Gixxerjoe04 Posted July 29, 2016 Report Share Posted July 29, 2016 So, now that my shop is finally operational, and my baby is due in 7 weeks, figured I better get going on building the crib I've planned on doing the past 7 months haha. This is will be the biggest thing I've built so far woodworking and most challenging since I'm not using step by step plans like I've done in the past on some projects. I drew up some plans on some graph paper since I suck at sketch up, hoping they'll suffice. Already made some changes to my original ones, one being the height, and possibly the way I configure the slats. The wood I'm using is cherry for the legs and frame of it and curly maple for the slats. Of course getting a ton of consistent curly maple is hard and not cheap, so using the boards I have so at least the slats will be the same color, some just might not have much curl as others, baby shouldn't care. Hell the biggest pain in the butt I've learned from woodworking is finding long boards that are somewhat flat. Anyways, got everything cut to length plus some extra, jointed and planned, now letting it sit for a few days to hopefully not move any before I take everything down to final dimension. Will probably use salad bowl finish and the domino for all the joinery. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. Plan on drawing it out on some mdf before I start cutting everything up to final dimensions and all that, make sure it looks right and to make some changes as well. ran out of stickers, didn't square off the one rough edge, not sure if that's important to do or not, but all the pieces are extra wide and are going to be cut down. Filled up my dust collector, decided to burn it instead of filling up the trash can. My dog is a pyro and was super excited about the fire. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trialbyfire Posted July 29, 2016 Report Share Posted July 29, 2016 My tip would be to make the crib able to "grow" with your child's needs. Google "3 in 1 crib" and you will see what I mean. I bought the plans for one featured in Wood Magazine I think it was. If you go with that please let me know what you're planning on doing with the 'extra' pieces that aren't being used... I haven't quite figured that out yet. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted July 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 Planned on making it to where I can break it down like Cremona did on his, or something along those lines where I could probably convert it down the road. If I were to have extra parts that needed to be stored, I've got plenty of closet space. Of course no place around me sells thin mdf, just some hardboard, need to go get a piece tomorrow and start drawing and see how it looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted July 30, 2016 Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 2 minutes ago, Gixxerjoe04 said: Planned on making it to where I can break it down like Cremona did on his, or something along those lines where I could probably convert it down the road. If I were to have extra parts that needed to be stored, I've got plenty of closet space. Of course no place around me sells thin mdf, just some hardboard, need to go get a piece tomorrow and start drawing and see how it looks. I totally agree with the above. Plan now to make it a convertible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted July 30, 2016 Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 I had read on the wood database or a similar site that cherry, and other woods from that genus, can contact small amounts of chemicals that are potentially poisonous, so they should be avoided for children's toys and stuff like that, since they are chewed on at a certain age. Does anyone know of that is a red herring or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted July 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 Assume you had some auto corrects, but I looked up using cherry and didn't see anything negative about it, have seen a bunch of cribs made from it so hopefully it's fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted July 31, 2016 Report Share Posted July 31, 2016 http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-allergies-and-toxicity/ only slight reactions , wheezing/giddiness /lungs so I am guessing from the dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted July 31, 2016 Report Share Posted July 31, 2016 Here is one of the articles I recall reading on the topic http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/more-about-cherry.aspx Interesting read regardless 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Interesting, but going to stick with my original plan. Trying to decide if I should round over the edges on everything so it's not "sharp", or just break them with a sanding block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Imagine falling against the corner with your forehead. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Imagine falling against the corner with your forehead. Then imagine that head still has a mushy spot on top. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Everyone is different and has different allergies/sensitivities to different things. I'm sure there are people out there who are allergic to cherry. But the vast majority of people are not. I wouldn't worry too much about it, personally. I didn't build a crib for either of my kids but I wouldn't hesitate to use any species, regardless of its reputation for allergies. If you find down the road that your kid is allergic...bummer...get him something else to sleep in and pass the crib to a family member. I try to avoid living my life around what-ifs as much as possible. Yeah, I'd probably ease those edges fairly well. I hate heavy, router-made roundovers, but you can use a 1/8" roundover bit and soften things up pretty good without making it ugly. Babies are clumsy...you know he/she will take a nosedive at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 I figure the inside leg corner could be rounded over a decent amount and wouldn't have to worry about it messing with the looks, but yea I'll probably run a 1/8" round over on everything and maybe a bigger one on the inside part. I'll make my wife eat some cherry saw dust to make sure he's immune to it haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2016 Got a good amount of time to work on the crib today. Would have got more done but ran into some problems and ran out of steam. Was checking my sled to crosscut everything, the runners had swelled so I sanded