New castors on a double bed

This should be a Saturday or a Weekend job.

I don't know why they make wheels/castors for double beds so flimsy. This expensive bed had 8 Orbit castors and this is the third set. The first two sets got squashed or fell apart under the strain of the heavy matress, 4 drawers full of bedding and miscellaneous seasonal clothing and two medium sized people. I wish I could say it was heavy usage too, but I would say average! This set was showing similar signs. Bed bases should last 20 years and have three or four mattress replacements without falling apart.


I decided to fit eight industrial steel units with rubber tyres and ball bearing swivels!

This bed base is a 4ft6in standard UK double drawer divan bed, which is split in two - a head end and a foot end, typically identical in all respects. Each half has 4 castors, and they are very close together either side of the join.
The first job is to prise out the castor sockets from the frame (these were the second positions for some castors as the first set of holes got damaged too in use. I used an old screwdriver and a hammer for the initial persuasion.
8 castors later and the under-covering can be freed at the corners from its staples. Pull out any staple remnants as they are very sharp.

You can see the two sets of castor holes!
Pieces of 4x2 (or two-by-four if you prefer!) are cut on the bandsaw to fit round the existing corner posts. You need to decide which faces will be glued and get those measurements accurate. The endgrain ends are cut with a 2mm clearance. The position and thickness of the 4x2 blocks depends on the size of wheel and design of bed. The new wheels must not foul the bed (sorry!), nor must they foul EACH OTHER where the two parts of the bed are joined. Do some trial and error.
The thinner parts are to be screwed through, and two holes are drilled in staggered form. However the thick ends are cut with four "Kreg" (or "Trend") pocket holes using a Kreg mini Rocket jig that I won from a magazine Readers Tips article.
Plenty of PVA glue is applied to the glued long-grain faces - AFTER you have put a dust sheet down on the bedroom carpet, otherwise a thick ear from "she who must be obeyed" is quite likely.
The long Kreg adaptor makes easy work of applying the 40mm Pocket Hole screws. 2" screws for the corner post fixings. Screw lengths and fixing plan depend on the thicknesses of the bed frame, so don't take my advice without checking your bed.
The self-drilling pocket hole screws are great for fixing the castors - here temporarily shown without the under-cloth. Note that the screws fit astride the pocket holes in the block. Plan your fixings according to where the wheels will go.
This shot shows the new wheels fixed through the under cloth, feeling for the pocket holes through the cloth with the fingers.


Job Done.