# Twins!



## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*Stuff for the babies 1.*

Well, I found out I am having twins in April. So, I'm using this blog series to document all the things woodworking I'm going to do to get ready. If I can find some crib plans I like, I'll be making a set. What other things do you thing I should make? Maybe a wooden rattle, that might be fun to figure out how to make.


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

Andy123 said:


> *Stuff for the babies 1.*
> 
> Well, I found out I am having twins in April. So, I'm using this blog series to document all the things woodworking I'm going to do to get ready. If I can find some crib plans I like, I'll be making a set. What other things do you thing I should make? Maybe a wooden rattle, that might be fun to figure out how to make.


step stools come in handy down the road.


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## Letorix (Jul 19, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *Stuff for the babies 1.*
> 
> Well, I found out I am having twins in April. So, I'm using this blog series to document all the things woodworking I'm going to do to get ready. If I can find some crib plans I like, I'll be making a set. What other things do you thing I should make? Maybe a wooden rattle, that might be fun to figure out how to make.


I have twins, when I got married my wife was a size 1. Before the boys were born I was rolling her around in a yard cart. I'd just buy some boeshield and store everything for ten years. By then you'll be ready to wood work again. Trust me you have no idea…twins are double the joy and double the trouble…particularly boys.

Congratulations on Twins!


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*Inspration and cut list. *

Well, I was looking at crib plans and photographs for inspiration over the last few days. I could not find anything I liked, until I found inspiration on this site. From http://lumberjocks.com/projects/30892. Thanks Scott Smith. I like the contrasting woods and the simple design. I then found a plan in Google sketchup with thicker rails and bars, which I like. I made up a cut list and made some design changes. I am thinking walnut and paduk, or maple and walnut/paduk/purple heart (if they're girls). What wood combinations would look good together? Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated.


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## Bigrock (Apr 16, 2010)

Andy123 said:


> *Inspration and cut list. *
> 
> Well, I was looking at crib plans and photographs for inspiration over the last few days. I could not find anything I liked, until I found inspiration on this site. From http://lumberjocks.com/projects/30892. Thanks Scott Smith. I like the contrasting woods and the simple design. I then found a plan in Google sketchup with thicker rails and bars, which I like. I made up a cut list and made some design changes. I am thinking walnut and paduk, or maple and walnut/paduk/purple heart (if they're girls). What wood combinations would look good together? Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated.


Hi:
Have you looked I think Rockler.com. They have a couple of Crib plans as well as the hardware. I built the one that goes from crib to double bed and had no problems and turn out great. Good luck and have fun.


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *Inspration and cut list. *
> 
> Well, I was looking at crib plans and photographs for inspiration over the last few days. I could not find anything I liked, until I found inspiration on this site. From http://lumberjocks.com/projects/30892. Thanks Scott Smith. I like the contrasting woods and the simple design. I then found a plan in Google sketchup with thicker rails and bars, which I like. I made up a cut list and made some design changes. I am thinking walnut and paduk, or maple and walnut/paduk/purple heart (if they're girls). What wood combinations would look good together? Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated.


I looked at Rockler and I didn't like the 3 in 1 bed. Plus, it gives me an excuse to make toddler beds!


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*Wood selection*

Well… I haven't made and entry in a while. I've made a cut list and compared prices in Eugene, Oregon. Emerson Hardwood/Crosscut had the best prices. I made a detailed list of what wood I needed, in common thicknesses and widths. All I needed was laid out down to the last detail. I had my list in hand and I drove the 1.5 hours to Eugene to get my lumber. When I got there, Emerson had the widths I needed, but not the lengths. Crap! I had to redo the lumber list all in my head. After I took all of their kiln-dried, S4S maple, I was off. I came in under budget by $100. Which was nice.

I few weeks later, after letting my wood acclimatize to my shop, I started to cut the pieces I needed. I wanted to take my time, so it took me the whole day. I marked all the pieces off as I went and marked the pieces as well with a part number. After I was done, I was missing one piece 26.5×3x1. Dang! Well…I had to redo the list in my head at the lumber yard, so I think I did pretty good.

I let the wood set for about a week before I did anything else on them, so I worked on some Christmas presents.

