Ryan's Crib Part I

[David Duke]

This is the first of what I hope to be about three threads I start chronicling my progress as I build our soon to be first grandchild’s baby bed (its a boy and yes his name will be Ryan :D :D ). Since I have never tried to follow a project from start to finish I’m not really sure about how to best do this; in one thread or multiple weekly (hopefully) threads, I decided on doing the multiple threads thinking it might be easier to follow and everyone interested wouldn’t have to look through the old posts.

The crib is being made based on a design purchased from American Furniture Design, the drawing is in full scale and fairly straight forward however the construction/assembly instructions that came with the plan leaves a LOT to be desired and if you don’t have an idea of what is trying to be explained you will do a lot of head scratching. I work with drawings everyday so it wasn’t that much of a concern for me but I do think they could do a better job in explaining themselves. I am building this out of soft maple with walnut accents throughout, if anyone has any comments or suggestions concerning the design or my processes please feel free to share.

The following four pages include photos of my progress and description of what was going on, if I have included too much detail I apologize. The work shown on the following pages was done over the past two weeks and represent appx. 35 hours.

Thanks for looking,

[David Duke]

Photo Page #1

This is a sample shot of what the finished crib should look like.
One of the rail templates and the half pattern I made from the full size plan using tracing paper that I then glued to ¼” hardboard cut out on the BS and final shaped, from this I copied to ¾” MDF rough cut on the BS then after sticking the pattern to the MDF using double sided tape I used a pattern bit to finished the initial template then added 2 more layers (for the top rail, only one for the bottom rail)using the pattern bit to make each identical.
Finished bending jig for the bottom rail; when I first looked at the plans I mistakenly assumed that the top and bottom rails could be bent in the same jig which for most everyone besides me is obviously wrong since they are on different radius, you must make two bending jigs. All jigs sections had two coats of polyurethane applied plus a heavy coat of paste wax to prevent the glue-up from sticking, I then put a 1/8” layer of cork on each edge of the jig then protected with clear packing tape to help correct for any difference in the patterns.
Re-sawing stock for rails to a thickness of about .150”; I have a 14” Delta BS that was bought new in the mid 1980’s and already on this project I probably have used it more than it ever has been used in the past. I am using an Olson All-Pro blade ½” 3TPI blade, as you can tell I also have the Kreg fence with the re-saw guide both of which I highly recommend.

[David Duke]

As you can tell I messed up on the sample version posting so lets try it again here
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=26048&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1132010022

Photo Page #2

Sanding of rail material on my 26” Woodmaster Sander, I ran each piece through twice on each side using 120 grit paper which brought final thickness of .125” - .135”.
I hope you can see the difference in the non/sanded vs. sanded stock.
This is my first experience using Unibond 800 glue, I was a little leery about using it because I have never liked having to mix things (reason I’m NOT a cook) but I have been pleasantly surprised with the ease of mixing (used a 4/1 ratio in a controlled 75* environment). My only concern is trying to figure out how much I need to mix, on the first rail I mixed three cups and two would have been plenty but the second I wasn’t quite as wasteful, and yes I know that I’m awful messy with the glue but hey what can I say!!!
Stock in jig ready to bend.

[David Duke]

Photo Page #3

Stock in jig after bending; since this was my first attempt ever at bent lamination I was a little concerned but Ihad no problem at all in bringing the stock to shape.
Rail after being released from bending jig; the rail popped right out, I had no problem with it wanting to stick.
!!!!!!!!!!
Shot of the rails after I trimmed the edges on the BS then rough sanded the top/bottom.

[David Duke]

Photo Page#4

I was extremely happy with the laminations they are consistently as good as this all the way.
Slats for the front back and sides; the back slats have a longer rounded section to go through both rails. I had re-sawed the stock from 6/4 material to a thickness of .530 then sanded on the drum sander to .500 +- .005”.
Patter routing after BS to rough shape.
Various stages of slat progress, the one on the right is shown after profiling the edges using a ¼” round over (all router bits are not created the equal!!!) after they have been profiled it took very little sanding to get a good fit in a ½” hole.