siddardha
Finishing
Place the 2 ply boards on top and using the same flat bit method screw them in. The flat bit method is important here, as the screws need to end up below the plywood level, so as not to snag your mattress.
I also made additional holes in the plywood with the same flat bit to let my mattress breathe.
By Siddardha
Building the upper frame
For the upper frame, build the border frame and put in the 4 cross beans. Then place it over the bottom frame. The bottom, left, and right of the top frame should jut one foot out over the base frame.
For the screws on the outer rim of the top frame, you can use a flat bit to drill a quarter of an inch into the wood, so that the screws sits less than flush with the wood. That way, when you polish your bed, your screws will not be visible.
Attach the top frame to the bottom frame at all 4 corners as well as on all 4 cross beams using L Clamps.
After this is done, lay in the interlocking pieces of wood.
Notice, the interlocking piece at the foot of the bed is in the middle, while the others are directly above the corresponding pieces in the base frame.
By Siddardha
Building the base frame
The order of activities while building this base has to be followed carefully or will result in a lot of cursing.
First build the rectangular box. Then put in the first cross beam. Before fixing the next cross beam make sure to fix the interlocking piece of wood. This is important because you now have room to tighten screws which you WILL NOT have later.
The attaching process is pretty simple. Slather some fevicol on the surface to be joined. Then use 2 screws covered in wax. My drill has a screwing bit so it was pretty non taxing, although the last few turns needed to be done manually with a screw driver .
Once the base frame is done hammer tiny 1 inch nails around the outside of the frame to hold the LEDs later on.
By Siddardha
Preparing the wood
The wood that I got was pretty alright and did not need to be planed. I ran a sander across all flat surfaces and sawed out uneven ends to make them perfectly shaped.
You can see all of the wood dust after the sanding :).
Also you will need to have 3.5-4 inch metal screws( get around 80), 1 inch small nails (around 15), L Clamps (10), some wax and fevicol to proceed onto the next step.
All of these should cost you around 1200 INR.
By Siddardha
Getting the wood
Google for timber mills, which are usually around the outskirts/suburbs of the city. Find one and phone ahead to make sure its open.
You have many options for wood. Teak is one of the most expensive and heaviest. I went with Acacia after reading up on it a bit. The cheapest was “jungle wood” which I assume is just any random tree from the jungle.
Most places do not plane the wood for you, and give you rough pieces with a few inches extra. Ask the guys there if they can do (maybe you’re in luck).
Here is the wood I picked up.
For bottom frame:
3 pieces of 8 inches X 2 inches X 6 feet
5 pieces of 8 inches X 2inches X 4 feet
For top frame
6 pieces 4 inchesX 2 inches X 6 feet
4 pieces 4 inches X 2 inches X 7 feet
2 pieces 3.5 feet x 4 feet plywood boards
The plywood was picked up in another store, which again was found by searching for plywood on G Maps.
Total Cost : ~9000 INR for the wood and ~1000 for the plywood (200 INR for transport) .
By Siddardha
Completed
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