New Home For Precious Cargo.

[gary Zimmel]

Good Day To The Creek!

With my Neander Haven project behind me its time for another cradle as our second grandchild will be here soon and she will need a home for the first few months.
I made a cradle a little over a year ago and thought that it would go from daughter in law 1 to daughter in law 2.
When gently asked we were told the tiger maple cradle made for our first grandson was not going to British Columbia.
Here are a couple of pic of the first one.
Tiger maple with birds eye flat panels. Finished with tung oil and wax.

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After talking with daughter in law two I found out that she would prefer a darker cradle.
Not a problem! Went to my lumber guy and picked up a bunch of 4/4, 8/4, and 10/4 walnut and went to work.
After planing down some of it I had to call upon Mr. Keeton for his advice on walnut as he seems to be our resident expert on it...
Having never really worked with it it was hard for me to figure out how much of the "light wood" should get into the project.

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Thanks John for helping me through the first phase.
After careful picking and one more trip to my lumber guy I was ready for the two side and ends.
Sides are straight forward mortise and tenon joints. Both spindles and rails are 3/4" so every thing will end up flush with each other.
My machines can get every thing very close but to get that sweet fit all the tenons were hand fit. 15 spindles on each side. So a ton of M/T to do...
Having so many parts all have been labeled with tape so they will go into there proper holes.

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With this phase done it is machining the parts for the two sides and getting the panels glued up.

Thanks for taking a quick look.


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[Larry Frank]

I really like the light colored one and am certain that the walnut one will be just as nice.

[John Thompson]

Beautifully done, Gary. I really like the simplicity of design and I have to do one soon. Question.. how wide is the foot base.. and how wide is the upright leg? I'm guessing 1 1/2" on the foot and about 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" on the leg... how close did I come?

[gary Zimmel]

Sarge

The legs are 2 1/4" X 2 1/4" and the feet 1 1/2". Good call...
Leg length is 35 1/4" and the feet 10" with a 3/4" tenon.

[gary Zimmel]

The panel I had little trouble with.
Not that they were a bad glue up but I didn't like the way they looked joined.

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It was off to the lumber guy again and I found a great piece of walnut.
About 14 inches wide....
This is what was left after the two panels were made.
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Great piece for my panels. Ripped it in half, did a bit of machining and joined them back up. Panels are 3/8" thick.
They look great in the ends.

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The ends are cut at a 5 degree angle which is not the end of the world.
It's getting the tenons done so the shoulders fit snug against the stiles.
As the top is rounded one would have to reset the miter gauge to 5 degrees a second time
and getting both exact was very tough on the first one.
A bunch of fiddling with a shoulder plane to get everything to fit just so.
This time I opted to do loose tenons.
Did grooves on all four pieces and popped a loose tenon in.
Much quicker and a ton easier this time.

And the ends and sides are ready to be joined...
On the ends you may be able to see the loose tenons run a bit proud.
The will be brought flush with a chisel.

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[Jim Barrett]

Gary,
Looks like you are on your way to another classic project! Nice job!

Jim

[gary Zimmel]

I did a test fit with the sides and ends and didn't like the way everything looked.
The first cradle was built around the mattress. and was about 32 1/2" long.
Plans called for 36" and with one spindle gone the length will be a bit over 34".
So now the sides and ends meet.
2 1/2" screws hold everything together and will be hidden by buttons.

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End plants are installed on the top parts of the end to span across the joint.
The cradle is sitting on the 10/4 which will end up being the legs and feet.

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Here is a shot of the loose tenon.
That's not glue just a little spit to make it show up better...
I added a extra screw on the ends. It's not that I am not confident in the joinery with the loose tenon
but this will be the home for a few months for a very special person and it will be bomb proof...


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[John Keeton]

Gary, glad you decided to share this with the creek! I felt like I was keeping some deep military secret knowing this was in progress

The one thing you have failed to do is this - grandbaby production has a way of kicking in full steam. Perhaps doing these in pairs, threes, fours... might be wise

Great job, and another chance to show off the neander corner in the background!! Which, BTW, is aging nicely!

[John Thompson]

Thanks for the dimention confirmation and the added leg height. I would have guessed 37" on that which would probably be fine. I used to have a good eye out to around 1000 meters once upon a time when I weilded a sniper rifle but... age changes eye-sight and I would fall more into the 5 meter range at this point.

Happy 4th to you and yours....

[Bob Abbott]

Hi Gary,
Very nice cradles. I love the curl. One question: Did you make a way to lock the cradle so it doesn't rock to the side when the little one moves to the side? A plan I followed from a magazine on a couple cradles used a sliding peg which would come loose sometimes. On subsequent cradles I made a spring loaded peg that was much more effective. Again, great work!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Gary - very nice work on the curly maple/birdseye cradle! I can understand why the family did not wish to part with it!

The walnut cradle is going to be just as beautiful! Nice work! Looking forward to seeing it finished!

[gary Zimmel]

Bob
The cradles have locking pegs from both ends.
As nothing is perfect they seem to work a bit against each other and stay in place.
Great idea with a spring loaded one though..

[Angie Orfanedes]

Those are heirloom pieces. They will still be appreciated 100+ years from now. Good work.

[gary Zimmel]

There was a bunch of pieces that I did not want to use in the
main body of the cradle. Being new at this walnut stuff I ended
up with a few boards that were not to my liking.
The bottom was the best place to hide these pieces and cut down
the amount of waste that I would have.
Bottom is 1/2" thick.
Making sure for wood movement it is 3/16" short end to end
and 1/16" from side to side.
The sides are cut on a 5 degree angle to give it a clean look.
(Even though it is under the mattress)

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Kind of looks funky...
Now its time to work on the legs and feet.



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[gary Zimmel]

Double shift in my shop this Saturday.
A ton of work done on the legs and feet.
Funny how my wife didn't say anything.
I think see wants to see the cradle finished...

The 10/4 stock go machined done to 2 1/4" and the legs were started.
The second piece went threw the bandsaw and was cut down to just over 1 5/8'.
Never now when I will need another thin piece.
And too frugal to put all that stock into the dust collector.
Final thickness of the feet are 1 1/2".

And now I had something to work with.

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Holes were now drilled in the legs to accept the pegs and bolts.
And all the mortices done where needed.

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A quick trip to the bandsaw and the feet had the curves put in.
Spindle sander made easy work of cleaning up the bandsaw machine marks.

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With the legs and feet done I now can do the tenons on the blocks above the feet.
After that the curves will be done on the small blocks.

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