Over the last couple of days I've been cutting 72 tenons. It was a pain in the butt. I had to make a shop-made, Table-saw tenoning jig. It was simple, but it worked well. I have all the face cuts done, and about half of the cheek pieces cut off. It will take me about 30 minutes in the shop to finish that operation. I've been separating the operations so the whole crib does not feel as daunting. Well that catches me up to-date. I hope to make more regular entries. Any tips would be appreciated.










This is a photo of all of the post that need tenons for the crib. 









After I made all of the cheek cuts.









The face cuts. Or whatever people call them. I just thought is sounded right.










More parts.










My "made in 10 minutes, but square" tennoning jig.


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

Andy123 said:


> *Wood selection*
> 
> Well… I haven't made and entry in a while. I've made a cut list and compared prices in Eugene, Oregon. Emerson Hardwood/Crosscut had the best prices. I made a detailed list of what wood I needed, in common thicknesses and widths. All I needed was laid out down to the last detail. I had my list in hand and I drove the 1.5 hours to Eugene to get my lumber. When I got there, Emerson had the widths I needed, but not the lengths. Crap! I had to redo the lumber list all in my head. After I took all of their kiln-dried, S4S maple, I was off. I came in under budget by $100. Which was nice.
> 
> ...


Andy,

Sounds good but remember, NO PICTURES? THEN IT DIDN'T HAPPEN…

Seriously, sounds like you're making significant progress. How did you resolve the missing piece situation? Back to the lumberyard or substituted from some other source?

And yes, we do like pictures.

Be Careful!

Herb


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *Wood selection*
> 
> Well… I haven't made and entry in a while. I've made a cut list and compared prices in Eugene, Oregon. Emerson Hardwood/Crosscut had the best prices. I made a detailed list of what wood I needed, in common thicknesses and widths. All I needed was laid out down to the last detail. I had my list in hand and I drove the 1.5 hours to Eugene to get my lumber. When I got there, Emerson had the widths I needed, but not the lengths. Crap! I had to redo the lumber list all in my head. After I took all of their kiln-dried, S4S maple, I was off. I came in under budget by $100. Which was nice.
> 
> ...


I'll take some photo today and post them.


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *Wood selection*
> 
> Well… I haven't made and entry in a while. I've made a cut list and compared prices in Eugene, Oregon. Emerson Hardwood/Crosscut had the best prices. I made a detailed list of what wood I needed, in common thicknesses and widths. All I needed was laid out down to the last detail. I had my list in hand and I drove the 1.5 hours to Eugene to get my lumber. When I got there, Emerson had the widths I needed, but not the lengths. Crap! I had to redo the lumber list all in my head. After I took all of their kiln-dried, S4S maple, I was off. I came in under budget by $100. Which was nice.
> 
> ...


Herb, my dad lives in Eugene, and he is going to pick up a piece from the the same yard. We are working on it together, so we can have a family heirloom that both of us worked on.


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*Delay in the action. *

I got four commissioned cutting boards today. I was planning on spending time in the shop to work on the crib, but I like money too. So I will be working on that. No, update this week.


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*I've done a lot. With Photos!*

Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.









On my last blog, I finished the the tenons. Then I moved about two hours away and had to set up my shop. After that was done. I had fit the tenons into the channel mortise. That was a pain. But I got good at it. (I hope I did. There were 72 or more of them.) I then glued up the rails. Everything went very smooth. It didn't hurt I had some newly acquired pipe clamps.










At this point, The girls are doing great and I feel like they're going to make it. So I renewed my work on the crib.

On, 03/16/2012, I didn't know what or how I was going to style the legs. So I enlisted my dad's help. We decided to go with a simple craftsman style taper. We then used 3/8 dowels to secure the legs to the foot rails of the crib. It worked great. We drilled the legs with my drill press then, used a dowel center to mark the rails. We then hand routed the rails and filled the gaps between the channel mortise with solid Brazilian cherry.










Why Brazilian Cherry? Because I got a smoking deal on the Brazilian Cherry veneer plywood, I needed for the head board, and it looked good with the maple. I used a flush trim bit to trim the overlap on the on the solid Cherry. I then hand chiseled the corners. I then hand routed with a 1/8 inch round over bit to smooth the gaps between the vertical pieces. I still need to do some hand shaping in the corners.










Tonight, 03/18/2012, marked and drilled the dowel holes on the horizontal rails and on the legs for the head board. I didn't know how I was going to fit the veneer ply into the leg, after much thought, I decided to 3/8 inch deep stop cut down the center of the leg. After measuring and re-measuring, and using a test piece. I got the gap right the first time on the test piece. (I was quite pleased with myself. That normally doesn't happen to me.) I could use the table saw and not a router on this cut, because I am making a cap piece for the head board.