them down and got them good. Then noticed how the whole damn sled had warped, so had to make a new one. Have made quite a few sleds before and never had a problem, well of course until today. Had to adjust the back fence after the first 5 cut method, kept screwing something up. After cussing and multiple redo's finally got it good enough I believe. Anyways, got everything down to final thickness, cut to width and the slats cut to length. Hoping my sled and stop block worked well enough to get all of the slats the same length. With my luck, they all won't be perfect and will end up having some gaps where they meet the rails which will drive me insane. Plan on using 6x40 dominos for the slats and for the rails I haven't decided. They have to be 8mm, was going to 8x50's, 2 on each end. Got to thinking on how I'm going to break the bed down and thought about doing how Cremona did his with brass pegs. Afraid if I did it that way, using 8x50's might not be strong enough if i did peg it, since 25mm in each end isn't much room for error or space on either end. Could make wider and deeper 8mm dominos which probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Any thoughts or suggestions? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted August 3, 2016 Report Share Posted August 3, 2016 Whenever I make my own domino stock I make strips a little over 8 mm thick, drum sand until I get a snug fit then rip widths to fit all three width settings . From there it's over to the router table to round over the corners. I just eyeball & use whatever bit is close. Always make plenty of strips, it's easy to run a few extra. Then you can cut whatever lengths you need. Glad you are set up enough to work in your new place ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 So, after some domino troubles, sent if off last thursday and got it back today, pretty good turn around. So i got to work once it arrived today. I got all the slats dominoed and side panels dominoed and did a dry fit, everything went together fine. Then I turned to the longer rails. I decided to use the little side wings to duplicate the spaces, well so I thought. I marked 3 inches in from each side, did my initial cuts and had the wings(can't remember their actual name). Everything seemed to go fine on the first one, then did the opposite rail and got near the end and noticed how off it was on my marks. So I decided to put some dominos in and see how off. Wellllllllll gonna need some suggestions on fixes. Thought about just re-plunging on some of the rails on the wide setting, would work, but worried about the strength of it. Obviously would be fine if the kid leaned on it, but rocking back and forth like he was in a jail cell, could cause problems. Sooooo what to do? I do have more cherry but really don't want to have to mill more stock for it if I don't have to. Here's the screw up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Glue a domino in, flush trim, re-cut the domino.. Crib is looking cool! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Looks good, Joe. What is this domino trouble you speak of? You sent it to Festool? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Grondin Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Looking goood! Glad you got the domino back quickly.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Kev's suggestion makes the most sense. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 1 minute ago, shaneymack said: Looks good, Joe. What is this domino trouble you speak of? You sent it to Festool? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk It was cutting the mortises not leve, right side lower than the left. Took me a little bit of trying different techniques thinking it was me, then I put a straight edge to the fence at 90 degrees and the right side wasn't flush. I figured that out and their tech place was already closed, so wasn't sure if it was something they could have told me how to fix or what exactly. So i just filled out the form and mailed it off that day instead of risking losing another day just to do it then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Weird. Glad it's fixed. Festool has the best service in the business. Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxerjoe04 Posted August 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 11 hours ago, shaneymack said: Weird. Glad it's fixed. Festool has the best service in the business. Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Yea, was surprised how fast it got back to me, luckily the repair place was only one state over, did have to pay $6 for a box and bubble wrap at ups bc I didn't have one at home the right size. Kind of wished they would have sent emails saying they got it or when it was fixed and they shipped it back, was surprised they didn't do that. I mortised all the slats at once, my arm was a little sore after haha I glued in the dominos last night to fix my mess up, cut them in half and knocked them in place, got a few I'll have to flush trim, hopefully I can get the rails mortised right today. Then will have to work on joining the rails to the legs making my own tenons, then some curves to cut on the rails, a lot of rounding over, sanding and finishing, sounds a lot easier than i know it's going to be haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Yea, was surprised how fast it got back to me, luckily the repair place was only one state over, did have to pay $6 for a box and bubble wrap at ups bc I didn't have one at home the right size. Kind of wished they would have sent emails saying they got it or when it was fixed and they shipped it back, was surprised they didn't do that. I mortised all the slats at once, my arm was a little sore after haha I glued in the dominos last night to fix my mess up, cut them in half and knocked them in place, got a few I'll have to flush trim, hopefully I can get the rails mortised right today. Then will have to work on joining the rails to the legs making my own tenons, then some curves to cut on the rails, a lot of rounding over, sanding and finishing, sounds a lot easier than i know it's going to be haha. I'm fortunate to have the only Canadian Festool repair center about 1 hour from me. When my Kapex broke, i called them up. He said it was no problem for me to drive it over. As I was loading it in the truck, he called me back and asked if I wanted to wait while they fixed it on the spot. Pretty crazy service. AND he gave me a new blade! Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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