Bed frame repair

As some of you know (well Helen and Kevin  ) I have a nasty crack in one bed frame corner as shown below:


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The other side is not as bad, but still requires attention:


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So today I went to see the design authority ( Ian ) to see what the recommended repair scheme is. I came away with two pieces of 1" x 1/8" x 3" aluminium angle and some rivets for £5. It was worth that for the advice  


Whilst I was there I saw a Designer with white powder coated minilite wheels being sold on behalf of a customer, I wonder who's that could be
If you have any stickers left, Vicky, Ian would like one for his office window

Glad it's getting sorted Jake  I was panicking about mine and not wanting to put weight on the bed until I saw Jakes, I thought my bed was going to fall apart the minute I sat on it  mine's a hairline crack just on top of the frame ........ John's going to weld it this weekend as the farmer has aluminium welding gear and kindly offered it's use   You can see it here but bear in mind this is a seriously close up shot ...... although it hasn't gone down the sides like Jakes, we are going to do it to stop it getting any further. In all honesty we don't know how long it's been there and we only spotted it because I was making sure everything was cleaned to within and inch of it's life for the meet  Perhaps Jake rolls about on his bed more than us  

It's so fine that to get a picture of it I had to hold the camera practically on top of it so it's blurred  


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Sorry Helen a John question. Does the farmer have an AC TIG welder or are you trying to MIG weld aluminium. If the latter I'd be interested in your observations. If you use a brass backing for MIG is it a heat sink as generally described or actually a heat store?

Hi Kevin ....... in this case John is the farmer (site owner) and the welder, my John can weld mild steel and Mig but hasn't done aluminium before. John (the farmer) mended Gordon's caravan canopy after the wind damaged it (that was an aluminium frame) Gordon was going to scrap it because it was aluminium but John (the farmer) kindly offered to weld it for him and has offered us the same for our Dandy. The Farm/site has a hand in lots of pots, they also have a haulage business amongst other things and around the back (where the campers can't go) the equipment they have is unbelievable so I'd imagine they also have  a TIG welder.

I'll let you know when I find out for sure myself ...... should be back for Tuesday x

Just for information Ian (Riva) used to weld them, that's how they were made presumably, but he hasn't got the capability anymore  

This is what I did so far this BH weekend  





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Looking at the thickness of the original I think that it is now stronger than new and should cope with the extra stress of the gas struts better. Perhaps the corners should be strengthened whenever struts are fitted as I had to remove the strut in order to close the crack at the other end before fitting the repair plate

 that look great and as you say stronger  

Great job Jake, may be an idea to put them on all corners just to reinforce and stop any others going ........ mine still needs doing, it's bedlam here this weekend with 4 fields open and full  so there hasn't been any time to get it seen to.

My repair didn't get done this time  

In all fairness though it was a busy week for John (the farmer) as they were busy working all hours getting the crops cut, bailing and wrapping while the weather held out. It's not urgent so we can wait until next time

jake001 wrote:This is what I did so far this BH weekend  





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Looking at the thickness of the original I think that it is now stronger than new and should cope with the extra stress of the gas struts better. Perhaps the corners should be strengthened whenever struts are fitted as I had to remove the strut in order to close the crack at the other end before fitting the repair plate

Sorry Jake I missed this post from you. Looking at your repair I can guess where Ian got the bracket material from, can you?
Wonder if he buys it in or it's still left over from the early Browns?

The guy who did the gas struts in The Midlands (nice guy met him and bought some stuff off him) always reinforced the corners when fitting struts.

Not this one he didn't, to the best of my knowledge the struts were fitted by Rich, he certainly did some work on it for the previous owner (I have a piece paper with his signature on it  )

Yes they were cut from a piece of angle ally that was lying around the workshop, it even had one 5mm hole ready drilled