Failure Test

Last night we did not build a bed, we destroyed one.

We make our beds out of clear pine, except for the posts. Using pine keeps the costs down, but it is considered a soft wood. If we used a hard wood we would at least double our costs.

Everything has a failure point and we wanted to find out what that was for our beds. So, we built a bed and then tried to destroy it.

We had four adults, about 700 pounds stand on the bed with no problems. But that is nothing compared to what a 90 pound, 9 year old boy can do jumping on the bed. We had Jack jump up an down has hard as he could. Lots of flexing, but no failure. Then we added a 150 pound adult and Jack jumping up and down as hard as he could. That is when the failure occurred. The tortion on the rails was too much and it split one.

Now we know what it takes to break one of our beds. Here is our recommendation to the recepients our beds. Do not let a 90 pound boy jump up and down for a couple minutes as hard as he can on the top bunk with another adult standing on the bed.

Although we are considering another modification that would allow them to do that if they wanted.