I haven't been on here in a long time, I just wanted to update this thread and let you know that I did go thru with it (after putting it off for a year). I did end up going with 18" because the longer I looked at it the more I realized why that was the recommended max, there's just about 18-20" of straight frame under the bed after that the frame gets narrower. Everything went fairly smooth surprisingly.
First cut I made was right behind the rear leafs, on the majority of my cuts I used this small piece of angle as a straight edge
Next I drew it all out. The plan was simple, take a 13"chunk out of the center and make two 5" steps.
After measuring measuring and re measuring about fifty times I made the first cut.
We ended up needing to use a bottle back and scissor jack in order to get each frame rail to the correct height to put it back together and with minimal grinding/massaging it fit like a glove.
Of course we once again measured a thousand times and started burning it back in. I kept all the welds short so as not to warp the frame, and moved between sides for each weld we laid down.
And the before and after
I'm still not quite finished, I have to make some fish plates for the frame and I still haven't tackled the bed but I thought I'd share my progress so far.
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