URGENT NEED: 30(+)deg foam wedge for bed TODAY/TOMORROW

[ac...@provide.net]

Anyone know of a local foam pad dealer (or other source)
that can help me obtain or whip up a seriously big foam
triangle-wedge ASAP, in the 30-45 deg range by TODAY
or TOMORROW?


** I have an URGENT medical need ** for a 30-45deg foam wedge
for preferably a queen (or long twin) bed, for my aging father.

He is coming out of in-patent tomorrow AM with a lung
infection, and needs to be propped up in bed to breathe
normally (with O2) while the meds work and his lungs heal.

Stacking pillows etc just doesn't cut it, and I don't have
access to a shop today (or the time) to fab some kind of
wedge-board system before he comes home. Any pointers
to sources would be appreciated.

(Bed Bath and Beyond is out of stock..)

Thanks!
- Keith Mc.

[ac...@provide.net]

Makers to the rescue! A BIG thanks to Rick Green!

It wasn't foam though. He suggested a fast, novel table
saw solution using the following "scrap wood" pieces that
were on hand:
.. an unused hollow core door, 6 cuts of a 1x4, and deck screws.
(To that, my tweak was to add one HF 15' ratchet strap.)

Talking on the phone, we quickly abandoned my original
"piano hinge and prop" concept with plywood and 2x4s.
Instead, Rick proposed a MUCH simpler, "fixed" solution.
Much faster to execute too, and SOLID:

Rick cut down a spare 30" wide std hollow core door he
had on hand to 60" (Queen bed width). Calculating the
proper lengths and angled, he also cut 3 pairs of 1x4
slices (one end square, one end angled) which became 3 stands.

Viewed from the side, the door become the hypotenuse and
pairs of 1x4s were butt-jointed in three places along the
door to form a 30-60-90 triangle.

Holes were also pre-drilled and countersunk for flathead
deck screws before arrival.

This was quickly fabbed at Rick's place, and brought in
pieces as 7 parts to my dad's house, along with a cordless
drill and a box of deck screws.

Assembling it in situ, we then stripped down the Queen sized
bed's sheets and placed it between the box spring & mattress.

At this point the mattress was suspended in mid-air,
where it could slide down. No problem, though.
THIS I could deal with.

I quickly grabbed a 15' Harbor Freight ratchet strap from
my car's trunk, wrapped it around the mattress, box spring,
and base frame at the "fold point", and pulled it tight.

This formed a 30deg angle in the mattress a bit in from
one end, and firmly locked it to the box spring and
frame so it wouldn't try to slide off when unloaded
(no foot board on the metal bed frame).

TADA... one queen sized bed, with a built in fixed
30 deg angle running the entire width of the bed!
We then made up the bed.

Yes there is an open raw end on the door right now, and
you can't tuck in the fitted sheet perfectly due to the
strap, but that's FINE. The open end is under the
mattress anyway, and doesn't seem to pose a crush problem.

At my request when we discussed variants of the solution
beforehand, Rick scavenged and brought the other end
board from the cut off door, so I can later refit it
into the open end (with glue and/or screws) to make
a solid perimeter again. It works fine for now!

My dad is home now, and resting in the bed. It works!
He starts out sleeping on the angle on his back to
breathe correctly, but he can also lay on his side
on a slight diagonal to reduce his pitch angle,
or lay flat with a bigger diagonal if he so chooses.

At some later date I'd still be interested in exploring
foam block options, but Rick's quick thinking did get me
out of my immediate crisis need. My dad is recovering from
a lung infection, and this is definitely helping him
to sleep "sort of upright" at a decent angle while his
lungs heal.

The coolest this is that this solution was created and
executed in less than 24 hours from my first posting.

A BIG thanks once again to Rick, for coming up with a
fine and quickly executable solution, using ONLY what
was on hand! (Woo hoo... Let's hear it for Maker Culture! :-)

- Keith Mc.

-----------------------------------------------
On 2018-04-19 14:19, my original post::