# Crib



## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.

We have looked at countless cribs and I was even close at one point to just buying one, thinking that my wife wanted a black painted crib and not a 'wood' color for the nursery. I refused to put the time and effort into something that she was going to cover with paint.

So after throwing several tantrums and refusing to build what she wanted I 'convinced' her to let me build what I wanted with the caveat that I add drawers to the bottom.

I went through many iterations on the design, thicknesses, splat spacing, wood selection, contrasting woods, etc…

This is still a work in progress, I made a Sketchup model, but that was mostly to see what the different spacings between splats would do. I haven't included it here because as I was laying out my pieces on the rough stock last night I realized that my 6/4 would not give me the 1-1/2" thickness I wanted. Plus I had a really nice 8/4 board that I decided would work for the 'back' arched pieces. Anyway…

Pictures are of the Mahogany cut into 'blanks' as well as a test fit of my inner most dimensions for the mattress. No sense in making a crib that won't accept the mattress (I once made an Adirondack chair in my basement shop and couldn't get it out the door…).

I still have to decide how I want to connect the panels and where I want to glue and where I want to use bolts. She wants the bed to transform into a toddler bed, so the front may end up being bolted, the sides glued to the front legs and bolted to the back and the back may be glued to the legs which could act as a headboard for a twin some day…


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


Congrats on the daughter, and the crib!

Thanks for posting!
-Jim; aka "Stumpy Nubs" 
(The best woodworking show since the invention of wood.)


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## BrandonW (Apr 27, 2010)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


Looking forward to seeing this thing take shape! Congrats to you and your wife on your soon-to-be born daughter!


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


Good luck with this. A crib was my first project and still the best job I've done to date. It can be a real labor of love. I decided to start a tradition with mine; I put a plaque with the build dates on it and one with my daughter's name and date on it. I'll do the same for each kid that uses it. I got the idea from having a cradle that was built by the wife's great great grandfather and being uncertain of just how many people, and who, have actually used it.


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


Russ, I was thinking of doing exactly that, thinking that it would be handed down.


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## bfergie (Jan 22, 2012)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


Congrats on the soon to be daughter. Good idea making it convertible, they grow up so fast. You having the mattress up front reminds me when my father-in-law and I made a captain's style bed (with drawers underneath) for my daughter, he must of gotten the measurements from a RV mattress or something, but it came out 6" too long. We had to bring it in through a bedroom window as it wouldn't slide through the door. She used the space to put stuffed animals on it but it was a shame since it was built out of a lovely maple and was built like a tank.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

DrRum said:


> *First Blog for my soon to be here Daughter*
> 
> We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child and I thought it would be a good project to document in a blog, her crib.
> 
> ...


*congratulations to the three of you!*

great idea on the 'legacy plaque' *russ*

funny with the chair ivan

PM me if you need to know 
where the kids come from lol


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Curve patterns*

I was able to get my curve patterns cut and faired last night. I'm debating on how to cut the mortises for the top arch since it is 2" at the centerline my router bits won't reach, let alone with a ply jig in between. I was thinking of maybe cutting a groove and then just inserting spacers, since it will be mortised into the legs, so the top arch should not move and even with the weaker end grain glue, it will still be strong enough for the application. A slot mortiser sure would be nice, I have the plans from Mathias on how to make my own, if only I had the time…

My issue with the top is that it is an 8/4 piece that I need to cut the top and bottom out of AND my jointer is no where near wide enough to take the little twist out. BUT in order to get BOTH pieces out I need to basically cut it along the arch and then trim and dress the pieces, I cant get the two if I rip it down the middle to have straight sides, so I have to figure a way to cut mortises on a curved face…

On the front / side rails I have a 1" arch, so this could be cut with a router, or maybe use my mortiser and cut them prior to cutting the arches so everything is square.

Still debating on how I want to attach the sides, I'm leaning towards bed bolts, Lee valley has some nice ones that don't use hex nuts, but use barrel nuts, so on the outside I can just have the brass showing. I was thinking about using little plugs to cover them, but they could pose a choking hazard, unless I glue them in and make them look like G&G square pegs? I don't know, they are on order so we will see when they get here.

So that wraps up last nights progress, I did get another coat of Waterlox on the dining room bench, looks like it'll need another tonight…


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

DrRum said:


> *Curve patterns*
> 
> I was able to get my curve patterns cut and faired last night. I'm debating on how to cut the mortises for the top arch since it is 2" at the centerline my router bits won't reach, let alone with a ply jig in between. I was thinking of maybe cutting a groove and then just inserting spacers, since it will be mortised into the legs, so the top arch should not move and even with the weaker end grain glue, it will still be strong enough for the application. A slot mortiser sure would be nice, I have the plans from Mathias on how to make my own, if only I had the time…
> 
> ...


