Install the front-facing panel and movable legs to the mattress box
This video is part of a series on Making a Murphy bed. the series landing page is here.
Official Transcript:
All I have to do to complete this back piece is wrap it with this 3/4 x 3/4 trim piece. I'm going to put just a little bit of glue along the edge, not too much because I don't want it squeezing out, and then I'll nail it in place with some inch and a half 18 gauge brads.
Center the panel under the bed box
That finishes up the trim around this piece. I'm going to flip it over and then we're going to bring in the box. So my next step is to pocket screw this frame to the bottom panel that we built. Now, to center it up, it takes 15/16 on either side.
I'm going to use this marking gauge to guide it along the edge, and so that I won't have to measure every time. I'll just use the gauge to know when I've got the right reveal coming down the side and I'll just run a screw in. Now, for right now, I'm going to put the minimum amount of screws that I can, to keep the whole thing braced together, because there's always a slight chance once I get this installed, that I may need to shift the panel just a little bit to get the right reveal between the panel and the cabinet box that we're building.
But for right now I'm going to use this gauge and I'm just going to try and keep the thing centered about 15/16ths off the edge. So I wanna get a few of these screws around the perimeter here.
This wood blocking covers up part of the pocket screw hole, so I'm going to use these slightly smaller screws in that area. If you see, this washer head's quite a bit bigger, so I'm going to use this smaller screw to slip in here where the wood blocking's partially got the hole blocked out.
Install the legs
There are two hardware steps to complete in this box. The first one I'm going to do is to put the legs on. I've measured over 4 1/2 inches from the outside of the box and I'm going to take this inch and 3/8 drill and drill through from both sides to create a hole for the leg to come out.
As soon as I see the tip startin' to break through the backside, I'm going to switch and drill from the other side.
So this piece just hooks through like that and then slides right over against the blocking, and I'm going to put it on with a bunch of about 3/4 inch screws. Although those screws are only three-quarters of an inch long, there's a total of 10 of them holding this leg, some of them into the bottom and some of them into the box. So that provides plenty of strength to hold this leg.
Before I can put the next piece of hardware on we have to add the edge stripping around the box. That gets it up to the total depth and then we can install the pivoting hinge pieces to the box. You always want to install them to the box and then the whole box has to slide inside the frame of the cabinet and you raise the box up and attach the pivoting hinge to the box second. It's kind of a complicated process but we're going to show you how that works here in just a little while.
Previous segment: 5/ Cherry Inlay on the Face
The next segment will be on 7/ Hinge Installation to continue the construction process.
See the whole series here: A Wall Bed That Even Murphy Can Make
—A recovering production trim carpenter, Gary Streigler is a partner in Craftsman Builders in Northwest Arkansas.