I am making a baby crib for my second born and am trying to figure out a way to make the slats for the slides. It will be 1 1/2″ slats with equal space in between them made out of 3/4″ material; either 3/4 mdf or baltic birch ply. My first attemp was making each slat individually and joining them to the top and bottom rail with dowels. I got one end of each joined to the bottom rail nice flat and flush but the problem came with attaching the other rail. I used dowels again but you have to work extremely fast with 17 slats with two dowels each. Getting them all in, aligned, and clamped proved futile.
My other method would be using the trusty festool plunge saw and making the whole works out of one piece instead of gluing individual slats and rails together. I could make a jig to rout out the ends of each space between the slats and that would be a time consuming process to rout out approx. 68 ends and it would leave rounded corners as well and I would prefer square corners.
It is going to be finished with white laquer. I intend on making the rails and slats the same thickness.
On the subject of finishing it, whats a good way to keep it from warping as I finish it if I were to use mdf?
Any help or points of view would be appreciated.
Replies
A very, very common power tool way of doing this is to run a groove in the rails, form stub tenons on the slats, and then put filler blocks in between the slats in the rail grooves.
I don't like this "cheater" method, but it works and is reasonable fast with power equipment. The resulting construction is sound for the application.
Edited 1/26/2009 4:14 pm ET by TaunTonMacoute
Yeah, like with the connection of balluster to rail in conventional wood stair parts . . . good reminder. I cut my M+T teeth on a crib, though might do it differently the second time; especially since the crib got used not at all and I chopped it up with a handsaw to make a toddler bed, which may or may not get frequent use. I definately wouldn't rout the tenons again, at least. You just can't win when your customers act like babies.Brian
Jonathan,
Easy - recruit your first-born to speed along assembly.
I don't know how many slat you are dealing with, but you should have enough time to get every thing together and clamped if you choose a glue with a longer open time. Titebond Extend is one. Epoxies can have an incredibly long open time (hours) but is also quite expensive.
The method the other poster mentioned is a good way to get square "mortises". I used it to make the head board and foot board of my bed (see attached). It was a stressful glue up, with 20 slats and 42 little spacer blocks to be put together before the glue started to set. And after I got all that aligned, I had to get the two posts on. A better way (which I learned after, of course) is to cut a groove twice as wide as you would with the aforementioned method. Then cut a piece of wood to fill the groove and notch it out on the table saw with a dado blade. Each notch receives a slat. This way, you can glue in the two notched spacers ahead of time if you like and only have to get the slats in the mortises. Much easier.
Another method, if you will be laminating the rails is to just glue the slats to the outer ply of the rails, butt the middle ply against the bottom/top of the slats, and finally glue the last ply on. Not as nice looking, but even easier.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
(soon to be www.flairwoodworks.com)
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
I made baby beds for my twin grandsons last year, but wanted to use traditional joinery for the experience. On the first one, I hand cut all the mortise and tenons, glued the slats in the botton section first, then started at one end working the slats into the mortises in the underside of the top section. It was a challenge, but worth it. On the second bed I used a table saw tenon jig on a router table. Much faster! If you get someone to help you hold things in line while you inserting the slats, it would also make it easier. Best of luck!
Is 3/4" thick slats not overly thick for the application?
When I made my cot I used 1/2" dowels and it stood up remarkably well to my three (only used in Summer) and then to my sister-in-law's brood.
Can I suggest 1/2" thick slats with rounded corners so that the slat is it's own tenon. Glue-up should then be a lot easier.
I am modifying a set of plans that I have for a crib that I made a few years back and in order to get the crib hardware to work out right it needs to be 3/4" thick for things to work out. Both sides move as they will have a rod that will go through the very end slats.
I'm using a dowelmax jig which has made putting dowels in this a snap but even then there is just enough play to get a very slight uneven edge which of course is magnified greatly with the application of a solid color spray finish.
The whole assembly after painting should look like it was milled out of a solid piece of material. Its a simple rectangle 52" long and 28" inches high with slats spaced evenly 1 1/2" between them with the slats themselves being the same dimension. The end slats will be slightly wider to accomodate the leftover width.
Its simple enough to glue up one rail and all the slats and have them be flawlessly flush to one another since you can just glue as few as you want at a time. Its the other rail where it gets tricky. Many slats, many dowels, many problems. I did a test run with the leftovers of a sheet of baltic birch and even titebond 3 got pretty difficult to work with after spreading glue on that many dowels and aliging/installing the second rail. It didn't give me enough time to put a flat beam over all the joints and flatten them flush.
Its going to be painted white and it doesn't have to be made out of hardwood so mortise and tenon joinery isn't necessary. If it were to be out of a hardwood I would naturally make nice joinery like having a dovetail for the end of each slat.
How would hide glue work on this application? Perhaps my option B of making it out of one piece by way of routing out the end 3" or so of each space with a jig and using a plunge saw to cut the remaining material between.
My much better half commisioned me to produce this piece and its modeled after the crib on this link which she fell in love with. I made some personal touches (per her instruction) to the end panels and made the box ends with half-blind dovetails which looks fantastic.
http://www.nurseryworks.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=15
I would like to in the future to make another crib the same but all hardwood with dovetails to join all the slats to the rails for aesthetics. I have no intention on cutting each dovetail by hand. I need some ideas on a method to rout the dovetails in the top and bottom rails. The slats are easy enough to rout.
Semper Fidelis
Nice design.Personally I'd spring for a can of epoxy. (~$30). That would give me a few hours drying time. Then you just need to find another project which needs coating in the remaining 900ml of epoxy :-)
Jonathanwilliam,To be frank, I think it's silly to use any other method than the so called 'cheater method'...run a grove in the two rails, stub tenon the slats, add spacers. The whole thing can be done on a table saw and glue up is one at a time(just slide into position and a touch of glue) and plenty strong for the purpose. It would also seem more appropriate with the slat material your using and finish. The integrity of the joinery your planning is far superior to the materials (ie. MDF,Ply). I'm just saying I see no reason for you to be pulling your hair out over this project making the joinery 10 times stronger than necessary. On the other hand, sometimes that is what makes it fun...
My recommendation is to do the glue up in two steps - doing so takes away about 3/4 of the anxiety of a multi-piece glue up. Here's how:
1. Dry fit all of the spindles into the bottom rail just to keep them spaced properly and in a plane.
2. Clamp that dry-fitted assembly unto your workbench with the "loose" end of the spindles pointing upward.
3. Apply glue to the top ends of the spindles and fit the top rail onto those spindles. If you angle the top rail slightly you can work from one end getting the spindles in place.
4. After the glue on the top rail has dried, flip the assembly over, remove the dry-fitted bottom rail, apply glue to the bottom end of the spindles (which are now pointing upward) and install the rail.
I used this method on a Stickley style headboard and footboard that I built (37 spindles in each) and it worked out fine.
Good luck,
Jerry
When I built an oval crib, I used 5/8" cherry dowel rods for slats, with about 3 1/2" spacing. Just another idea ...
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled