The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed bed bolts

Anyone have any great tips on bolting together all those bed bolts while working alone? Especially the ones inside the cross members. You have the flat washer, the lock washer and the nut and little room to work, any thoughts?

Nifty 50 2,

I used a nut driver with a magnetic insert inside the socket (the inset was used to place the nut nea the tip of the socket. Around the tip of the socket, I made a loose cylinder of masking tape. Inside the masking tape was placed the lock washer and the flat washer. I think I also masking taped the top of the bolts into place.

Hope this makes sense. Ir worked for me, twice.

Tim

Lay a sandbag over the bolt heads to keep them down until you get the washers and nut started,
Scott

I, too, used a nut driver, but I didn't have a magnetic insert. It was a balancing act for me. To hold the bolts down, I filled milk jugs with sand and placed them on the bolt heads to keep them from popping up when I put the nuts and washers on from below. I suppose some masking tape would have served the same purpose.

Those are great tips for holding the bolts down. Unfortunately for my wife, she was available on the topside. I did my bedwood twice, a number of years apart. The second time was the most difficult, maybe due to advancing years. I used a nut driver for many of them too, with a dab of grease to hold the lockwasher and flat washer in place. After still dropping several, I put some tape around the socket as described above. There are a couple of bolts on the outside that were extremely hard to get to. I ended up loading up the socket with the washers and nut, and placing the socket on the tip of the bolt by hand to get it started. On one bedbolt in the front, I actually had to remove one of the bolts attaching the bed front panel to the front cross sill in order to be able to get the bed bolt through, then replace the bed front bolt.