Poplar Baby Cradle - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Scott who writes:
I thought I would send you a couple photos of my latest project. I built it for friends who are expecting their first. The wood is poplar except for the bearing covers and wood locking screw which are walnut. I finished it with blond shellac because I know it’s non-toxic. I made the bearings from HMW plastic and used grade 8 bolts for the pins. Other than the pin assemblies, there is no metal in the project. I looked at some photos for inspiration, purchased the pad (for size) and just designed it “on the fly”.
Baby Cradle - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Alin. He write:
This project is both the most dear to my heart — I made it for my new-born daughter — and my most technically challenging project to date. I designed the crib to fit the basket my wife bought and part of the design considerations were to fit the style of the furniture in my son’s room (the crib will stay there once my daughter is out of it) — the curves on the crib are partly the curves on my son’s bunk bed and bookshelf. This is the first time I designed a piece with curves, a somewhat ambitious project. A personal design consideration was to be able to make extensive use of hand joinery. It features hand joinery throughout: the sides and bottom stretchers are attached with hand-cut dovetails and the piece holding the legs together joins the legs with through mortise with floating wedges. The crib rides on ball bearings (extremely smooth) which are hidden by the maple applique. To get the uniform color for the top, I used a single board (10″ wide) that was resawn to 5/16. Hand dovetails are one of the few ways to securely join boards so thin. The crib looks fragile but I swung myself in it without problems.
Toy Box/Blanket Chest - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Robert who writes:
This is my first attempt at building furniture. I decided to just dive in as a learning experience. The blanket chest was inspired by a Fine Wood Working article by John Mcalevey (March/April 1998).The chest was built for my two and a half year old granddaughter to serve as aw toy box now and hope chest later. Cherry and soft maple. Thanks for all the help I have found on your web site.
Doll Armoire - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from William. He writes:
Here are some pics of a doll armoire I built last year. My niece is a big fan of American Girl dolls and stuff. Her mother asked me if I could make an armoire as a birthday present. The one in the American Girl catalog is outrageously priced for a painted version. It was a fun way to mess around with hand cut dovetails on a smaller than usual scale. The armoire stands 25 inches high. The case is made of black walnut. The drawers and door panels are birdseye maple. The feet are mahogany. The drawers are solid birdseye maple fronts with poplar sides and back. Were I to do this one again, I think I’d try the hidden rare earth magnet trick instead of the magnetic catch. I didn’t notice until after the first round of finishing that I didn’t quite sand out the score line on the drawer side. Nothing says “hand cut” quite like a score line, eh? The finish is three coats of the “Maloof blend” of equal parts tung oil, linseed oil, and poly followed by paste wax. Small scale furniture can be a lot of fun, and a great way to use up some stray boards around the shop.
Little Red Wagon- Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Art in Lake Forest, CA. Its a sturdy classic red wagon and is a design from the New Yankee Workshop. I actually built one of these with a student a couple years back. Its definitely not as easy as it looks. Great job Art! Let’s hear about it from Art himself.
I built three of these red wagons for my three grandchildrens’ families. It’s based on a Norm Abrams’ New Yankee Workshop plans. Most of the project is red oak, including the painted wagon sides. The most interesting challenge was the front and rear axle assemblies, especially the front with it’s steering table. The most difficult fabrication was the front axle support’s 16-inch long, 1/2-inch wide hole into the 2-inch square red oak’s end grain. The hole is for the threaded rod that runs through the support and the wheel axle holes. Bolts at the rod’s ends hold the wheels on the wagon. I only have a 9-inch Craftsmen bench top drill press. I made this l6-inch long hole with 7- and 18-inch drill bits and the drill press’s metal working vise that I turned perpendicular to the ground. I kept the vise in the exact same position throughout the process. Starting with the 7-inch drill bit, then ran the longer bit into the existing hole. It took a while, but I’m proud to say the holes all came out the other end close enough for it’s purpose.
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