recommended bed post connectors?

[Dave Diaman]

Steve, the bed bolts from Horton are the ones I use but unless you are worried about making a reproduction it is a lot cheaper and easier to go to Home Depot and buy some 3/8" bolts in the appropriate length along with some square nuts. As for alignment I have never had a problem at all. It is actually pretty foolproof putting in bed bolts. You just drill the posts on the drill press then dry assemble the bed. Use a long 7/16" bit and use the pilot hole through your post as a guide to drill the rails. After that just use a combo square to mark the area where the nut will be recessed into the rail. As long as you start out on the drill press for the posts everything else is pretty foolproof. If anything ever should go wrong with one of the bolts they are easy to replace with any hardware store bolt. The other connectors are not so easy to replace. That being said I have seen some pretty old bed bolts and have yet to see one fail.

[Aram]

If you want the connector hidden, you can also use threaded inserts. Insert one into into each leg. On the bed rails -- and they will have to be thick to make this work -- drill an oversized (slightly bigger than your bolt) hole straight into into each end. The bolt will go through this. Rout a pocket near the end of each board, on the inside. Make sure the pocket exposes the end grain hole. Make the pocket long enough for your bolt, and deep enough that you can feed that bolt through the end grain hole into the threaded insert.

To keep the rails from rotating, use a shallow mortise in the leg (the insert will be in the middle), and a matching short tenon on the rail end. Or vice-versa.

Works great.

Wish I had a photo -- it's easy, and I could have skipped the description.

[EDIT] Hey, I found a photo!

[Steve N]

I have used a bed bolt or two in the past. I was mostly mentioning alignment for those who mentioned difficulty with the hanger hooks. The bed bolts are more complex to align correctly.

[DogwoodTales]

I used these from rockler to make two bunk beds, so four beds in all. One of these bunk beds has been through the rigors of raising 6 children and is being used now by the last two. It is still as solid as it was on day one.
They don't rock and they lock in place too.
I used a template to make sure everything lined up correctly.
Unlike the picture, i mortised for both the post and the rail.

http://www.rockler.com/locking-safety-be...Anuu8P8HAQ

[Bit_Fiddler]

The best if doing a mortise doesn't freak you out.

I've used these from Rockler a couple of times with good success.  Trick to a tight fit is to make sure the plates are just ever so slightly below the surface of the wood.  15 years on the oldest bed now and still no-gap tight and no squeaks.  Easy, no tool knock down to move the bed if needed.

Dave