Woodcraft baby doll cradle

[David Eppler]

Here is the doll cradle I made for my niece for Christmas. My woodworking background is mainly rough-in construction. Earlier this summer my father gave me his woodworking shop so this is my first "real" piece of furniture. I think my mother wants one now too.

My only mods from the plan:

3" longer to fit the 18" American Girl dolls
Resawn oak instead of maple
Turned my own spindles - I am a slow turner, 5 spindles per hour and I only broke one of the 25 spindles leaving me with just the 24 good ones I needed! I turned them from 5/8" dowel rods to speed things up.


Mom made the mattress and blankets (I haven't seen them yet).

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work, David. I'm sure that your niece loved that gift!

[gary Zimmel]

Great job on the cradle David.

I'm sure it you had one very happy niece on xmas day!

[David Eppler]

the biggest mod I made to those plans. Since I was shipping I needed a knock-down version. The doll version uses 1/2" wood so the knock-down fasteners were too big. I ended up using screws and keyhole router bit. My father warned me that the keyhole bit was a bit grabby and he was sure right.

Thanks for the compliments guys. When I talked to my niece she already had "Jess" sleeping in the crib and was asking her parents if she could rock her cat in the cradle too! :)