cradle build

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
finally got started on the cradle. finished the design a while ago, picked up the lumber (very nice clear pine) day before yesterday, and cut the all of the parts to size yesterday. today the plan is to glue up the end panels, the stretcher, and the two uprights, and cut all mortises and tenons. the pictures show the finished design, the lumber, all the cut parts, a rough setup of one of the sides, and the total amount of waste so far (cutting it kinda close, neh?)
 

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well, only got 4 hours in on it today. but, in that time i managed to get 56 tenons cut. going to lay out and cut the mortises tomorrow, and glue up the stretcher, end panels, uprights, and feet. all that today, and helping the wife :blah: with her math homework (do you realize how many decades, let alone years, since i've had to divide mixed numbers?!) :thud:
 

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this project is going a little faster than i expected. today i got all the mortises marked and cut in the upper and lower sides. then i test fit one set of spindles, just to see how they would look, then, i couldn't help it, i fitted all the spindle sets for that side, to see how they would look. once that was over, i glued up the stretcher. with that done, i can then nip the ends flush, and rip it to size. last thing to be done today, was to glue up the blanks for pair of uprights. as this is pine, i'm going to fit the pivot holes with a copper insert, so that the hardwood pegs will not distort the pivot holes. the hole for the locking peg won't need the insert, as it is not load bearing. soon it will be down to just the sanding, shellacing, and final assembly.
 

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well, in spite of 12 hrs of storms here, i've made a little more progress. glued up the bottom, head, and foot panels, along with the blanks for the feet. i'm going to try to finish cut the head and foot panels, the stretcher, and a few other items.
 

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i decided to take a couple of days off from the cradle, getting all cradled out i guess. helped the wife :blah: with her church's garage sale/fund raiser. it was to help pay for using the church, lights, musical instruments and such. i donated a box full of items, and she said that they all sold after i left on the second day. now, back to the cradle. today i finished up laying out the cut lines for the outer edges, then cut them, layed out and cut the mortises on the head and foot boards, taking some off of the one side of the lower rails' tenons, to have a little more wood on that side. then i test fitted the sides, and test fitted the sides to the end boards. then i called it a day, as it was getting a little toasty around here again, and more storms predicted for tonight. when i picked up some more blue tape (found mine after i got back from the hardware store), and i picked up a folding idea chair for all the times i looked around for something to sit on, and none to be found....
 

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Great job on the cradle, looking good! :thumb:

I'd agree with Steve, I keep about 6 chairs around in the shop and have filled them up and had to pull out a couple of folding stools as well.
 
i had to double check the original sketch to make sure. there is no board direction, horizontal or vertical, just one big board. when i set up the ends, i found that if i went with 4 boards horizontally, instead of 5 vertically, i would waste less wood, not have any seams where i would have to drill the pivot holes, and it carries the horizontal lineup of the sides all around. that and i think that vertical wouldn't look as good. the other reason for going horizontal, is that 4 boards brings me to my 22" height requirement right on the nose.
 
got a little more in today, and finally, the screwed up part snake bit today. i'm surprised that it held off this long, but the part was ruined since day one. the part in question was the stretcher, and it wasn't quite long enough. oh well, off to the borg for another couple of boards. also picked up the knobs, and dowels for the pivot pins, and stopper. then i got down to it. first i cut the bevels on the bottom of the bottom side rails, then squared up the uprights, and feet. then cut the bevels on the edges of the bottom, and squared up the ends. with that done, i glued up the new stretcher blank, and called it a day.
 

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got a bit sidetracked the last couple of days, birthday parties and such. got some time in today, so here goes....

first of all, i took the stretcher out of the clamps, and cleaned it up. i'm going to wait until the rest of the cradle is assembled, so that i can get accurate measurements. then, i cut the steps in the foot base blanks, and cut the tenons in both, and just for the fun of it, i checked how they looked with the foot pads in place. next item was the final fitting out of the mortises and tenons for both end boards, and the top and bottom rails. after that, it was fitting the bottom. what i'm going to do with the bottom, is to have it loose and floating, i plan on adding cleats (made from offcuts already at 10 degrees). more fun tomorrow.
 

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well dano, i was at first thinking you were being frugal on the horizontal ends but i like the grain direction, but would the mortises be stronger in the end if it was vertical?
 
if you're talking about the mortises in the head and foot boards, i think that they will be sufficiently strong enough. they are a bit on the tight side, so they don't come apart too easy. as for the pivot pins, they are going to be hardwood, riding in hardwood "washers", part into the head and foot boards, and part into the uprights, to avoid as much wear and tear as possible. the only weight those pins will have to bear, is that of the cradle box, maybe 8-12 lbs, and the baby, another 6-9 lbs (it's a girl, they just had to take a peek), that, and the short amount of time she will be occupying the cradle, i think it will be ok.

the original idea would have had hand cut dovetails, but she preferred to have spindles instead....
 
got a bit more done today. drilled the holes for the pivot pins, and stopper pin in the head board, foot board, and both uprights. then i went on to gluing in the blocks for the bottom board, the pivot pins, end caps, and spacers. with all that done, reassembled the cradle box. once that was done, i added the uprights to check the alignment for the pivot pins, and the stopper pin. everything went well. tomorrow i'm going to cut the tenons on the bottoms of the uprights, and the mortises in the uprights for the stretcher. then i can get accurate measurements for the stretcher.
 

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i must have been tired, because i fell asleep before i had a chance to post this last night. the mattress for the cradle showed up day before yesterday, and since the cradle was still assembled, i checked the fit of the mattress. it fit very nicely, with a bit of space (roughly 1/4" all around) for things like sheets, blankets, etc. then i went on to gluing the foot pads to the feet, cutting the tenons on the ends of the uprights, fitting the uprights to the feet, and reattaching the uprights to the box to see how much space i had to play with for fitting the stretcher. it's going to be a tight fit, but with some adjusting of the stretcher, there will be plenty of room for the box to swing. last thing i checked last night was the over all length of the stretcher. it seemed to me to go too far from the out side of the upright, and didn't look quite right. i took pics of the end of the stretcher on the left side, first, how far it would stick out if it were even on each side, and second, how far it would stick out at a more visually agreeable length.
 

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more progress!!! today i got moving on the stretcher. thinned it out just a touch, then cut it to exact length. with that done, i measured carefully, and cut the tenons, and the mortises for the keys. with that done, i moved on to the uprights, and cut the mortises for the stretcher. then i put the whole thing back together. now all that's left to do, is to rout the decorations on the outside of the uprights. with that last item out of the way, it's on to sanding, hitting it with the boiled linseed oil, dewaxed shellac, then 3 or 4 coats of clear shellac. we had a good storm scoot through here, and after it was done, we had a rare, intense rainbow where you could see both ends, and there were at least 5 different colors.
 

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