Marcy Field Cot

[Books OToole]

Outstanding.

Add the slots in the end of the rails for the wedges and canvas; you're done.

Rather than canvas on mine; I added a 1" X 2" shelf to the inside of the rails to support slats.  It is a little more hassel setting up, packing ect., but it makes a very nice camp bed for long term camping.

Books

[A.J. Hamler]

Books---

I'm making a slight alteration from the Marcy book sketch (which is really hard to see anyway).  Instead of those wedges inserted into vertical slots in the rail ends, I plan to drill holes and use slightly tapered dowel pegs instead.  I'm going to then drill a hole into the end of each dowel peg and thread light rope through -- the pegs for each end of the bed would thus be connected together in pairs by the length of rope.  This will keep the dowels together to help prevent loss, and when the bed is knocked down and rolled up, I'll tie the resulting bundle with those roped pegs.

A.J.

[Coyote Hunter]

I just spent my first weekend at an 1880's "immersion" camp out with our group  where nothing out of period was supposedly allowed (except canned food that was available then and a port-a-potty about 300 yards away for the ladies of course ). Besides my new wedge tent, I bought and used a civil war portable ticking mattress filled with straw. The first night was funny as I kept rolling off, but the next night it settled in and was fairly comfortable. I agree though that I may need to build a cot or rope bed. At 55, it's not as easy to get off the ground as it once was.

[Books OToole]

The beauty of having a bed/cot in your tent is, it gives you more room.  You can stash stuff under the bed:  You can't do that if you are sleeping on the ground.


Books

[Mogorilla]

I will look for the graphic reference, but I remember there being a Civil War era Officers bed that was a fold out trunk.   Closed it looked like a packing trunk, then unfolded to a bed.  All bedding was contained in the trunk.  Cool idea if you traveled heavy.   Will hopefully find it this weekend.   
I am not a fan of canvas cots (5'11'' and closer to 21 stone than 17 stone).   I would not mind the lip idea with slats and a mattress.   First time I did a straw bed, the sound kept me up all night.   Proper application of corn liquer then next night ensured a good night's sleep.  Lousy mornng, but I slept well.   

[A.J. Hamler]

Mogorilla ---

Like this one?



A.J.

[Books OToole]

A.J.

I an interested in the provinance for the "trunk bed."  I have be researching camp furniture for years* and have yet to come across anything like it.  The closest, is a pair of matching trunks (for either side of a pack animal) that form a bed.

Books



* The results may end up as a book.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I will look for the graphic reference, but I remember there being a Civil War era Officers bed that was a fold out trunk.   Closed it looked like a packing trunk, then unfolded to a bed.  All bedding was contained in the trunk.  Cool idea if you traveled heavy.   Will hopefully find it this weekend.   
I am not a fan of canvas cots (5'11'' and closer to 21 stone than 17 stone).   I would not mind the lip idea with slats and a mattress.   First time I did a straw bed, the sound kept me up all night.   Proper application of corn liquer then next night ensured a good night's sleep.  Lousy mornng, but I slept well.   

Hi Mogorilla,

I was just thinking... the average officer in the Civil War was closer to 5' 4"... so the trunk might have gargantuan proportions to fit you .... just a thought ...

TTFN,

[G.W. Strong]

I would love to see that trunk bed!

[G.W. Strong]

AJ that is awesome. Tell me more! 

[G.W. Strong]

I am searching images and I found this one which reportedly belonged to George Washington!

[Mogorilla]

I will have access to my files this weekend.  I remember having a scanned picture of the drawing of one.  I am not remembering it looking like the one A.J. showed, more opening in half and the flat trunk forming the majority of the body.  I think the sheet had the name of the bed.   

It would be a big trunk indeed!   
I recall touring the U-boat in the Museum of science and industry in chicago.  the bunks were made for ~5'5" individuals, when the boat was captured, the captain was over 6 feet.   
Just like the guy whose feet are too big for the bed
nothing seems to fit....

[Mogorilla]

Still looking.   My hard drive crashed about 6-months ago and they recovered lots, but not all.   I am still organizing files from it.    I will keep looking, I swear I did not imagine it like the chef-boy-r-dee colored clothing line for kids.   

[A.J. Hamler]

Hi, guys...

I finally finished that Marcy field cot and thought you'd all like an update.  Takes a while when I do these as book or magazine projects, as it's slow going to take a photo of each step.  Here's how the finished cot turned out:



I'm pretty pleased with it.  For those of you who have read "The Prairie Traveler" book, Marcy doesn't give much of a description.  There's a sketch -- not very detailed -- and he has a couple sentences about it.  As with other repros I make, I did a lot of studying and figuring, plus a bit of adapting to make it workable.  The first thing I did was to change two things about the way the cot goes together.  The sketch in the Marcy book shows what appear to be vertical triangular wedges in the end of each rail.  Since this repro is going into my next book as a DIY project, I wanted to keep it simple as possible.  So instead of cutting rectangular mortises for those vertical wedges, I opted for simply drilling the rail ends and using dowel pegs.  Also, it seemed to me that the pivoting rivet might interfere with getting those wedges in and out, since they're placed just above where the wedge goes in, so I oriented the dowels horizontally instead.  Here's a detail shot of those dowels in the rail ends.



