Peruvian Nights and Jamaican Days

SIDES

OK. So it's been awhile since I've updated you on the crib progress. I haven't made that much progress, because I've been working quite a few hours (50, on average), and we did a little traveling over the holiday, and there have been other miscellaneous distractions, such as the fact that I received 75 shrubs in the mail from the Missouri Dept. of Conservation, and had to get them in the ground. Anyway, here goes...

Here is the completed headboard. I use the term "completed" loosely, because I still want to run over it with a hand sanding at 220 grit, and I have to finish it, and maybe put some felt-covered feet on the bottom, but it is pretty much done:

Also, I now have the footboard 90% done. All I need there is to clean up some glue squeeze out, and put a cap on it. I think the cap is already cut, and just needs rounded over and sanded, but I can't remember. Here's what they look like together (footboard is on right):

And, I have the sides well underway. The plans called for this to be 2 pieces of 1/4" plywood laminated together to make a solid panel. Yuck. So I stuck with the general look of the headboard & footboard, but gave it a little arts & crafts "flair." This took a little design, because it had to be as rigid diagonally as the plywood panel. So I wound up designing it with one big "slat" in the middle, and it will have 2 small ones (the size of those in the headboard) on either side. I am pretty sure the 'decorative' cutout in the larger center slat is to allow for wood movement without warping everything. Let's hope it works. Oh, these are 3/8" thick, and are set into a 1" deep mortise in the top and bottom pieces. Hopefully, when it's all glued up, it will be solid. Should be--the shear & pull-apart stresses for mortise & tenon joints is pretty incredible. This is what it will look like from the side, but without the narrower slats on either side of the wide one:

Oh. And remember when I said that the slats for the side were 3/8"? Well, so are the ones in the headboard and footboard. But, since the headboard ones are narrow (1.5" wide), I could resaw them to thickness, from 3/4", using my bandsaw. I couldn't do that with the 7 1/4" wide piece here. Yeah, I could have run it through the table saw one way, then flipped it end for end, run it through again, and cut what was left with a hand saw, but I knew this was not going to be the last time I had to deal with stock that needed to be thicknessed. So, I just went right out and bought the following item:

I say "went right out..." Those of you that know me know that I am not an impulse shopper. I researched table saws for over a year and a half before settling on the one I got. Actually, I had already decided that if I ever got a planer, it would be this one. Wood magazine had recently run a review of planers, and this was the "Best Value" out of 15 or so planers. A $550 DeWalt took the top prize, but for about 2/3 the price, this one was rated almost as good. Anyway, it works well. It pulls stuff through effortlessly, and the board that comes out is glass-smooth. It is my third Ridgid tool (table saw, shop vac). My satisfaction with the other tools definitely made me more comfortable buying this.

I already know which bandsaw and jointer I will get when the time comes. Yeah, I have a bandsaw, but it is tiny (9"), and it has started to hesitate when starting up, so I assume it won't last forever.

Thanks for listening.

-m