murphy bed part 3, the mechanism

OK. So this 6" coach bolt is the mechanism that the whole fold up bed project hinges on.

You need to drill a clearance hole that the bolt can just freely rotate in into the bed frame. On my bed that hole is 41cms up from the floor, and 41 cms out from the wall. Since the center of the 2x2 "axle" on the bed base itself is centered on 35cms from the outside edge of the base. this leaves me about 3cm of clearance from the inside edges of my frame at both the wall and floor edges, so the whole thing swings freely in the space.

To fasten into the "axle", start by drilling a clearance hole part of the way in. You want the screw thread on the bolt to start biting into the wood for the last couple of inches, so change down to a drill bit that's just a bit too tight to slide into without screwing for that last inch or so. Obviously you need to do the same procedure on the other side before trying to assemble it.

Balance the bed base on magazines to lift the bed base drill holes level with the ones in the outer frame. Use a washer either side of the outer frame (can be a bit tricky getting the inside one onto the bolt) and use a spanner or socket to tighten them into place. It might take a little bit of playing around to get the tension/centering between the two sides even. Remember to pull the mags out before you try to rotate it. :)

I'll do a couple of photos of the single bed version in a later post.