Need advice on baby cribs with drop gates

[Matt Campbell]

I did a search on baby cribs, and I found some posts mentioning that drop gates on baby cribs can be unsafe. How so? If you have/had a crib with a drop gate, did you have any problems? I'll be building a crib soon so I'd like to figure this out. Thanks.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Hello Mat
I built two baby cribs last year, using Woodsmith plans from issue #242 and their hardware kit. Which uses a double lock system on each gate. Have had no reports of any trouble with gates coming unlocked on these two cribs. Hope this helps.

[Rob Bodenschatz]

Put three kids through one of those. No problems.

EDIT: That sounds great. Hope you know what I mean.

[Dan Hahr]

I used the all metal kit from Rockler. It works fine and will last for years to come.

However, if you use a skirt around the mattress that hangs down over the metal frame, it can get caught in the locking mechanism. The gate will stay up, but the lock won't engage fully, and when you or the child pushes down on it, it slides down.

I just cut two slits in the skirt and pulled it out of the way. When raising the gate, I would ensure the lock engaged and lift up and down hard on it to make sure it was locked. Sounds like like a pain, but you never even think about it, it just becomes natural.

Besides, the baby is going to figure out how to get out over the gate anyway, better he learns how to take a fall early.:)
Dan

[Chris Fairbanks]

Products America has some nice looking high quality kits including a stealth kit so that no hardware will be seen. I have not built one yet but look forward to in the near future. Check out http://www.productsamerica.com/cribpartsindex.html