call me crazy baby crib

[Craig Hunt]

Call me crazy but I have never cut a mortise and tenon joint and now for my
next project I want to go make 152 plus of them. I have 5 months to get it done but
am I going overboard here with the slats? The crib legs and rails will be made out
of walnut with through m&t joints on the long ends. The short ends I want to
be able to knock down so i can convert into a bed down the road. The maple slats are only an inch wide by a half inch thick.

My thought is to gang up the rails cut the mortises with a plunge router and a shop
made base plate that will register and slide against the ganged up rails.
The slat tenons I can cut on my woodrat that i got for 25 bucks. I don't have a lot
of big heavy equipment like a planer or jointer or even a miter saw. I have a contractor ts for the rip cuts and a track saw with mft for crosscuts. I also have a router table, drill press, jig saw for the curves, LA block plane and old stanley no.s 5 and 4.

The design is my own, I showed it to my wife and she loves it so now
I'm commited to it unless you guys say I'm crazy for even thinking of building this.
What do you all think is it feasable to build this for our baby on the way?
Thanks

[Andrew Kertesz]

One thing you could do instead of trying to cut all the mortises is to route/cut a dado the width of the slats and use spacers instead of mortises.

[Phil Thien]

I don't own one, but if I had to make mortises for all those slats I'd get a mortising machine.

[Bruce Page]

One thing you could do instead of trying to cut all the mortises is to route/cut a dado the width of the slats and use spacers instead of mortises.

+1. It also makes assembly much easier.

[gary Zimmel]

Looks like a nice design and the contrasting woods will make for a sweet finished piece Craig.
A mortiser sure would make the job easier if you want to achieve a traditional look. The cradles I have build end up having not near as many M&T joints you are talking but in these projects I prefer the traditional look.
Getting everything to fit just so may be a little bit of a pain but the finished product looks great.

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On a lot of the other pieces I have done I have used a dado and fillers.
The fillers are hand fitted to give me a crisp fit.

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To me with the number of slats you are talking I would go with the filler route. But thats just me.
When that project is all done she will be a beauty...
Which ever way you go keep us up to date.


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[Jamie Oren]

I just finished the crib for our first son. The shop I rent time in has a domino machine so I used that and let me tell you it could not have been simpler. Yes they are expensive but has many good uses. Just my 2 cents

[shane lyall]

I have a mortising machine but that many slats would get a dado and filler.

[Jay Runde]

I saw an episode of WoodSmith shop where they did a table with a bunch of spindles. They ended up cutting a dado in the center and putting in a filler piece that looked like dental molding for the mortises.

[Craig Hunt]

Thanks everyone for the responses.
I like this idea of cutting a groove and filling in the gaps with spacers. I won't have to buy any additional tools if I go that route. Besides, I don't think I can convince the wife that i need a mortiser or a Domino.
Gary, both projects you show look great. I understand why a traditional look would have less slats. Less slats equals less work.
Could you, or anyone, tell me a little bit of the process involved and how you assembled the pieces with the filler strips. Are they individual blocks or a continuous strip? I'm curious about the construction process. I really like the way you gave those infill pieces a rounded edge so that it pops out of the groove.
Jay, I saw that same episode. I thought it was pretty clever, Is this what you all are talking about?

[Thomas Hotchkin]

I have now made 3 cribs. The mortises were a breeze using the domino. Took less than an hour to cut more than 90. If you have any opportunity to borrow one, it would be well worth your time. I was fortunate enough to receive mine as a gift from my kids....they all wanted cribs! grin Good luck and have fun. Tom

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