Building a Wooden Baby Crib

Copyright Randy Melton 2005

Section 3 - Construction

Tapering the corner posts
I made a tapering jig out of 1/2' plywood. It was a sled that held the corner posts so that I could clamp them to the sled stops and run
the entire thing through a table saw. (I don't have one, so I did this part at my friends amplifier shop (www.toneking.com) Thanks Mark!)

taper length = 24

taper depth = 1/4 inch removed per side at top

result top size after taper cuts = 15/16 inch. (I expected 1 inch x 1 inch, but after after final sanding it was a little smaller)

You can see the taper on the post I'm holding. If you look closely you can see that the line where the saw left the side is not 90 degrees. This is because of the slight "out-of-square" on the corner post. after sanding you can't see the line any more.

--pictures of the tapered corner posts--

Head/Foot layout
I spent several days trying out variations on the head/foot layout to arrive at what i thought were the ideal dimensions. (My original sketches were rough and didn’t have exact dimensions since I wasn’t sure exact;y what wood sizes I would bring home. Fortunately woodworking can be very forgiving since you can modify the plans to accommodate your materials!)

Here You can see me sizing up the head/foot boards using a tape measures to get the final placements and spacing.

The next job was to cut the frame boards for the 3 end panels to the exact length and route the grooves that will hold the panels in place. I wanted to leave enough room to be able to get to the bolt holding the mattress so I could adjust the height. I numbered each piece and marked the front and top of each board. I made the following routes:

6 vertical boards per end, route1 edge of each (pay attention to your marks)
bottom horizontal board - route 1 slot.
middle horizontal board - route 1 bottom and 2 top slots
top large board - route 2 bottom slots

I cut a small tenon on the ends of each of the vertical boards and made 1 side of the tenon recessed so the slots could be fully hidden.

tenoning the horizontal boards
I wanted these to go deep into the corner posts since they would take all tech weight and make the entire structure rigid. I decided to make them 1 1/4 inches long. To cut these I used my sliding compound miter saw with the depth stop set to cut the tenon shoulders and 2 more helper cuts to make material removal with the chisel easier. This was not perfect since not all my boards were exactly 3/4 inch thick. I used the chisel to get the final tenon thickness very close between these cuts. A good sharp chisel is a must for this work. I considered using the router table but since I don't have a miter gauge I abandoned this approach. (practice each cut, joint on scrap wood before you attempt it on your good wood. You will find there is often more than one way to do each job. Depending on what tools you have some ways will be easier and produce better results than others.)

--pictures of tenon progress--


cleaning up the tenon on the end of a rail	Using a chisel to create the tenon on the headboard. (note the cuts made on the sliding miter saw.)	I found it easier to remove the wood using the 1/4 inch chisel. Thats the spacing I left between the miter cuts.

Cutting the mortises in the corner posts to accept the tenons
(note that I practiced on a piece of scrap which. You can see one of them being used as a drill press fence in one of the pictures below:) My Tenons are 1 inches long and 3/8 inches thick.

Cut the top boards for the head/foot. I tried a french curve, but ended up using a protractor. I divided the board into 3 equal parts
and tried to be tangent a the center and end thirds. use your artistic judgment here. It will depend on the width of board you are able to find.

	You can see the 3 layouts I considered: 4 tangential quarter circles (narrowest) same with larger radius and different center points (widest curve) radiuses chosen to make side intersection angle 1/3 of width (middle curve)
	Here you can see me cutting the headboards (there are 2 one on each end.) Yes that is snow on the ground. (Remember I have to do most of the cutting outside since we live in a townhouse.)

After cutting them I used a flush trim bit to make the second match the first exactly. a little sanding then use the 3/8" round-over bit on the top edge. Since my boards had a slight warp (cupping) they didn't do well on the router table so I switched to the hand held router.

Assembling the crib ends

Assemble the bottom frame first trying to keep everything square. I did this in 3 gluings. Make sure you keep the assembly clamped
to a flat surface to keep it straight top to bottom.

Add the 4 upright frame boards. (I did some 1 at a time, and others 2 at a time. keep a square handy in fact I measured diagonals for
extra precision.

