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a cradle idea i've been working on

Dan Noren

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
about a week or so ago, my wife :blah: asked me if i would build a cradle for one of her friends from church who was expecting in about 7 months. like a good husband :yes:, i said ok, i would work on a design for them, but, will hold off on the build, to make sure everything is still ok. so, with that i set to work on sketchup :type:, and here iit is. it's sort of my version of greene & greene of a sort. i did omit a couple of things, such as the pivot pins, locking pin to keep it from rocking, and the keys for the stretcher, i'm holding off on those.
 

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i was thinking about tapering it to begin with, but the standard size of cradle mattresses are 18" x 36", and tapering it out from there, the top would be about 24" wide or better. so i stuck with the sides the way they are. i learned my lesson about mattresses, when i built a cradle for the youngest nephew, from some plans in an issue of today's woodworker, and had to have the mattress custom made to fit, and that cost quite a bit. the actual sides themselves are only 20" at the widest, and 18" where it drops down. it does look a bit big at first, that's why i included one with the measurements with the others.
 
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I would agree with the others. I also think the feet should be slightly narrower and about 2/3 thicker than you've drawn them. I would be inclined to use square pads for the bottom-most layer so it sits up a little bit. You might also consider tapering them slightly toward their ends.
 
ok, here's the mk 2 version. i used a minimum 10 degree angle to the sides, and i had to make the ends much wider to accommodate the 18" wide mattress. if i hadn't, the mattress would have been about 3" from the top. i added the 3/4" pads to the bottoms of the feet. they were already 1.5" thick to begin with, now up to 2.25". the width of the top has grown from a little over 19" wide, to 25 5/8" wide.
 

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that's not doable don, as the lowest part of the sides is only a touch over 13" from the board for the bottom. add in the couple of inches for the mattress, and there is only 5" on the sides. then again, the ends would have to be reworked as well, and that wouldn't work out too good either. i'm working around a 18x36 mattress.
 
Better. How about using a could lift sort of detail going down there toward the lowered side. Those feet still need something maybe round the corners?
 
dave, i did that one to show what it would look like, with lowering the sides 6" like that, it leaves about 7" on each side, when you add for the 2" of the mattress i'm working around, that leaves less than 5" on the sides. to me, not much of a safety factor. to me, the second, while looking a bit better, and third versions look a bit out of proportion to the supporting framework. they look to be just a little too big. the inside height of the bed box of the original is only a little over 14" at the highest, and a little over 13" at the lowest parts, from the bottom board, not all that deep for a cradle to begin with.
 
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Maybe don't lower it quite so much but I think it'll be better with the sides lowered some. Remember, baby won't sleep in it forever. By the time they are old enough to move around and pull themselves up where there's a danger of them going over the side, they'll have been moved into a crib. By that time, even at the original depth, it won't keep baby in if they want out.

You've probably seen the cradle I built for my son.



As you can see it is quite shallow but it was never a problem. He quit sleeping in it before he could have gotten himself into bad spot. Then it became an ark for the stuffed critters. I was worried that he'd roll over and get the gunn'l down so he couldn't roll the other direction. A number of folks told me he'd capsize it when he rolled to one side. As it turned out, the way it hangs, it's impossible to capsize it.
 
dano-- i would take and throw in your matters thichkness in the cross section of your cradle..show DAVE your cross-section so he has some idea of the space needed.. the tapering looks more appealing but the dropped sides like you drew last doesnt look right.. dave and you can get this worked out:) so make a crossection detail to show what is going on:)
 
i like that one dave, and it looks like the lil one is enjoying it too. i wouldn't be too surprised if he took to boating. i've redrawn the top edge of the original design, making it a little less boxy. i've also taken larry's advice to heart (that'll cost you a box of chocolate, ol son! lol), and drawn up a cross section of what i have to work around, with all the current measurements and such. there's a little extra at the bottom, but that's to keep the symmatry of it, and a good, out of the way place for the shallow (3/8") hole for the locking pin. i've rigged the dado for the bottom board so that the ends are covered by the next up set of fingers.
 

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Liking this so far Dan:thumb: there also is a standard cradle mattress of 15" x 33". The narrower dimension can help with the tapering. For the cradles I have made, I had custom mattresses made to fit the dimensions of the cradles. Looking forward to seeing this progress:)
 
How do we get you to change your units to Fractional? :D

I like the curve on your latest version but it still seems awful deep to me. Now I see that the edges aren't that far above the top of the mattress, though. I'd take most of the bottom edges of the ends and sides off. I think that will help.
 
I like the overall look. Prefer the taper and cutout which as you state, could be played with as to shape. The pads on the feet are a definite keeper. Concerns about the clearance for the bottom when rocking(?). Probably just my eyes as you could test that with SU easy enough. I really like some of the ideas here and am enjoying the ride.
 
thanks for the nudge on that one glenn,:stick:, i was a bit concerned about that too. i saved a new version of it, and gave it the schwing test. after hiding the one end's assembly, i edited in some crosshairs on the pivot point of the bed, and rotated it as far as i could (you can see that in the pic). it will swing through a 40 degree arc (that's 20 degrees to each side of center, for those of you in rio linda) without hitting the stretcher. that would be more than enough to gently rock junior to sleep. as for the bottom edges, i cannot get too radical as the stopper pin hole's center is 1.25" from the bottom, maybe a mild arc, or light cloud lift, just enough to break the visual line upwards.
 

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