Glue up went well and it is drying as I type this.










Thanks for looking. My girls could still use your prayers, if that is your thing.

Andy.


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## Eagle1 (Jan 4, 2010)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


You and your wife have some very beautiful girls there. Congrats..


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


Lucky, Lucky man! Oh, your wife too! Congratulations. I'm glad things worked out. Kids are great. You will find, if you don't now it already that it's the best thing you will do in this life.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


How can find time to do any woodworking at a time like this?,lol. What a lucky guy to get two beautiful girls and twins to boot. Big congratulations to you and your wife. Well done. the crib looks pretty good too. Personally though I think you should be changing nappys at all hours of the day and night like I did.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


How can you find time to do any woodworking at a time like this?,lol. What a lucky guy to get two beautiful girls and twins to boot. Big congratulations to you and your wife. Well done. the crib looks pretty good too. Personally though I think you should be changing nappys at all hours of the day and night like I did.


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


Stefang, I have a great family and support system. They know finishing the crib is a really important to me. And they make time so I can do it.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


I figured that out Andy, I was just ribbing you a little.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


Fantastic cute ones you got there x 2. Looks like super progress on the crib. I hope your girls are home soon enjoying their new hand crafted crib.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Andy123 said:


> *I've done a lot. With Photos!*
> 
> Well… Where to start? Well I haven't posted at all about the crib, because this is the first time I could feel like I could. There was a lot of complications with the pregnancy. My wife had to have enutero surgery on her placenta before the girls were born. And they were born pretty early. The girls are still in the NICU, but doing great! The doctors could not be happier about their progress. Their names are Emma and Lily.
> 
> ...


Andy, You and your family are in my prayers and I'm sure those 2 cuties will be home enjoying their beautiful crib soon. So you better hurry up and finish it! Andy (there are a lot of Andys on this site)


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## Andy123 (Aug 17, 2011)

*It's finally together!*

Well, today was the day where I got it together. It still needs mattress support, but I can bang that out in an hour. I had my dad, the girls' "Papa," help me out. Over the course of about two two-hour sessions we did a lot.

We had to mark and drill for the dowel pins in the rail sections. I made a quick jig out of a piece of 1.5 inch x 3/4 inch maple scrap and two small pieces of scrap plywood. It matched the thickness of the rails sections and it had the plywood sections hanging down to position it and we secured it in place with a clamp. It worked better than I could have hoped for. I'm too cheap to buy a dowel jig. After all 16 holes were drilled. Two for upper and lower on each side. We laid-out the position of the end assemblies to the rails and used dowel-center-mark-finder-thingies to mark the holes for the end assemblies.









We then laid out the holes for the bolt-and-peg to hold the assemblies together. I again used a jig similar to the one above. We then laid out the holes for the peg that make a cross perpendicular to the bolt holes. I had one chance to get this right so I was worried, but it worked. We then used the pegs as guide to mark the though holes in the end assembly legs for the bolt, with one of those dowel-center-mark-finder-thingies. After a little adjustments on the peg holes (depth) and a little grinding of the pegs to shorten them. It went together without a hitch. I was really excited to get it together today, because I start a new job on Monday.









Thanks for looking.


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## kmh2412 (Feb 8, 2012)

Andy123 said:


> *It's finally together!*
> 
> Well, today was the day where I got it together. It still needs mattress support, but I can bang that out in an hour. I had my dad, the girls' "Papa," help me out. Over the course of about two two-hour sessions we did a lot.
> 
> ...


It's looking great. I guess it won't be much longer and you'll be able to try it out.


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## workerinwood (Jan 1, 2010)

Andy123 said:


> *It's finally together!*
> 
> Well, today was the day where I got it together. It still needs mattress support, but I can bang that out in an hour. I had my dad, the girls' "Papa," help me out. Over the course of about two two-hour sessions we did a lot.
> 
> ...


Well done, looks great!!


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Andy123 said:


> *It's finally together!*
> 
> Well, today was the day where I got it together. It still needs mattress support, but I can bang that out in an hour. I had my dad, the girls' "Papa," help me out. Over the course of about two two-hour sessions we did a lot.
> 
> ...


The bed looks good!


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