Instead of slats, raised panels for cradle?

[BloomingtonMike]

Two girls 8 and 11 now. Hope i dont need craddle or cribs for a good long while. I want the baby to somewhat see out when possible. Not a baby in a paneled box kinda guy. Plus if they rolled into a wall or corner I like the slats. This is more relevant to crib vs cradle most likely. Time spent in a craddle is a lot less mobile age timeframe than a crib is.

Id ask the mom to be what she wants or if she cares. If the box thing freeks her out she wont use it.

[MichaelMouse]

My question relates to the sides of the basket:  Trying to line up all those slats and spacers AND clamp it all up square terrifies me (it uses a groove instead of individual mortises), even with the use of slow setting epoxy.  I've seen others build cradles with frame and panel doors, so I'm considering the same here.  My first thought was panels with 1/4" plywood panels, but I think I'd rather use solid wood so I can shape the panels.  Any thoughts or advise for me on this?

I've purchased the plans and have already decided on a couple of construction changes.  Instead of using dowels to attach the legs to the feet, I'll use m&t joints.  The stretcher will also be an m&t joint, but will likely use the design that Wood Smith used on their popular design--a wedged knock-down through m&t joint.

Your choice.  When places were poorly heated, solid sides were common, and the top often covered with a blanket for warmth, and perhaps darkness.  I've built the one pictured, or similar with either slats or solids, myself.  Sold a bunch of cradles when in the service with all those folks of prime breeding age.  Even built it 1 1/2 wide, as suggested, for twins!

Consider embedding a bearing for best swing, and making the whole thing knockdown with a tusk tenon stretcher and connector bolts for the sides.  Cradle tends to be used irregularly in most families, and gets stored in between.

[DaveR1]

When places were poorly heated, solid sides were common, and the top often covered with a blanket for warmth, and perhaps darkness.  

Indeed! Some such as this one were hooded, too.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

So I'm talking to the missus last night about this cradle. One of them is for a close friend that is due this summer. The second is for us...should we conceive (we're trying).

She doesn't like it. She wants the "old fashioned" one like what Cooler posted above.

I just can't win.

[handi]

I built a cradle for my 2nd daughter using that exact plan back in 95. I too did not want to do all the slats. I did panels, worked out just fine.

The one thing I did though. I set the panels above the bottom by about an inch. You do not want an infant in the bottom of a box. CO2 is heavier than air and can collect where the child is sleeping. The gap along the base allows fresh air flow s the arts would.

[FS7]

I built a cradle for my 2nd daughter using that exact plan back in 95. I too did not want to do all the slats. I did panels, worked out just fine.

The one thing I did though. I set the panels above the bottom by about an inch. You do not want an infant in the bottom of a box. CO2 is heavier than air and can collect where the child is sleeping. The gap along the base allows fresh air flow s the arts would.

I built a crib for my daughter, and it worked out to either 28 or 30 slats. I used the recommended minimum spacing and knocked that down about 1/8". After that I used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate even spacing so that the slats would be equidistant from each other and (approximately) equidistant from the corner posts. I used some formulas so that you could change the width of the slats or the spacing and figure out exactly what you would need. That part wasn't hard.



I ran out of bubinga so I had to supplement with walnut, which is partly why the back is walnut plywood accented with some walnut strips and bubinga strips. There's also nothing to see behind there, so I have a mix of solid sides and slat sides.

I will say that I bought a Domino very specifically for this project, but I also have used it on many other projects. It's a very expensive tool, but it is worth it and I am not sure I would have been able to cut mortises using any other method without losing my mind. A simpler method for doing slats is to route a groove in the side rails and use spacers to keep them equidistant from each other. There are a few crib plans that call for this. I didn't want to do that because I didn't want to deal with dust and stuff getting in the gaps, but now that my daughter's over a year old I don't think that's much of a concern.

For a cradle, another thing you might consider are dowels. They are not tall and 1/2" dowels would let you align and install them using only a Forstner bit. Cradles are for very small children (pretty much immobile) and you don't have to worry about flex, breakage, or much of that.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

For a cradle, another thing you might consider are dowels. They are not tall and 1/2" dowels would let you align and install them using only a Forstner bit. Cradles are for very small children (pretty much immobile) and you don't have to worry about flex, breakage, or much of that.

Great looking crib!

When I built the Rockler 3-n-1 Crib/Daybed 15 years ago I used dowels instead of slats.  It worked quite well, and I'm considering doing that here, too.

[mr_skittle]

As a builder of the vintage Woodsmith crib, in which I substituted slats for spindles, I'll throw in my two cents.

I was far more intimidated by the curved and angled, raised panel ends than the slats. The slats were far more time consuming than difficult. I cut a groove in the rails to fit the slats using a router table. It seems like a job you could do with a dado blade, but with the mortises for the stiles, the grove needs to be stopped. The slats can be made by resawing some 4/4 and the spacers between them are just small, square strips. I think Cooler was talking about doing it this way. If you bevel the filler strip just a bit, the seam all but disappears when you plug them in. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

[JimV]

Built a similar cradle for my best friend about 10 years ago. Plan had spindles, I used slats. 

[Cooler]

Be aware that there are spacing regulations for slats.

See here:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-t...rt1508.xml

The maximum space between slats is 2½ inches.