Insert the 2 panels and glue the top board in place (4 joints)

drill the top/bottom of the corner posts. There is no easy way to do this with a drill press, but i wanted straight holes. i lifted my drill press on top of my work-mate in two parts. (it is heavy lifting the head over your head!) My dads shopsmith a thousand miles away would have been handy for this job. Note that drilling these after assembling the head/foot boards to helps get true parallel holes.

Assembling the front/back gates

The spindles come with round tenons that are 3/8 inch. I marked and drilled the 17 holes in the top/bottom rails using my drill press. (test the holes on scrap wood first.) I found that a 3/8 inch bit made a hole that was too tight. So I went to Home Depot (the closest store) to buy a slightly larger bit.

Problems with Home Depot, Bosch and Blue Molh

I bought a Bosch 7/16 inch brad point bit for about $12 at Home Depot then got home and found out that it was warped! By that time the store was closed for the night. The next day I went to return it and decided to take my cordless drill with me to test any more bits before I got home. They took the return no problem and I picked another from the shelf. Then I went to the car and checked and sure enough it was warped also (return #2.)

I tried again and had a 3rd return. I went back to the tool coral and saw my first bit back on the shelf! I found a manager and explained that it was warped. He said he was aware that I had made 3 returns and they would not accept any more returns from me since either I didn't know what I was doing, or my drill had a bent chuck. He suggested I bring in my drill. I explained that it was a 100 pound Jet drill press and it was not bent and I did not intend to haul it into the store. I suggested that he try the bit in one of his drills. (He didn't care to do this.)

At my insistence he gave the bit to the guy in the tool coral to check. He tried it and sure enough agreed the bit was warped. The manager said he was surprised, but offer no apology. He claimed he would take it up with the Bosch rep that week. After trying every 13/32 bosch bit in the store I found them all warped. Interestingly the manager left all the warped bits on the shelf! He said I should try the "blue-mohl" brand bits "they were good bits."

I bought a Blue Mohl bit labeled 13/32. That night when I got home and tried it and the joint was still too tight. I looked at the bit and it was stamped 3/8. I assumed I made a mistake and bought the wrong size. Nope the package did say 13/32.

So the next day back at Home Depot I returned the bit saying it was mislabeled. This manager was apologetic after I told him about my previous night. He directed me back to the tool crib and asked a salesperson to help me find the right bit. We looked at all the 13/32 packages. Half contained 3/8 and the other half contained 7/16" bits! The salesman asked me if 7/16 and 13/32ths were really the same size. (A fine example of our US education system!)

I was so mad at Home depot that I vowed to never shop there again. (Of course a few weeks later I caved to the local convenience but I still will always try to give my business to any other store especially large purchases!)

I ended up having my wife get the 13/32 bit at a hardware store near her office. After all that, I was not happy with the 13/32 fit. It seemed too loose for my taste. So the next day I purchased a 25/64 bit from sears. That is the bit I used to drill the holes to the spindles.

There are 17 spindles per side rail. The holes are drilled on 2 3/4 inch centers with slightly larger spacing on each end to account for the end rails.

(2.75*16) + (3.75*2) = 51.5 inches

The finished rail height is 27 7/8 inches. (It just worked out that way)

You will need to drill/route the gate end boards before you glue them into the gate. (unless you have a really tall drill press) It was at this point that I realized that the hidden gate hardware for the front gate would be too think to be safely recessed into the 3/4 inch end boards. (So back to the wood shop to get oak 5/4 boards. I ended up with oak slight thinker than 1 inch. I ran them through Marks (www.toneking.com) jointer to clean them up and they are now 1 inch think. Just enough to recess the hidden hardware. This took two passes on my router table and a little cleanup at the ends with a chisel. (I tried a forstner bit, but it wasn't the right size.)

The keyhole slot was a lot harder. I only had 1 1/4" keyhole bit so I figured i could make 2 passes leaving a small lip to hold take the force of a kid kicking the head/foot boards. After several test cuts I knew I had one final adjustment to the fence to make the hole slightly narrower. Oops! I pushed the fence the wrong way and in my overconfidence jumped to the actual end boards. The resultant slot was too loose and the fence would have a little play. To make matters worse I didn't have any extra 1-inch wood to replace it. I decided to route the whole end out and replace it with a new plug and keyhole that. You can see the patch job in the pictures below
--picture of end patch--


Here you can see where I routed out the entire slot, hand cut a patch board and am gluing it in place. (I did leave a slight when routing the slot to hold the patch board depth and give me slightly more glue surface.)	Here you can see the patched board in comparison to the correct end.

