It was a longer process than I had anticipated, but I recently finished the Rockler Heirloom crib....and just in time for the birth of our daughter on 8/8/08. All in all I'm very happy with the way this turned out. I deviated from the plan slightly and secured the slats with mortise and tenon joints rather than the grove and spacers called for. It was more work to build and assemble, but I think it looks a bit nicer.
It's made from cherry with African mahogany accents, finished with General Finishes Seal-a-Cell and Arm-r-Seal. I sourced the rough lumber from a couple places and dimensioned it myself. This project was a list of 'firsts' for me:
1. First real piece of furniture.
2. First use of mortise and tenon joints (all 104 of them).
3. First use of African Mahogany. I really like the look of it and already have a few projects in mind for the future. It's open grain is slightly different to cut, route, sand and finish compared to the other domestics I've used.
4. First use of Seal-a-Cell and Arm-R-Seal. I wiped it on with a cut-up t-shirt and buffed in between coats with 0000 steal wool. I really liked this stuff as it was easy to wipe on a smooth finish and buff the final semi-gloss to coat to more of a satin sheen.
5. First time pre-finishing before assembly. I really couldn't imagine doing this particular project any other way unless you are going to spray. I strung up some thin rope in my basement and attached each slat with a binder clip, worked like a charm. The legs and cross pieces I drove a finish nail in either end and held them up between some jointed 2x6's (made it easy to rotate them and finish all sides at once). The pre-finishing also made glue-up easy, just wiped off the squeeze out with a damp rag without worries of it 'staining' the wood.
As with all projects, there are a couple of flaws that probably only I'll know, but they scream at me every time I look at it. I wasn't at all happy with the wood selection for the top caps on the ends (some sap wood that I didn't notice until applying the finish) and, so I only attached them with double stick tape until I can re-do them with nicer pieces. Now that the crib is filled, I have a baby to scream back at me
I didn't take may photos of the process, but here are a couple of shots of the finished product.
Next project is a side table to sit next to the glider.
Michael
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