The First Grandchild
Last Edited 2009-11-25
Our first born son and his wife recently announced their first child is in the works. Following that announcement, a while later, was the news that it is to be a girl.
They requested the use of the family crib which has been in storage many years. Upon looking at the crib it become apparent that the spacing of the stiles was no longer acceptable. This crib was made in 1975, a year after the spacing code was made 2-3/8ths of an inch minimum at the federal level. How I missed that is beyond me but now I have to make it right.
Getting started. Only the stiles, on each rail assembly, will have to be replaced with wider ones. Every attempt will be made to retain as much original wood as I can.
The Before picture (taken in 1975) shows the stile spacing close to three inches.
And the official note book entry casts this project from a thought to action.
The rail assemblies were mortise and tenon construction with pins for extra strength. The stiles are removed with judicious use of the bandsaw.
The lower rails were trued up on the jointer and cut to width on the table saw.
The upper rails were trimmed so both were the same dimension. To replace the wood lost in the trimming process, one of the removed stiles was converted to fillers that are glued on to add the lost material. By using wood from the crib, there will not be a difference in wood color because it is all the same age.
The mortises are calculated and layed out on the rails.
The rails are mortised on the 17 inch drill press set up for mortising.
The mortising is complete.
Tennoning the stiles on the Delta 34-600 tablesaw.
Face sanding the stiles after the bead is routed on.
Hand sanding the beads is hard work.
Olivia (Olive) Grace Erdman is born Aug 10th - our 1st grand child
Congratulations to the proud new parents, Ben & Jenny