Baby Cradle with Inlaid Canopy

[greasemonkeyredneck]

 

Now before anyone yells at me for this not being a scrollsaw project, all cuts except the slats for the canopy onlay were made with a circular saw and my trusty old craftsman scroll saw. As a matter of fact, all the curves you see on this cradle were made with a scroll saw. The very center of the rocker curve had to be fudged using a spiral blade, but a scroll saw it was. The slats for the canopy had to be done on my table saw to get the correct bevels as straight a possible so there would be no cracl after the lengthy sanding to get the smooth round contour.

It is made of cottonwood and stained dark walnut. The bottom, where the baby lies, measures 16x32".

The last photo shows detail of the inlaid top for the canopy.

[amazingkevin]

I see you've been busy.Nice job.One thought can the mommy sit in a chair and rock this with her foot while crocheting or reading a book?Is cotton wood very light and easy to scroll?A weighted pendulum hidin some where could keep it rocking for a while too,just a thought.My new scroll saw is a craftsman too a 20" c-arm .i love it ,very quiet.Another fine job from the master ,Hows your sales been with your other projects?

[Dan]

Nice job William! I wish I would have been into woodworking when my kids were babies. That will be an heirloom to pass on for generations to come.

 

Dan

[greasemonkeyredneck]

Nice job William! I wish I would have been into woodworking when my kids were babies. That will be an heirloom to pass on for generations to come.

 

Dan

 

I'm so glad I can laugh at this. No, I have eight kids, but all of this are well past the need for cradles now. My youngest will be going into the second grade this coming school year. I do build everything though so that whoever BUYS it can pass it down. I have put some thought though into what to build one of these out of when my first grandchild comes along. I have a few slabs of mahogany hidden that would be extra nice.

 

I see you've been busy.Nice job.One thought can the mommy sit in a chair and rock this with her foot while crocheting or reading a book?Is cotton wood very light and easy to scroll?A weighted pendulum hidin some where could keep it rocking for a while too,just a thought.My new scroll saw is a craftsman too a 20" c-arm .i love it ,very quiet.Another fine job from the master ,Hows your sales been with your other projects?

 

The mother rocking the cradle is the exact reason for the dowel that runs parallel to the side. That is on there to put your foot on and push up and down to rock the cradle. The pendulum idea sound good, but this is a sort of classic, or basic design. I would have to make a secret compartment to put something like that on it. It's already a fairly heavy piece of furniture, so I don't want to add more weight to it.

I usually use a Delta scroll saw. My old Craftsman you here so much about though is one I picked up at a yard sale for $25. It only uses pinned end blades. The blade holder though has slots to turn the blade sideways though. That makes it great for large projects like this. You can use it sort of like a mini band saw, but with a much smoother cut. I also love doing projects like this and letting some people wonder how in the world I done it on the scroll saw.

Its amazing what can be done with a scroll saw simply by thinking outside the box. A fellow scroller one time told me the biggest project I could do was 16". It blew his mind when I said NO, I can do projects up to 32" and bigger than that if the center cuts don't go to the middle. He understood after some demonstrations and quite a bit of head scratching. With a spiral that will reach half way into a 32" project, which of course allows you to do it with a 16" throat, and my antique Craftsman with the sideways blade trick, I can do all kinds of amazing things. Here's a trick for those that don't have an old Craftsman Direct Drive like mine. With a flat blade chucked into your saw grab the blade just above the bottom clamp and just below the top clamp with two pair of pliars and twist your blade sideways. Then you can cut like I do on my old Craftsman. Although I don't have to do this, I did cut a project a while back like this just to see how it worked. While it isn't as good on straight lines as my old CM, it does do amazingly well. Now I can't take credit for the idea though. I read about it over on Rick Hutcheson's site at http://www.scrollsaws.com/ . It's a great site. I learned a lot from that site when I first started scrolling. If I couldn't figure something out, I went and watched his how-to videos.

As for your question about the cottonwood. It is a great scrollers wood. It's light, strong, planes easy, takes stain and paint well, cuts easily, and for me, it's free. The only thing about this wood is for me that you I get it 3/4" thick. If I want to plane any much thinner than that I can't do it until I'm absolutely ready to use it. Then after cutting it, make sure you have it glued down to something, like in a frame or something. You can't use it for anything that is flat and unsupported in any way. Like on this cradle for example, the squareness of it supports each side. Unsupported, it warps worse than any wood I've ever worked with. I keep it in large stacks, with spacer in between each few sheets and the very top pieces weighted down with some large pieces of oak.

[Clayton717]

great job. that will be something to get pasted down.

[Travis]

I really like that one. Very old school style. Reminds me of something you'd see in colonial times. Very cool project. I bet it was fun to build too. Nicely done!