Woodworking!

WELCOME!

I just got into woodworking after making a doghouse for Jak, and basically got instantly hooked. It's a very rewarding and productive hobby, and while the initial investment can be high I'm sure my work will pay off in the long run. After gaining confidence in my new trade building a deacon's bench, picnic table, and doghouse, I decided that I would make a cradle for Houston (due in February). I order the plans, full size patterns, and the spindles from www.woodcraftplans.com. I like this design because the feet are flat, yet it still rocks because it will hang from the two end stiles. Also, it can be pinned at the bottom to keep it from rocking.

I purchased SAS Red Oak from Lowe's and went through every single board they had and picked the boards with the most beautiful grain figure. The board at the bottom is especially striking, so I am going to use it for the end stile that will be facing the entrance to the nursery. As of today, I am about half way done. For finishing, I plan to sand it down just as nice as I can, and use multiple polyurethane coats to bring out the natural beauty of the Red Oak.

After cutting all the boards to length, I began by making the end panel frames for the raised panels. The curved top and bottom pieces have 1" tenons that fit into mortises on the side stiles. A 1/4" slot was cut around the entire inside edge for the raised panel. It took a lot of sanding and touching up to get it to line up just right.

Next I made the raised panels. I started out by edge glueing four 1"x6"x15" cuts to make each blank. I traced out the panel onto the blanks using the bottom curve of the frame's pattern as a guide for the curve of the panel top. Next, I cut them out with my Jig Saw and sanded it down so it looks like one solid piece of wood. The next step was difficult. I had to make it into a raised panel that would fit into the slot of the frame. To do this, I could have bought a $100 bit for my router, but decided just to use the table saw beveled to 7º and fitted with a special jig. When I cut the curved top of the panel out of the blank, I kept the waste side and used it to make a special jig for my table saw. I mounted it to a scrap piece of plywood and attached it to my table saw fence as shown here. The idea was to use the curve as a runner for the panel so it goes through the blade as if on a pendulum. I tested this out on a number of scraps before I risked ruining the oak. It worked perfectly.

Next, I just flipped the plywood over and camfered the 3 straight sides by feeding the panel straight through the blade. I was very impressed with the results.

Here's what the raised panel looks like inside the frame. I will round the edges with a 1/2" roundover bit in my router, then cut the 3 holes to mount it to the sides and 1 in the top to allow it to rock from the end stiles. Finally, I will trim off the "ears" so the bottom is flat.

Now I'm off to go drill 44 holes for the spindles in the side frames below. Notice the glue up on the floor next to me (on a flat piece of plywood). That's the bottom where the mattress goes. All the wood in this project is one inch thick except the bottom. To make it, I glued five 1/2" x 3" pieces together and will cut to length later.

I also wanted to show off the zero clearance table saw insert I made out of a scrap piece of Red Oak. Dad and I were ripping a very thin piece to width on the table saw. When it was almost through the cut and the bottom reached the blade, the wood fell down into the space between the blade and table top. WHAM! I read online somewhere that many Table Saw accidents happen this way. I knew this would happen again when making the raised panels, so I had to stop and make this. There were many notches, grooves, slopes, etc around the blade opening, so it was quite an accomplishment when I finally got it to fit flush with the top. It looks like a topographical map on the underside. The blade can be beveled to 10º with the way it is now. I only needed 7º for the panel camfers.