Baby Cradle Update #5

It is a great feeling to be very close to the end of project that took much longer than you had originally thought it would take. I have finished all the parts of the cradle and put it together. It is interesting to note that the manufacture of the two simple wooden washers took almost as much time as some of the other aspects of the project.

 I decided to manufacture the washers out of a left over piece of ash that I had used to make a small table several years ago that now sits in my office. It is extremely hard wood and will stand up for many decades without any wear. I cut the wood to size then carved each piece into a rough circle. It did not matter that they were perfectly round because no one is ever going to see them once they are in place. I sanded the washers as smooth as possible then applied cabinet makers wax to reduce any friction that there might be on the surface. In the picture above you can see that the washers fit nicely on the doweling that I used to tie the cradle to the frame. The washers will sit on the dowel between the cradle and the frame. The idea is to make sure that the cradle never comes in contact with the frame.

Everything is nicely sanded. The next step was to drill the holes on each end through the frame and the cradle then attach the dowel, the washer and the cradle to the frame. It sounded easy but it was tricky holding all the pieces together while I lined up the dowel with the cradle, the washer and the frame. But I finally figures it out and got everything together in the right order. Here is what it looks like.

The cradle swings nicely in the frame. It was a good idea that I waxed the dowel and the washer. The cradle seems to swing back and forth without any resistance at all. To make sure the dowel did not move I drilled a hole through the frame and through the middle of the dowel to hold it in place. Afterwords, I covered up the hole with wood filler.

All that remains now is to paint the cradle and frame. That part of the project I am giving over to my wife who does a much better job of painting than I do. So, the next post that you will see on the baby cradle will be the last one showing the freshly painted and complete cradle. I have to say that I am happy with the end result. It has turned out better than I thought it would.