I got the bottom rail cap glued on the other night. Basically, I glued a solid wood strip on top of the bottom rail, to cover the plywood edge. Next step is to get mortises in for the slats on both the bottom and top rail.
Ready to drill the holes for the mortises in the bottom rail:
Holes for mortises in top rail. These look pretty ragged, but don't worry--they'll clean up fine with some chisel work. The job of the drill is just to make some space so your chisel has somewhere to push the wood. The stool you can see in the lower right belonged to my grandparents. I think my grandpa used it in his shop. It's a perfect height for sitting at my workbench, drawing things out, doing math, or laying out parts on wood:
Hard to see, but three of the mortises are now done (the three on the left). This was over an hour's work. I use the cordless drill, with a 9/32 bit (mortises are 5/16) to widen the mortises slightly to accommodate for some slop in drilling with the drill press and in the width of the slats:
I forgot how long it takes to do these mortises. They are especially hard in the bottom rail, because the plywood splinters and things when using the chisels on it. The top rail should go more quickly. I am not working as slowly and carefully as I probably should. I figure this part of the bed is the part Henry will use the least. The regular headboard and footboard (which are used for the crib) also will be used with stretchers to make a full-size bed that he hopefully will be able to use for many years. The sides are used for both the crib and the toddler bed setup. The toddler bed "footboard" probably won't be used for more than 2 years.
-m
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