Loft/Celing/Murphy bed options

[cbrkp]

Hey all,

Been looking into making a ceiling bed and wanted to get any opinions from those who may have any past experiences.

I've seen a few variations of the trolley and track method.

Was wondering about peoples thoughts say using a linear rail and ball bearing carriages? like these:

[Aguyfromohio]

Those sorts of linear guides work very well.
I prefer the IGUS brand (http://www.igus.com/) - instead of ball bearings they have nice polymer sliding bearings that are available in pretty soft materials that allow grains of sand to just push into the bearing material and keep on working, and they fit tight to the rail with no slack or slop. The system is completely dry with no oil or grease so its clean when you touch it; the bearing material runs on hard anodized rails with really low friction. We used them in some of our industrial equipment.
The wide tracks with double rails do a great job of resisting wracking and twisting.
They are also available in very low profile forms that could be unobtrusive on a wall

[aggie79]

Way too expensive and too precise!

[Aguyfromohio]

Way too expensive and too precise!

Oh you are absolutely correct on both counts, aggie79. But cbrkp just asked if they work - yup they work great, and I like that particular brand.
We used them in combination with pneumatic cylinders to raise the lid on a $75,000 heat/vacuum debulking and curing table we built and sold. Our customers were curing graphite composite aircraft parts.

If you are willing to pay for linear guides, they will glide a heavy load like magic.
Silky smooth and trouble free, if you can keep them aligned truly parallel.

Back to more economical solutions for a bed, I would point to the old Shasta 1400 upper bunks that fold up against the corner of the ceiling like this.
The photo shows the upper front corner. The pin near the lamp holds up the bed in the stowed position. It lowers onto that angle bracket, the front edge of bed is permanently hinged to the front wall, with a piano hinge in the middle to allow it to fold up tight to the ceiling.