Re: SIMMONS IRON BED

Hi, Stephanie.

Is the "ball" on the footboard of your bed actually two pieces of brass tubing, made into a unit with a small narrow section in the middle? I have an iron bed like that-- it's tubular, a four-poster, very graceful but clearly not the same style as most of the iron beds around. I would love to know more about it-- I know it was sold as a child's bed and that it dates from the thirties or earlier. I don't know how much earlier. It has no marks (that I can find) on it.

I'm restoring it now and having serious problems. One small part of one of the posts had broken off and I stupidly let the man who welded it talk me into having it stripped. Now a pink residue keeps leaking out the joints-- right through every primer I put on it, even though it seems dry and clean when I prime it. I have tried pressure washing it, neutralizing the caustic soda, using different types of primers o, drying it over long periods of time-- everything I know. After I apply a primer, within a day or so the residue starts leaking out again through every joint. It has old iron casters, an odd type I don't how to remove, but the pressure wash runs through it and seems to drain out; some people have suggested drilling holes in the posts but that seems a little drastic. Someone else suggested the residue might not be caustic soda but something else-- parts of it came back from dipping shiny and other parts were rough and pitted. I thought maybe there might have been some sort of metallic coating on it that wasn't completely removed (?)

Anyone out there have any ideas about the bed, its manufacturing history or how to solve the leaching problem? I can't research it because I can't figure out when it was manufactured!

Thanks!