A BABY'S CRIB - FINAL

It seemed like such a long journey to get to the point where all the parts of the crib were completed. Although it took a tremendous amount of handwork to sand every surface and edge of the crib so that it was smooth and would not present any sharp edges to my granddaughter it seemed that the time to sand, paint and assemble the crib was a relatively short period of time.

So here is the finished product. Unfortunately, the crib looks blue in this picture but it is actually white. My wife used a spray on lacquer to give the crib a smooth professional look. She bought the white lacquer at Home Depot it is Tremclad brand. Also, the lacquer is very hard and very durable. It is designed to take a lot of use and abuse.

Here you can see the correct color. It is a very clean looking white.


I used an attachment system where a nut is driven flush to the surface of the post in a pre-drilled hole. The components, the nuts and the bolts were purchased at Lee Valley. I glued together two pieces of maple to give a 1 1/2 inch thickness for the base of the mattress to sit on. I used 1 1/2 inches because any flex in the base would still be supported by the ends. After cutting the pieces to length I used a Forstner bit to create a clearance hold for the bolt to pass through the support and thread into the nut inside the post. This creates an extremely secure and strong joint that can be taken apart. The only improvement I would make is not to put the attachment hole so close to the side of the crib that it made it difficult to turn the bolt in and tighten it.

But all in all, there it is. I hope that it will contain my granddaughter for at least a few years. If she keeps growing at the current rate she may quickly outgrow it.