Note that I've also drilled holes into the ends of those dowel pegs and threaded a length of rope through, keeping the dowels together in pairs.  In the first image, that rope is just hanging down, but it's a simple matter to tie a loop in the middle of the extra rope so nothing hangs down.  Why not just shorten the rope?  You'll see.

The other change I made was to add a brace to each rail on the other side of the headboard/footboard.  In looking at the sketch in the Marcy book, although those rails are wedged on the outside, there's nothing on the inside but canvas.  I can't imagine how the cot wouldn't wobble constantly.  So on the underside of each rail, I screwed on a small brace.  When the cot is assembled, that brace presses on the inside of the headboard/footboard, while those dowels press in from the outside, keeping everything tight and firm.  Here's what that looks like.



Now, back to that long rope.  One thing that Marcy does describe is that when knocked down, the headboard/footboard fold up, and they along with the rails are placed inside the canvas and just rolled up.  Once rolled up, I've secured the bundle by tying off each end with the peg ropes, like this.



Yeah, I took a few liberties, but everything is still completely period-correct and more workable in a real-world situation.  Marcy gave no measurements, of course, so I've sized it to suit me.  The canvas portion of the cot is 27" wide, and 72" long -- since I'm 6' 1" tall, it's a bit of tight fit, but I almost always sleep curled up anyway and didn't want to make those rails any longer -- the longer they are, the weaker they would be under heavy weight.  For the book version of the project, I'll include info on adding a middle leg (which is something I'll add for my own use anyway).  Those rails are about 80" long overall, 1-1/4" x 2-1/4" in cross section.  The headboard/footboard and legs are poplar, measuring 13/16" thick (it was 7/8" when I started, but milling and smoothing the stock thinned it a bit.  The rails are maple.  If I make another, I think I'll make the rails out of oak.  Once everything was finished, just before tacking on the canvas I gave all the wood a coat of boiled linseed oil for a bit of moisture protection.

Now, for any of you wanting to build one, click on this link to my Dropbox for a full-size PDF of the patterns.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45939234/Marcy%20Cot%20patterns.pdf

Everything on the PDF should be at the exact size, but depending on how you print it out the sizing could be thrown off.  Note that on the patterns is a scale with 6" increments.  You can use that as a guide -- print it out and then measure between the marks, and if the spacing is 6" you're golden.

A.J.

[A.J. Hamler]

Oops!

It's now exactly 10:00 a.m. EDT on 5-2-13.  If you downloaded the Marcy Cot patterns PDF prior to now, there was an error in dimensions.  I've corrected the error, and the download is now updated with the corrected version.

However, if you downloaded the pattern PDF prior to 10:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday 5-2-13, please toss it out and download it again to get the corrected version.

Again, here's the corrected version link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45939234/Marcy%20Cot%20patterns.pdf

Sorry 'bout that.

A.J.

[FriscoCounty]

C...O...O...L!    

Mighty fine work. 

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

A.J;  Is there any wedging action with the cross pins?  If you inset the holes a bit, and plane a slight flat taper on the dowel pins there would be a slight wedging action to account for wear and shrinkage of the wood.

[A.J. Hamler]

Sir Charles --

Yes, that's exactly how I did it.  After assembling the cot I marked a pencil line exactly where the rails came through.  Then I drilled those peg holes just a hair over that line, which insets the hole just a bit.  I did indeed do slight flat taper on each peg, although I did it on a belt/disc combo sander and not with a plane.

A.J.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

A.J.; You are a smart boy

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

Okay, okay!

What was the phrase about doers walk (i.e., take action) and b-sers talk (throw B-S Around but do nothing)?

Well, today I ordered two 8' (96") oak poles for the long (Horizontals) that run the length of the bed ... and although it will have the ropes that held it together as in the past, I plan to run a 3/4" rabbit down the 'horizontals' and screw in a 3-/4" ply wood board to hold the mattress ... kind of a belt-and-suspenders approach ...

As I said, each 'horizontal' will be 96" long and have a 3/4" Radius to mount (and hide) the plywood in. About 4" from each end, the 4x4 will be rabbeted to 3"X3". This should make a butt joint with the ends ... and the remaining 3" Will make for a nice tapered Dado Joint with a tapered pine that can be tapped (softly) into place.

I have just ordered the oak; I haven't made a cut on it ... I would readily appreciate any thoughts or ideas on my system ....

TTFN,