Cradle

[Joseph T]

Good morning fellow woodworkers.
I am just starting a project to build a baby cradle for my daughters coming arrival. I bought plans and a spindle kit from Woodsmith. I was wondering if others on this forum have built this cradle and have any suggestions, improvements, ideas, or just words-of-encouragement for me. I have never built anything with frame and panel construction before. I am using quarter sawn white oak just because I have this from a project that never came to fruition several years ago.
I would appreciate any and all comments.
Joe in Modesto

[Brian Lamb]

I've made several cradles, just did them off the seat of my pants, no plans other than figuring out what size the mattress was. The one with spindles was for my first grand nephew, he's 11 now I think, and this cradle has done about 4 or 5 other children in the family since. the other one was for a relative of my daughter-in-law at the time, now and ex-DIL, so I don't know what ever happened to that one.

347059

347060

[Joseph T]

Nice work. I like the bent wood style, but I'm not ready to try that yet.
Joe in Modesto

[Brian Lamb]

It was a lot of work and I used every clamp I own when bending them around forms and doing the glue ups. But, it's still my favorite and has withstood the test of time and many babies....

[Bruce Page]

I made the Woodsmith cradle for my daughters first born. Since then it has had 3 other of our grandkids through it. It's been 13 years but I don't remember any problems with the plans. I'll be happy to answer any questions that I can. It was a fun project to build although I waited until the last minute to get started.:rolleyes:

Here's a link to my post on it from 2003. I used birds eye maple, maple, and cherry.
I made some of the hardware out of solid brass.

Granddaughter Gloat & Cradle Pic’s (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?2801-Granddaughter-Gloat-amp-Cradle-Pic%E2%80%99s)

[John Neel]

It was my first project that I made for my first grandchild. It required the purchase of tablesaw, bandsaw, chisels, shoulder plane, and many other items. It came out very well for someone who hadn't done much woodworking since 8th grade shop class. If you are seriously considering further woodworking after making the cradle, buy the best tools you can afford. That will keep you from upgrading to a better tablesaw, bandsaw, chisels, and other tools later on. Upgrading is satisfying, but painful in the wallet.

I found the plans and directions thorough and easy to follow. I knew to measure twice so that I might cut once. I also learned to review layout lines and to pay attention to which side of the saw blade the piece I wanted was on so that I didn't cut it 1/8" too short. I checked off several of the obvious mistakes beginners make. Unfortunately I have had to repeat a few of those before learning.