| Project by Russel | posted 112 days ago | 261 views | 1 time favorited | 15 comments |  |
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Yes, I know I recently posted a pair of 'Grandma Cribs' but since I just finished this and we seem to be on a run of nursery furniture I figured I put this up as well.
This is for a young lady I work with who is in the process of having her first child (she’s taking her time). She’s a great kid and the same age as my kids with a very similar temperment. I’ve had the opportunity to work with her pretty much since she graduated high school and I’ve come to be very fond of her. So with her starting her family it seemed right to do something special for her.
This is the first cradle I’ve made and it was one of the more complex things I’ve done. The curved panels were an interesting experience, but not so much as matching the center rail to the curve of the top cross piece. That was fun (and not fully accurate). After laying out all the parts, the one thing I had forgotten to consider was how I was going to suspend the cradle from the stand … a couple holes and dowels did the trick and it all works quite nicely.
The cradle is made of mainly walnut with cherry panels and accents on the bottom. The bottom has cherry along the edges because the two pieces of walnut I glued together weren’t quite wide enough. But the correction made for a nice design element. It takes a standard cradle mattress of 15” x 33”, stands 34” tall and has a foot print of 22” x 38.
With this cradle, I’ve now made 1 standard crib, 5 wheelchair cribs and 6 Grandma cribs. And I only have one daughter. Man that’s a lot of babies.
-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.
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15 comments so far
griff
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444 posts in 244 days
posted 112 days ago
Russel This is one beautiful crib. Enjoy the wood blends and the finish, Very good build.
-- Mike, Bruce Mississippi = Jack of many trades master of none
trifern
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3987 posts in 249 days
posted 112 days ago
Gorgeous crib Russel. Thank you for sharing.
-- Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.
CharlieM1958
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4170 posts in 700 days
posted 112 days ago
A real beauty, Russel!
All these women must be getting pregnant just to score one of your cribs. :-)
-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"
Woodhacker
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507 posts in 205 days
posted 112 days ago
Russel, that is an awesome job! She’ll be absolutely thrilled to have it!
Thanks for posting it.
-- Martin, Kansas
Daren Nelson
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332 posts in 387 days
posted 112 days ago
That sure is pretty. That walnut is awesome.
-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/
eklectic
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14 posts in 251 days
posted 111 days ago
Hi Russel,
Great cradle!
Wish I was closer to order one from you!
-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss!
stanley_clifton
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66 posts in 185 days
posted 111 days ago
Very nice job. The babies should love this design; they can see out. Here’s the one I made for ours:
http://public.fotki.com/stanley-clifton/woodworking/finished-jobs/crib.html
This was never used as my wife decided to go for co-sleeping after all. It’s a Shaker design.
-- Stanley generally struggling
Thom
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11 posts in 120 days
posted 111 days ago
Wow, you really out-did yourself. Such a lucky lady. I love the walnut!
HokieMojo
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330 posts in 210 days
posted 106 days ago
Any chance you can post the finish you put on this? I’ve got some walnut and if I could bring out the figure even 1/4 as much as you did, I’d be thrilled. Excellent work.
Russel
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1229 posts in 421 days
posted 106 days ago
To finish the cradle, I sanded to 220 grit, then sprayed on a light coat of clear shellac. Then sanded with 400 grit followed by a few coats of wipe-on poly lightly sanding with 400 grit between each coat. The wood itself I got from a sawmill as ‘off-cuts’ which were considered unusable. Most of it has some really nice figure to it.
-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.
Karson
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12889 posts in 882 days
posted 106 days ago
Very nice Russel. A fantastic job. Beautiful wood selection.
-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com
Roper
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369 posts in 195 days
posted 106 days ago
wow that is beautiful.
-- Roper - master of sawdust-
mtnwild
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120 posts in 9 days
posted 3 days ago
Great, one of the nicest cradles I’ve ever seen. Love the walnut!
-- mtnwild
MsDebbieP
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11909 posts in 642 days
posted 3 days ago
that’s quite the gift!! Lucky mom & baby
Beautiful piece!
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
rikkor
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7604 posts in 356 days
posted 3 days ago
Very nice Russel, very nice.
-- Maplewood, MN