Andy Fox
02-11-2007, 2:50 PM
Back in September, I finished the cherry cradle that I worked on occassionally for about 5 months. I asked several questions on this forum about this project, and got many helpful answers. I've been woodworking for about 5 years, but this was my first real furniture project. I mainly followed the plan I purchased, but made a few minor modifications and structural enhancements.
I spent a lot of time on stock selection from rough stock for each part. The angled frame and panels and the mortise and tenon rails were the most time-consuming. I used a benchtop mortiser for the rails and the legs. I cut about 5 of the rail mortises by hand just to prove to myself that I could do it. :) The mortiser was a little rougher than I would've liked, but could be do to my inexperience at setting up this machine. I cut the feet mortises and their bracket tenons on the router table, and that was much more smooth and precise. Except for the rails, all M&T joints were glued with epoxy.
The rails and stretcher use wood and lag screws with cross-dowel reinforcement for easy disassembly and storage. The stretcher attaches to the legs with unglued M&T joints and lag screws. Screw holes are unplugged because the unglued plugs would be a choking hazard.
The finish is a quick and simple BLO and two coats of Zinsser dewaxed shellac (2# cut).
After finishing, when carrying the assembled bed of the cradle into the house alone (mistake #1), I tried to support most of it at the top of one of the end panels (mistake #2), and split open the top two M&T joints of the panel. :eek: :mad: It just wasn't designed to bear this type of stress at this point, especially the easy-splitting cherry wood. I was able to sand down the epoxy in the joints, fix the splits with yellow glue, and then reglue the joints with epoxy. And the traditional BLO and shellac finish was easily repaired. I can't even tell the joint ever broke by looking at it!
I spent a lot of time on stock selection from rough stock for each part. The angled frame and panels and the mortise and tenon rails were the most time-consuming. I used a benchtop mortiser for the rails and the legs. I cut about 5 of the rail mortises by hand just to prove to myself that I could do it. :) The mortiser was a little rougher than I would've liked, but could be do to my inexperience at setting up this machine. I cut the feet mortises and their bracket tenons on the router table, and that was much more smooth and precise. Except for the rails, all M&T joints were glued with epoxy.
The rails and stretcher use wood and lag screws with cross-dowel reinforcement for easy disassembly and storage. The stretcher attaches to the legs with unglued M&T joints and lag screws. Screw holes are unplugged because the unglued plugs would be a choking hazard.
The finish is a quick and simple BLO and two coats of Zinsser dewaxed shellac (2# cut).
After finishing, when carrying the assembled bed of the cradle into the house alone (mistake #1), I tried to support most of it at the top of one of the end panels (mistake #2), and split open the top two M&T joints of the panel. :eek: :mad: It just wasn't designed to bear this type of stress at this point, especially the easy-splitting cherry wood. I was able to sand down the epoxy in the joints, fix the splits with yellow glue, and then reglue the joints with epoxy. And the traditional BLO and shellac finish was easily repaired. I can't even tell the joint ever broke by looking at it!