crib design question

[matt rucinski]

Hi Guys,

i've been reading this forum for quite a while and this is my first post.

i'm making a crib for my daughter. it's a very simple design,very square looking and no curved pieces, and no changes in spacing.

for the sides i am cutting a groove in the top and bottom rails that will receive the slats and filling in the spaces in the grooves with spacing blocks. the slats will be flush with the upper and lower rails.

i am on the fence about routing the edges of the slats and rails with a small rond over bit and heres where my actual question comes in...since the slats will be flush with the rails, i can't just route the whole rail where the slats meet. i guess i could route the rail spaces by hand; however, i really prefer to use the router table. is there a better way to do this? or maybe not route anything, assemble the sides and just barely knock down the edges with sand paper? i'm concerned that that may look somewhat unfinished. any advise would be greatly appreciated

[Dave Richards]

You could run the roundover bit around in the spaces between slats and rails after assembly. I think the piece would look nicer though if the rails are a bit thicker than the slats but that's your design choice, not mine.

[matt rucinski]

thanks for the advise... i have the slats at 1 inch wide and the top rail 2.5 wide (i'm going to cap it on the top with a lip that hangs out of the crib and a 3.5 bottom rail

[Dave Richards]

If you choose to round over the edges after assembly, you might want to do a test piece to see how things look at the corners. The inside corner will be square but there'll be a radius around the outer limit of the of the round over. It'll look something like this:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5470/6925037936_548f203416.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8294157@N08/6925037936/)

My opinion (and it is only that) is that looks like the round over is an afterthought.

[matt rucinski]

wow dave... thank you so much for the visual... that 100% makes me not want to round it over. do you think it would look unfinished just keeping it square or maybe just round the slats?... i can't tell you how much that pic helped me!

[Dave Richards]

Happy to help. Visuals make it much easier to understand. So, here's the next one. In the foreground the slats only are rounded. I drew the pieces at 3/4" thick with 1"-wide slats. Consider that if you even break the edges of the rail with sandpaper, you lose the continuity of the surfaces between the slats and the rail.

In the background I show the rail being made slightly thicker than the slats. I think this looks a lot nicer and allows you to ease the edges on the rails without hurting the rail to slat intersection.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5443/7071202423_9f6cd7c19b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8294157@N08/7071202423/)

[matt rucinski]

i agree with you 100%... i wanted it to look kind of bulky or maybe substantial would be a better word, but after seeing you pics i'm gonna go with your suggestion. lol... this forum makes the "jack of all trades but a master of none" phrase feel like it applies to me more and more

[Dave Richards]

LOL.

You can still get that sort of chunky look by making the slats narrow as you you indicated. Generous roundovers will help as well. Keep the slat spacing a little tight, also.

[matt rucinski]

i was pretty nervious to tackle this project because it's my first furniture project and it's for my first born... so i read the requirements for commercially made cribs and figured i'd just stay away from the minimum standards... they said it's ok to have up to a 2.5 in spacing for slats so i am going 2 inches. they said the top of the mattress has to be 26 inches below the lowest rail so i'm going 28... i'm excited about doing it but i'm trying to take my time to make sure it's safe. someone tried to tell me it wouldn't be as safe as a store bought crib but to me that has to be BS... i looked at the ones at some baby store and they felt cheap and flimsy

[Dave Richards]

Congratulations! Don't take your time too much. Nine months go pretty fast. ;)