Project Information
If any of you are also on reddit you may have seen this one already but I wanted to get it posted here too. Over the last couple months I've been spending most weekends and some weeknight evenings working on this crib for our first kid due 11/15/2015! The whole thing is made of red oak that I inherited from my grandparents. The color is transfast dark mission brown dye diluted in distilled water and applied with a brush and rag. Later I acquired a sprayer and sprayed on a few coats of varathane water based poly. I started with the wood magazine 3 in 1 crib plan and then deviated quite a bit from there. Appologies for large gaps in the photos but cutting up boards and sanding isn't very interesting. Much of the assembly process I was moving much too quickly to think about pulling out my phone. Let me know if you have any questions.
(all pictures below are larger if clicked on.)
Laminating the legs out of 3 pieces of 3/4 oak. The middle is notched to form mortises.
Here are the two sides in clamps waiting for the glue to dry. The white strips above and below the vertical slats is masking tape to catch some of my glue squeeze out. Getting this many pieces together, evenly spaced, and square in the 5 minutes before the glue sets up is no easy task (and these are the short sides) Upper and lower trim added later
This is just a photo of what the side looks like with the legs attached just to make sure everything was nice and square. This is what it will look like from the side but the legs shown are actually glued to the front and back.
Front assembly without the upper or lower trim
Here I'm gluing on on the bottom trim piece
This piece isn't in the final shot as I need to make a minor adjustment to it but this is the mattress support that sits on dowels to make it height adjustable.
After applying the dye by hand with a brush and rag and many hours of help from my wife the color is even enough to put the clear on top. This is the first time spraying finish and I must say it makes the process a lot easier. Clear coat is water based polyurethane. Yes I do realize that I forgot to put the mask on when spraying this coat. Thankfully I was only spraying for about 30 seconds and was standing next to an open garage door.
Finished Pictures
bolts run through the legs into brass inserts installed in the end grain of the side panels.
(all pictures below are larger if clicked on.)
Laminating the legs out of 3 pieces of 3/4 oak. The middle is notched to form mortises.
Here are the two sides in clamps waiting for the glue to dry. The white strips above and below the vertical slats is masking tape to catch some of my glue squeeze out. Getting this many pieces together, evenly spaced, and square in the 5 minutes before the glue sets up is no easy task (and these are the short sides) Upper and lower trim added later
This is just a photo of what the side looks like with the legs attached just to make sure everything was nice and square. This is what it will look like from the side but the legs shown are actually glued to the front and back.
Front assembly without the upper or lower trim
Here I'm gluing on on the bottom trim piece
This piece isn't in the final shot as I need to make a minor adjustment to it but this is the mattress support that sits on dowels to make it height adjustable.
After applying the dye by hand with a brush and rag and many hours of help from my wife the color is even enough to put the clear on top. This is the first time spraying finish and I must say it makes the process a lot easier. Clear coat is water based polyurethane. Yes I do realize that I forgot to put the mask on when spraying this coat. Thankfully I was only spraying for about 30 seconds and was standing next to an open garage door.
Finished Pictures
bolts run through the legs into brass inserts installed in the end grain of the side panels.
