Dovetails for a Cradle

[John-Paul Volkenant]

We have a baby on the way, and I want to build him or her a cradle. Of the antique cradles I have found, I like the ones with the splayed front, back and sides, joined with through dovetails. Can anyone point me to a solid resource for laying out those angles and dovetails...by hand, of course. I saw the Tage Frid book on Google Books, and its not my style. Surely the old timers didn't dial in to 3°.

[john brenton]

Making the one for my daughter was a little difficult and if I could have done it differently I might have bought a set of plans. You can get them for something like $5 or something.

[Brander Roullett]

We have a baby on the way, and I want to build him or her a cradle. Of the antique cradles I have found, I like the ones with the splayed front, back and sides, joined with through dovetails. Can anyone point me to a solid resource for laying out those angles and dovetails...by hand, of course. I saw the Tage Frid book on Google Books, and its not my style. Surely the old timers didn't dial in to 3°.

Roy Underhill has a book of projects that includes 2 projects that have sloped sided dovetails. One tool carrier, and one sailors sea chest. I think both use dovetails, i know the sea chest does, and it has sloped sides.

The book is "The Woodwright's Apprentice: Twenty Favorite Projects From The Woodwright's Shop" and you can find it all over the place including Amazon.

badger

[Rick Markham]

You should send Rick Erickson a PM, he made a really incredible cradle. I haven't seen him around in awhile, Hopefully he is doing well, and too busy in the shop for us ;)

[Jonathan McCullough]

I'll probably going to have a project like that soon and instead of dovetails I've been thinking of taking Jim Koepke's lead by doing some "lovetails" as detailed on a thread he started:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=135061&highlight=lovetails

I think those would perfect decorative joint for a cradle.

[Carl L Goff]

John-Paul, Go to this web site www.handcutdovetails.com (http://www.handcutdovetails.com) The dovetails that you are thinking of doing is a lot different than regular dovetails. This website has a book on how to do the dovetails that you are talking about. It is $8.00. You have to cut different angles for them to go togeather. I hope this helps. The book is only 4 pages.

[Martin Shupe]

Tage Frid may not be your style (I don't care much for book #3 either), but he explains how to cut double angled dovetails with pictures in his first book.

He even includes the miter angles and blade tilt angles to cut your wood, for several different splay angles. There is a chart, that might be very useful.

So...see if you can borrow the book via inter-library loan, and take some notes or make a copy or two for your own personal use.;)