Crib Design

[Todd Hoppe]

Hi All,

I'm planning on making the following crib, which is based upon a design my wife and I saw in a store.

What do you think?

How should I go about cutting the mortises in the curved side rails?!? I have a Steel City benchtop mortiser, but am unsure about how to do this.

Thanks,
Todd

[Greg Cuetara]

Todd,
Can you make a .jpg or a picture from your sketchup file. I can't get the latest version loaded on my computer to view the file.
Greg

[Jamie Buxton]

Todd, this audience has lots of woodworking knowledge, but only a little computer knowledge. Post a few well-chosen jpegs, and everybody can offer advice. But when you upload a zipped SU file, you're reducing your audience only to those who can download and upzip a zipped file, know Sketchup, and have as new as the version you use. That's not a lot of us.

In Sketchup you can make jpegs by pulling down the File menu to Export, and choose 2D. You might find you want to use a photo editor to crop the result or change its resolution.

[Greg Cuetara]

Todd,
I finally got a viewer to work. How are doing your slats? Are they uniform thickness the whole way down? Is there a detail at the top and bottom? Not sure why you can't make a jig for your mortiser to hold the sloping piece at the correct angle...then you would cut the mortise. Each hole you cut would have to be successfully deeper so that the mortise matches the sloping of the member. When you cut the top of the slat you could just cut it at an angle to match the member slope. Another option would be dowels or domino's....personally i would just cut a mortise with a jig to hold the member in the correct position. If you are making this yourself make sure you meet the max 2 3/8" between slats and also there are requirements for the distance between the mattress and the side of the crib. One option for you would be to buy the box frame kit from rockler. It provides the piece which goes under the mattress and a few other pieces of hardware. I have made two of the rockler cribs each with their own style.
Greg

[Lee Schierer]

I can't open your SU file since it was made on a newer version than I have on my computer here at work, but I will suggest you review your design against a crib safety checklist such as this. Crib Safety

[Mike Golka]

Todd if you start with a shape like in the attached pic it will make drilling the mortises much easier. I made a caddle for my grandaughter a few years ago that had spindles placed into curved rails and this approach work very well for me. Once you have made all your mortises using the squared edges, don't forget to allow extra depth, you can then finish cutting the rail with a bandsaw or jigsaw. I used a 1/4" MDF template and a flush trim router bit to finish the rails on the one I did. Hope this helps.

[Todd Hoppe]

Mike,

THANKS! I just saw this, and appreciate the comments.

Todd