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One side of the bed has totally come off. See pictures for the broken side plus the screws that are attached to it .

My question is that is there any scope of repairing this bed so that in the future it can still be dismantled and reassembled. I can send more pictures if needed.

The screw nuts look like they had been put in wood that was hollowed out for this purpose. So I am skeptical about how I can attach these components. But wanted feedback,

Screws that join bed components

Broken part of the bed

To update. Two pieces that fell out of the broken wood are shown in the additional image. My hunch is that this is composite wood. Broken wood pieces

3 Answers 3

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I would consider doing the following:

Replace the damaged rail with a piece of wood of similar species and dimensions. Or, if the existing rail is solid wood, repair the rail using a shorter piece of new timber using a scarf joint. If the existing rail is some sort of composite/laminate/chipboard, it likely may not be feasible to repair in this way.

Your existing rail looks like it might be some sort of composite with a complex cross section - but the replacement or repair part only needs to look the same on the outside and make contact with the other parts supported by the original rail. If you are just repairing the end you may not need to make an exact match in areas that don't show and don't support anything.

Drill it to accept the bolt you have, or just screw on a sturdy L plate (sometimes sold as mending plates)

The metal bolt and nut you have are typical of flat-pack furniture. You just have to drill two suitable holes that meet and that start in the right places. This shouldn't be too hard.

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  • I'd remove or qualify the comment about a scarf joint until/unless the nature of the existing, broken rail is described. If it's any sort of laminated chip board a scarf may not (will not) hold. Without the broken pieces being shown in the pic, it's difficult to make out type of wood of the broken rail. Jan 9, 2017 at 15:46
  • It is composite. Should I give up then ? Otherwise the L shaped bolt looked easiest . Jan 9, 2017 at 21:55
  • Ive added a pic of broken wood pieces to get a better idea. Jan 10, 2017 at 7:08
  • @Captain Jack: It looks like some sort of fibreboard that has delaminated. I think I'd replace the whole board with a piece of pine. The original looks like it may be in the shape of an I beam or C beam. If something rests on (is supported by) the flange of the beam - I'd size the pine replacement accordingly. I'd clamp and glue another pine strip to it to provide the supporting surface needed (e.g. making a stubby L cross section). An alternative is to bolt/screw/glue a piece of pine to the inside and use a metal L plate to attach it to the headboard/footboard. Jan 10, 2017 at 11:16
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Looking at the mdf/composite, I don't think you'd have much success just screwing into it directly. You need to screw through it into something solid. So as long as you're not too fussy on how it looks:

  • Remove the original fixings
  • Get a lump of real wood, where the end face is 90 degrees to the side face
  • Screw through from the outside into the wood, from both pieces of mdf/composite. i.e. it goes screw head - original bed piece - proper wood
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I'd first look at replacing both side rails with something more substantial. If you're handy, you could reuse the hardware that came with the bed for easy disassembly. Otherwise use lag screws, properly piloted, to mount new 2x6 lumber rails. Seal and paint to match.

If you want to retain these rails, I'd sister a length of 1x4 or 2x4 along the inside of the damaged rail. Use construction adhesive and suitable screws to mount it to the inside face, taking care to not drill completely through the finished outer face. Then use lag or construction screws to mount the lumber to the headboard leg from the outside. You could also use a steel angle to mount it to the headboard from the inside.

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