I used "FF" biscuits to join the gate ends to the top and bottom rails. the cut was slightly visible on the end (since I erred that way) but since these will not be visible thats ok.

I glued the spindles into the gates. My dad suggested letting them float but I wanted to make the gates as rigid as possible. I did not pay attention to the spindle top/bottom. (yes one end has a lathe tail stock hole and the other has a spur drive) The difference is slight and can not be noticed until you look at all 17 in the gate. some seem higher or lower than others and I attribute it to me not worrying about top vs bottom since they look so symmetric. In hind sight I might consider hand painting the spindles before assembly. especially if you plan on painting any of the beads a different color. (My wife hasn't tried to paint them in the gate but I expect it will be harder.)


Here I am gluing the rail ends to the gate bottom. You can see the gate hardware already installed in the gate ends. Note the efforts to keep everything square.	Here you can see the 17 spindles being glued into the front gate bottom. (Remember to orient them all the same way.) Gluing these is optional. I don't know how rigid it would have been if I left them floating.


About this time Connor was a couple weeks old. Here you can see him inspecting the gate beading jig.	Since I waited until I had assembled the gates to route the bead in the top edge, I had to clamp an a-frame guide to the router table to keep the gate perpendicular to the table. I recommend finishing the boards before assembling the gate.

Here are the steps in order to make the rails: (I detailed it here, but a little thought on your part will avoid complicated operations. i had to cut the top rail bead on assembled gates. I clamped an a-frame above the router table to hold the entire gate perpendicular. The bead was an afterthought!)

Cut rail top/bottom boards to length (51.5 inches)
Cut rail end boards to length (24 7/8 inches, but make sure these match your spindles.)
(The front gate has thicker end boards to accept the hidden hardware.)
Drill the spindle holes (25/64-bit) 17 holes per rail.
Route a 1/4 inch round over on the bottom sides of the bottom rails.
Route the bead on the top edge of the top rail.
Biscuit cut the top/bottom rails and the ends of the end rails. (It's ok to let the biscuit extend out on the end that will be hidden.)
Mark/route the T-slot and and recess to hold the gate hardware. (Use measurements from your hardware set. I fudged mine out trying to get as close as possible to the top/bottom of the gate.)
Cut (or sand) a profile on the top/bottom of the thicker end boards to match the top/bottom rail.
Biscuit/glue the end boards to the bottom rail.
** Paint your spindles. (I didn't do this and it was more difficult later.)
Glue spindles to bottom rail using top rail as holding guide. (It is ok to skip this and have floating spindles but I think gluing them gives the whole bed more rigidity.)
Glue the top rail (2 biscuits and 17 spindles.) You should do this upside down to eliminate glue running down the spindles. You might want a helper to align all the holes.

Placement of the fasteners and mounting hardware:

	Here you can see the dry fit to determine the placement of the mattress springs (height of mounting brackets). The springs are resting on a box and the back rail is help in place with clamps.
	Here the mounting brackets are being recessed. I used he router table then finished by cleaning the ends with a chisel. The mounting instructions did not call for these to be recessed, but I liked it better.
	Now that the lowest mattress height is determined (after hanging it from the newly mounted brackets) I determined the height for the fixed rail. I set this so that the bottom of the gate was just below the bottom of the mattress.
	I don't show how to mount the sliding gate. Do it according to the instructions (and templates that come with the kits.) Measure twice!My T-slots were cut so tight (deep) that it is difficult to get the bottom "stud" into it's track because there is so little play in the top slots.
	Here is an end view with the gate in the raised position.

Here you can see some of the corner post decorations made by my parents and my nephew. (My nephew Hayden made the Shark on the far post.)

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taper length = 24
taper depth = 1/4 inch removed per side at top
result top size after taper cuts = 15/16 inch. (I expected 1 inch x 1 inch, but after after final sanding it was a little smaller)