We are finally ready for welding up the frames!! After cutting all the steel I decided it was probably going to be too heavy and so I looked at options to reduce weight. I believe I could replace 3 cross beams per frame quadrant for total of 12 per frame with Composite Deck Balusters. They certainly weren't cheap at $40 per box of 14 at Lowe's. It wasn't exactly a drastic reduction in weight but it will work. My step-dad attempted to weld the corners with oxy/acetylene torch but the joints would crack as the angle iron cooled so we switched over to an arc welder that worked perfectly and we didn't even need to brush the paint off the bed frames before starting the weld. In the image above you can see the completed frames with the balusters setting in place.