I’ve never worked with cherry before, but after reading many posts and blogs here (thanks everyone!), I set the pieces outside for a few days to let the UV rays darken the wood a few shades. A little side note: I first spanned 2 2×4s across sawhorses and laid the assemblies on top of the 2×4s. After one day in the sun, I was surprised to find that the sides facing the ground darkened quite a bit, so much that I could distinctly see lines where the 2×4s were touching each assembly. After that I resorted to laying the assemblies on top of tables and propping them up against the house.

Once the assembled pieces has darkened enough for my taste, I started the process of assemblying the main unit. I started by attaching one side to each shelf by pocket hole screws (no glue + I drilled the pocket holes a little large to allow for wood expansion). After attaching the shelves to both sides in the same manner, I then glued and pocket-hole-screwed the shelves to the back. My thinking was that as the shelves expanded and contracted, the back edge would not move, and the space I left between the shelf and the front legs would take up any expansion.

The first picture shows the pocket holes attaching each shelf. You can also clearly see the shims I put in the grooves with each shelf, so that there’s no visible gap between the top of the shelf and the groove.

The rest of the pictures show the main unit from different angles. They also show the variety of clamps I need to use whenever I’m clamping up more than one thing at a time! The pieces I’m gluing on now will provide a surface flush with the front leg – the entire depth of the main unit – to make it easier to attach the drawer slide.

I plan on attaching the top surface tomorrow. After that all I have left is the dividers for the top to hold the changing table pad and accessories, and the drawer to hold… well… um… whatever baby stuff needs to be kept in a drawer.

Less than 6 weeks until the baby’s due! Hopefully the changing table is sitting in the baby’s room and the crib is well on it’s way to being finished by the time we come home with our little bundle of joy!

Since this piece of furniture will be mission style, I bought myself the Beadlock Pro system from Rockler. So the first thing I did was play with how the jig works and also make 400 linear inches of 3/8” tenon stock.

I started by making the top surface first. I wanted to see how the Beadlock Pro worked for attaching butt joints and I have to say I’m quite impressed. The picture below shows the tenons immediatley after adding glue.

Next I needed to thickness plane the rest of the lumber I would need for the project. Maybe I should have attached my portable dust collection system at this point…

This picture shows a few of the horizontal braces that will support the shelves. I routed a groove in the top and bottom piece before attaching the 3 pieces together.

For the vertical slats I wanted to ensure that they were all exactly the same height and that the ends were perfecly perpendicular to the slat. I threw together a pretty crude cross-cut jig for the tablesaw, which worked pretty nicely to cut 5-6 of the slats at a time.

Next, I cut the holes for the tenons in the horizontal braces and glued up one of the sides. All the holes for the tenons are 1” long, except in the middle horizontal brace, where the tenon goes completely through the brace and extends 1 inch into each vertical slat.

I have the legs glued together (I made them 2 1/4×2 1/4) but not planed yet, so for the next post hopefully I’ll have both sides attached to 2 legs each and the back glued together as well.