I'd definitely do the mortises before the curves. If your router won't clear it all, there's always the drill press + chisels option.


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Joinery layout and spindle stock*

I was able to get my spindle stock joined and planed last night. Over the weekend I layed out my mortise locations and I think that I might change the side top rails. Originally I was going to use an 'S' curve on top like G&G, but that conflicted with the simple arches everywhere else. Now I'm thinking that a simple inverted arch on top and an arch on the bottom might look better, the joinery doesn't change, thankfully.

Fortunately I was able to get all my spindle stock from 'salvaged' material from the local flooring mill. Still can't get over what they throw away.

Oh and I was able to test out my Steel City 40200H planer, very nice…


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

DrRum said:


> *Joinery layout and spindle stock*
> 
> I was able to get my spindle stock joined and planed last night. Over the weekend I layed out my mortise locations and I think that I might change the side top rails. Originally I was going to use an 'S' curve on top like G&G, but that conflicted with the simple arches everywhere else. Now I'm thinking that a simple inverted arch on top and an arch on the bottom might look better, the joinery doesn't change, thankfully.
> 
> ...


nice…looking forward to seeing the end result


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Templates and Spindles cut*

I was able to get my templates finished and ran the arch over the top of the back cut, note to self: use a spiral cut bit next time. Luckily I had given myself an extra 1/8" and will be able to plane down the chips and tearout.

Here is a picture of how I plan on getting mortises cut perpendicular and square with the arched top. Held by pocket screws at the ends where I will be cutting the Tenons.










Here you can see the spindles all jointed, planed and trimmed to width. I initially made only 44 then realized I need 52, so I had to find a few more pieces. Looks like I'll be displaying the myriad of colors that Mahogany contains.










I also laid out the location of the mortises on the back rails and jointed and planed the rails for the sides and front.










You can also see my initial mockup of the jig I plan on using for the tenons on the back rails, since they are not straight on both sides and I don't want to mess around with such large pieces on the TS, I figured I could make a collar and use the router for cutting the tenons.


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Mortises cut*

I was able to get the mortises cut last night. I also made a jig for cutting the mortises on the lower back rail using the router since the bottom is not flat and while I have a brace built, this seems easier and gives a cleaner mortise.









Here you can see the blocks I made to keep everything level. Thank goodness for flat torsion box tops!


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Tenons, arches and rounding over *

I've been able to fit all the tenons (104 of them) into their respective mortises. Most are rounded over from the router only the mortises on the back upper arch are square from the hollow chisel mortiser (since I couldn't get the 2" depth from my router). The mortises on the side and front top arches have been 'deepened' by a forstner bit in the drill press following the initial router mortise. Worked out well.



















I was fairly happy with the arched tenon jig which I intended to follow the curve of the arches. I was very careful lining up the 2 halves and screwed them together with offcuts of spindles to get an exact fit, unfortunately they shift a little and not all my shoulders lined up, so I had some hand trimming to do.










I used the table top edge bit to give the spindles a 'sloped' front face. it worked ok, I had a little trouble keeping the spindle once one side was profiled square to the router fence to get a precise profile on both sides. So there was some wiggle which resulted in a wavy cut, which I cleaned up by hand with a block plane and sanding block.

Here are the spindles all sanded and ends taped for pre-finshing. I've got some more rounding and sanding on the main frame members tonight and hope to get this all assembled by end of the week, I hope…










The Mahogany liked to chip and being this is for a child I needed a way to fix the chips without digging into the wood for a smooth surface. So I used West marine 2 part epoxy to fill chips and used blue painters tape over top to 'conform' the filler to the spindle. Also used it to fill a knot in the lower back rail.


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## DrRum (Feb 25, 2009)

*Hangers and final assmebly*

So I finished the assembly after pre-finishing everything. used West Systems Marine epoxy, I'm pretty sure it's not coming apart.

Finish is shellac.

I ran into a DOH moment when I tried to install the matress platform. The rail extensions actually made it so tight that I couldn't get a hex screw in. Even with the crib all apart the screws just wouldn't fit. So I went to Home Depot looking for inspiration and a get my butt out of a bind part. Found Cafe Door pivot hinges that just so happen to have a 90Deg bracket with a nice hole and rounded ends…

Turns out the holes were too far out and I had to recess the bracket ~5/16" to get them to line up.









I used press in threaded inserts as the threaded inserts always seem to pull material up and leave a sharp edge that needs leveling and then finishing, since I have pre-finished this I opted for the press in inserts.

Overall I think the crib came out ok, I of course see all my mistakes or areas I wish I could do over, but that's the curse of being the craftsman I suppose.


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