Repair of Vintage Bed Frame

My wife was extremely excited to have found a vintage bed frame for sale at a very reasonable price. Only problem was that the foot board was damaged where the wooden bed rails attach to it, and it didn't look like a trivial repair. I ended up sawing out the damaged portion of the leg, creating a new one, and then installing it, splicing it into the existing leg sections.

Supplies:

• 2.25 " x 2.25" X 8" solid hardwood
• Wood glue
• 1" Diameter dowel

Tools:

• Wood lathe
• 10" miter saw
• Flush cut saw
• Set of Forstner bits
• Drill press
• Tape measure
• Caliper
• Wood chisel
• Clamps/ratchet straps

After close inspection, it became obvious that repairing the connection point so that it would not look obviously repaired, and still have strength would be impossible. So I used a very thin Japanese style manual flush-cut saw and cut the leg off just above the broken section. I had a 2.25" x 2.25" piece of hardwood left over from another project, and as I lay the broken piece next to my fresh wood, it occurred to me that I was going about this the hard way (in terms of trying to recreate the entire piece). So I used the same flush cut saw to cut immediately below the broken section as well, so that only the broken section would have to be remade.

First, I measured the length of material I would need for the new part and cut it squarely with my miter saw. Next, I put the virgin wood on my small wood lathe and rounded the shoulders at the upper and lower ends to match the original.

The two main mechanical features that had to be recreated were a slot with two metal pins installed across it for the bed rails to latch onto, and a mortise that accepts the lower cross member of the foot board.

The slot: After measuring the appropriate distance for the slot with a caliper, I made the slot by placing the piece under the blade of my miter saw and drawing it downward to make a semi-circular cut of the appropriate depth. I needed to have a double blade thickness for the width of the slot, so I repeated this step after moving the piece slightly. I drilled two holes from the non-mortised side of the piece to allow the insertion of the two metal pins (which were salvaged from the original broken part).

The mortise: The mortise needed to be 3/4" wide, so I selected a 3/4" Forstner bit, installed it on my drill press, and drilled a line of overlapping holes. The extra wood, that was not drilled out was removed using the wood chisel. The rounded ends of the mortise are hidden by the mating board.

To create a sturdy splice, I used a 1" Forstner bit and drilled about 3/4" into the ends of the original bed leg parts and created a mating hole in the new section I had just created. I then cut 1.5" lengths of my 1" dowel to be used as a loose tenon. I first glued the lower leg section to the new part, and then simultaneously glued the upper "splice" while gluing the lower cross piece into the mortise. No glue is shown in the pics, as they were taken while dry-fitting the parts together. Once everything was securely together, I used a ratchet strap to keep everything tight while the upper splice cured.

This Instructable is all about the repair to the broken leg. I made the replacement part out of wood with a similar grain to the original so that if the decision was made to stain it, it should be possible to make it indistinguishable from the rest of the bed. My wife is interested in painting the whole thing an artsy black color, in which case it won't really matter...but that is a topic for another write-up!