Joshua Dinerstein
10-14-2010, 5:13 PM
OK it is more like way way past time to build a baby safety gate. I have a 19 month old daughter who is the light of my life. This last week or so my wife found said daughter on the baseplate of the railing on our stairs down to the basement, which is fully finished, on the stairs side. She had just sidled her way out onto it. Far enough out onto that 1" or so deep ledge that she was effectively about 9 feet in the air. Earning her the new nickname of the "Pink Ninja". That little girl will climb anything, push on anything, and try anything that crosses her devilishly clever mind. It has been enough to give my wife and I some serious grey hair.
So I started work on a baby safety gate. Basically I bought some poplar from MacBeath's hardwood and some turned poplar balusters on the bay. Now I love turning and thought about making them myself. But the thought of making 20 or so identical, at least enough so at 2" apart, balusters before the Ninja killed herself was just not in the cards.
I have a certain amount of the initial rough milling done on this stuff. What remains is the decision on what kind of a joint to use.
1- I was going to make a plunge router jig a-la Gary Rogowski style to cut some small mortises into each of the 4 pieces, 2 rails and 2 styles, to get a loose tenon in place in each corner with a nice smooth strong joint at each point. However it almost seems silly to construct such a jig to make 4 total mortises. Couple that with the fact that the side rails and styles are 2x2 (true measurement after my cutting) it left me with a pretty stubby little tenon that was not quite round but pretty close with the 1/2 mortising bit I wanted to use.
2- The alternative that I think isn't as pretty of a joint but would work and could be done just with my table saw as is was to use a half-lap joint? Some care in cutting the half-laps and it should be strong enough even when 27 pounds of frustrated ninja throws her weight against it.
But it left me thinking, I don't want to do just what is fastest, I really do want to do what is "best". Since I am almost exclusively a wood turner and this is really the first thing I will make with joints of any kind I wanted to see what you guys thought before I started the unrecoverable parts of this project. :)
Thanks!
Joshua
So I started work on a baby safety gate. Basically I bought some poplar from MacBeath's hardwood and some turned poplar balusters on the bay. Now I love turning and thought about making them myself. But the thought of making 20 or so identical, at least enough so at 2" apart, balusters before the Ninja killed herself was just not in the cards.
I have a certain amount of the initial rough milling done on this stuff. What remains is the decision on what kind of a joint to use.
1- I was going to make a plunge router jig a-la Gary Rogowski style to cut some small mortises into each of the 4 pieces, 2 rails and 2 styles, to get a loose tenon in place in each corner with a nice smooth strong joint at each point. However it almost seems silly to construct such a jig to make 4 total mortises. Couple that with the fact that the side rails and styles are 2x2 (true measurement after my cutting) it left me with a pretty stubby little tenon that was not quite round but pretty close with the 1/2 mortising bit I wanted to use.
2- The alternative that I think isn't as pretty of a joint but would work and could be done just with my table saw as is was to use a half-lap joint? Some care in cutting the half-laps and it should be strong enough even when 27 pounds of frustrated ninja throws her weight against it.
But it left me thinking, I don't want to do just what is fastest, I really do want to do what is "best". Since I am almost exclusively a wood turner and this is really the first thing I will make with joints of any kind I wanted to see what you guys thought before I started the unrecoverable parts of this project. :)
Thanks!
Joshua