Anyone use Rockler's Bed Rail Fasteners

[Stewart Lang]

Building two slightly-larger-than-twin sized beds, and looking for ways to connect the rails to the foot/headboards. The rails are 16" tall x 1.5" thick (think panels, rather than rails). The foot/headboards are also panels, 1.5" thick.

Rockler's Bed Rail Fasteners seem to get good reviews, anyone use them before? Are they solid?

[Jim Dwight]

I've used them or similar fasteners on several beds and hope to start another one today. I recommend making a jig for a plunge router to put them into the rail, headboard, and footboard but other than that a little bit nerve racking work, I have had no issues. The Woodsmith plans for the next bed recommend putting in a cross dowel to help the screws but I just use long screws - 2 inch or longer. The resulting beds work fine. One is maybe 20 years old.

The reason the inletting is a little nerve racking is you are working on the almost finished headboard and footboard. The rails are simpler and essentially done but you also have route into the end grain. I cannot get a bed rail vertical so I do it at an angle. It isn't really that bad but there are things I like to do more than cut these recesses. I have also had to do a little work with a file before on these to get them to mate well but I don't think those were from Rockler.

[Jim Barstow]

This has been asked a couple times before and I’ll re-voice my opinion.

I’ve made all the beds for our house and for my kids and grandkids: 6 queen, 2 twin, and 1 bunk bed. I used the hook/capture hardware on the first one and it was awful. The up/down movement was prevented but there was nothing to prevent racking except the weight of the bed or to keep it pushed against a wall. May not be a problem with a twin bed but these hook/capture solutions can squeak with bouncing movement...

There is also the hook/capture style that requires one of the pieces to be mortised into the end grain of the bed rail. Those are even worse.

What I use now are 2 decorative bolts that go through the post, into the rail, then into a cross-dowels in the rail. The rails have stub tenons on them that go into shallow mortises on the post for additional strength and to assist during assembly. This results in a bed that can be dropped from the second story and not rack. When I’ve thought the decorative head of the bolt might interfere with the design, I cover it with wood that matches the grain.

The hook/capture systems rely on the strength of screws in one way or another. I prefer a system with more inherent strength.

Sorry about the image rotation but I’ve attached an image of a bed where the decorative bolts are the most obvious. I could have easily hidden them behind a plate.

4F971616-E5C8-4DA4-8CD2-0A3EEEE151D0.jpg

[Jim Dwight]

I cannot tell from Jim B's post if we are having opposite experiences with the same hardware. This is the type I use and like very much:

https://www.rockler.com/heavy-duty-w...MaAo68EALw_wcB

When they are inletted into the bed, the screws are certainly important but the hardware is about 1/8 thick and puts a little wood in shear which helps them stay strong. The bed my son and his wife use used to be used by my late wife and I and is around 20 years old. My late wife was smaller but I am not and my son is bigger. We've had no strength issues at all. My son's guest bed has these as does my daughter and son-in-law. My guest beds both have these fasteners.

When you put the rails into the mating pieces on the headboard/footboard they wedge in place. When you move the bed you need a mallet to get them to disengage. They hold just fine for the minor vertical loads they see and racking is not an issue. With the rail against the headboard and footboard, the wood sees the racking the fasteners just hold the wood surfaces against each other.

[Stewart Lang]

Thanks Jim(s)!

Barstow, did you recess them in slightly? I could understand if they sat flush with the wood, or even worse, slightly above, that racking would be an issue. But if they are slightly recessed, I would think they would hold quite tight? I have such a large surface area on the rail-to-foot/headboard connection that I think my racking would be minimized. Of course you're still right about them relying on screw strength, which is never something I like to do.

[Jim Barstow]

Thanks Jim(s)!

Barstow, did you recess them in slightly? I could understand if they sat flush with the wood, or even worse, slightly above, that racking would be an issue. But if they are slightly recessed, I would think they would hold quite tight? I have such a large surface area on the rail-to-foot/headboard connection that I think my racking would be minimized. Of course you're still right about them relying on screw strength, which is never something I like to do.

I recessed them so that I had to drive them together with a mallet, as you did. I used these for a queen sized bed for adults and they are the ones that squeak. (It’s probably wood/wood movement.) They allow racking up to about a foot at the footboard. The other problem I had is that even though I used an oversized rail (1” thick ample wood above and below the mortise), I had one bed rail develop a minor crack after 15 years. I fixed this by glueing in full width dowels across the crack. It’s on my to-do list to replace the rails (and hook/capture hardware).

I agree to the unpleasantness of mortising into long bed rails.