In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve had somewhat of a rocker theme this week. And we are finishing off with this great project from Mike. Not only is the project beautiful, but it went toward a very good cause. Given hard times such as these, I’m sure this baby cradle really meant a lot to its recipients.
A young lady in our office is expecting her first child. Her husband recently lost his job and he is trying desperately to become re-employed. I decided they needed something from the shop for the special package they are about to receive. I remembered the pendulum cradle from a previous issue of Woodcraft and decided to give it a try. I was fortunately given about 300 bf of cherry last year. This stuff had been stored for the past 40 years under a local business. Dirty doesn’t describe the rough cut cherry. The first cut revealed a beautiful red cherry. Exactly what you dream of when you see a cherry piece. Most of the boards are 4-6 inches wide. Some are quartersawn…who knew. Unfortunately, you don’t know whats under the dirt and grime until the planer kicks up. I followed the plan for the base for the dimensions of the cradle but decided against the pendulum. I opted for rockers instead. I freehanded the rockers copying the arc from the top. I realized at that point … what if you don’t want it to rock ? Well, wheel chocks keep a car from rolling. I picked what I felt was the optimum point and cut two triangles but with a small curve to match the rocker. Voila, rocker chocks. To make the placement exact, I drilled 3/8 holes in the chock and the rocker. The chocks snap themselves into the correct position and the rocker doesn’t rock. For storage, I drilled a hole in each chock and mounted a peg on the inside of the rocker. The finish is sanding sealer, 3 coats of a wiping gel polyurethane. The label list the poly as “safe when cured”. The spindles unfortunately (or fortunately ) were purchased at $15 for 10. I needed 28. If I had attempted to turn 28, well, the design element would have been…interesting.
