No special craftsmanship here but the result serves a purpose…

My Grandfather has been having knee problems and wanted his recliner higher so he could lift himself out of the chair with less strain on his knees. I offered to make something for him and this is what I came up with.

He loves it and that is all that counts.

Thanks for looking.

So saw another crosscut sled post this morning and I was prompted to post mine as a result…

This sled model includes a cabinet door hinge hold-down clamp, some holes in the fence for clamps, a piece of scrap oak blade guard, an aluminum track cannibalized from the stock miter gauge, removable offset blocks, and a miter key jig attachment…

I made a bunch of small 2.5” cube boxes for Christmas using this small sled and it worked great. When I was cutting the sides to length I was getting nervous moving my hand close to the blade over and over again (needed 56 sides) so I screwed the scrap stick next to the blade so I wouldn’t hit it. Since I was working with the small stock I wanted some type of clamp and a cabinet door hinge was the only thing I had on hand that would do the trick.

I bought a 90 degree router bit awhile back because I plan on making some boxes using britboxmaker’s guides and instead made a small miter key jig (picture 4 shows my test box with some purple heart keys in a magnolia cube).

For my next sled I will probably use two tracks, but I don’t have a grinder to “fix” my non standard tracks so I used the miter gauge track and squared it to the back edge of the plywood base. There are probably better ways to square it but I simply screwed one side of the track in place, held a square up to it, then ran a screw through the other side of the track (you can see it protruding out on the top of the sled near its upper right hand corner…).

Thoughts/Tips for improvements and future sleds?
Thanks for looking.

(the shelf when not glued together as I didn’t take an after picture of it yet)

Hi all, my first real post here as I posted some in progress pictures for this awhile ago.

I want to welcome Violet, a year of the dragon baby into my extended family. Violet was born earlier this month to my sister-in-law and I began making this cradle for her after the pregnancy was announced.

Since a rocking cradle has a limited lifespan of usefulness I decided to make the cradle so it could be used as a coffee table once outgrown, and here is the result. I got the design idea from the “So-Ro” cradle that I found online and with the help of my friend’s dad who actually has a workshop we made this cradle.

The woods are purpleheart, walnut, plywood birch for the bottom, and some magnolia that I saved from a tree cut down at my grandpa’s house. It was finished using only butcher block oil as it was the only sealer I could find that said anything about being non-toxic as it was safe for food preparation and as babies like to chew on things I thought it was the best choice. The inside of the cradle is 18” x 33”, and the oval is 23” x 46” if I am remembering right.

Originally the dragon inlay was done because I wanted to do some inlay after looking at other’s work here at LJs, and there was an ugly knot that needed covering. I did they dragon with a scroll saw and the egg was inlayed using a whiteside inlay kit with my own template. The best part about the inlay is how it relates to the babies name and zodiac. They matched up with her name and date after I did the inlay.

The walnut trim on this turned out nice, but getting .25” x .25” sticks with a quarter inch round to fit together nicely was a tedious chore and I will probably put trim on differently next time.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to your thoughts on it.

Brian

I haven’t done any woodworking since I graduated from high school in 05’ and the woodworking bug has been getting worse each year.

Several months ago my sister-in-law announced she was pregnant so the motivation to start a project was finally there… Time to make a a rocking cradle that can be set on its side when the baby outgrows it so my in-law will have a coffee table.

The cradle/table is being made from a magnolia tree that we cut down at my Grandfather’s house a few years ago and once milled it has been drying since. The purpleheart and black walnut are also being used.

Pic 1: Practice scroll saw cutout of a dragon in some magnolia (will be made into a 1st Christmas ornament for the baby). Smiley face with padauk inlayed into some purpleheart.

Pic 2: Now that I am confadent on the scroll saw I cut the actual inlay I plan to put into the cradle. I will inlay purplheart into the walnut later, and then the whole piece will be inlayed into end board of the cradle using the same egg shape of the dragon in pic 1.

Pic 3: The fence on my cheapy scroll saw was to big and blocked me from cutting the small eyes out for the smiley, so I came up with this jig so I could get my fingers close to the blade without the tiny work bouncing up and down. Also as a novice with a scroll saw I was having trouble following the cutout lines so having the fence rest on the back of the blade stopped the blade from bending similar to the wheels in a band saw fence that keep it from drifting. (future design will have wing nuts for easy height adjustment.

Pic 4: Using my friend’s Dad’s workshop to make the table so I just posted the progress so far. There will be a larger dragon inlay on the top which I haven’t made yet, and the dragon shown in pic 2 will be roughly centered to the right of the curved purpleheart cross brace. The ovals are about 46” X 23” and it is about 19” tall.

Pic 5: The shelf when it will be used as a coffee table.

Thanks for looking, and thank you LJ community… I found this site before I started on the cradle and I got some inspiration from everyone (specifically the purpleheart and walnut combination since original choices were just the magnolia adn purpleheart.)

Edit: added a Pic 6 to show the inlay I just finished and put into the headboard of the cradle. I used Whiteside’s Brass inlay kit to inlay the egg… It works perfectly, I would recommend it to anyone.