LEGS...

OK. Legs for the crib are nearly done. What remains is to drill some more holes, and do a final sanding. It's taking a long time, since there are lots of holes in these things, with lots of weird counterbores. This is partly so the height of the mattress can be adjusted to 4 different heights, and also partly because it requires holes in different places when set up as a crib, versus a toddler bed, versus a full-size bed. The holes not used get covered by bolt caps. My drill press doesn't have enough travel to get all the way through one of these legs in one stroke, so it's about a 5 minute process to do each counterbored hole. Once these babies are done, it should go quite a bit quicker, because the rest is mostly just cut, rout, sand...


-m

LEGS...CUT

OK..Step 1: Done.

I have the legs for the crib cut to rough size (the pile on the left). 3 of these pieces get laminated to make each leg. If you do the math, you see that you then end up with 6 legs. No, this is not an insect crib. It is a "transitional" crib, which means that it goes from a crib to a toddler bed to a full size bed. The headboard is used for all 3. One footboard is used for the crib and full-size bed, and a different one (with a half rail) is used for the toddler bed. I also have the cap for the headboard, some trim pieces, and the rail top cut.


That was easy. Table saws rule. I'm not looking forward to routing the roundovers on all the pieces, and coves on a bunch more, as most of my routing experiences haven't been awesome, to date. I'm also apprehensive about cutting the dados, especially since I have to raise a whirling dado set up through a zero clearance insert the first time. I may see about borrowing a football helmet and stuff.

I am really, really, really looking forward to the weekend. I should get my new 20A line hooked up to the service panel, finally, so that I can use lights AND the table saw at the same time. That will be handier..

-m

TIME TO START ON THIS...

OK. So after a year and a half of saving and deliberation, I bought myself a table saw. It's a Ridgid TS3650. I still dream of a Powermatic PM2000, or even a Grizzly 1023SL, but I think this will be more than adequate for the short term. Here's what it looks like, pieces, to assembled, in my shop (READ: garage):




Here's the reason I got the saw: the pile of wood below, if all goes according to plan, will, by June 15, have arranged itself into a crib. It will also be set up such that it can turn into a toddler bed and full-sized bed by changing out a few parts.


The second piece from the top in the picture above is from Home Despot. I was afraid I was going to have to go there once a week for 3 months to pull the best stock out so I would have enough to work with. Moreover, HD charges about $6/board foot for red oak. Dang. But, I found a hardwood dealer down in Pomona, KS, who resells hardwoods from a sawmill in MO, as well as some exotics. He is a farmer, and part time lumber dealer, and he sells red oak for $2.95/board foot. So my total wood bill for this project will be somewhere around $200, rather than $400. Yeah, it's probably about as expensive as buying a crib, but it will be mostly solid red oak (with some 3/4 oak plywood), and it will also be a toddler bed and full bed for the same price.

Actually, with a little searching, it looks like an equivalent thing would cost around $400, and that only transitions to a "day bed," not a full-size. Plus, it was a really good excuse to buy a table saw, and a dado set. Having the table saw will make this a BILLION times easier. Before, I would have had to use my bandsaw, which is mostly made of aluminum and plastic, and had no rip fence, so resawing meant fiddling with clamping pieces of melamine (for flatness) to create a fence, clamping homemade feather boards to hold the wood in, and walking it through, with Jen catching it on the other end. It was really, really inaccurate, and I always would up with uneven edges.

I modified my workbench, which you can see in pictures 1, 2, and 4 above, so it is 1/4" lower than the table saw's table, so I can use it as an outfeed table. Wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. It took me about 3 hours to cobble that bench together the first time (from an old wooden desk which had had its legs cut off), but it took me less than an hour to get the height adjusted & get it shored up again. I think I am getting faster with all of this stuff.

Oh, I also ran some NM 12-2G from my service panel out to the garage. I'm waiting for guidance from a co-worker before I put in the breaker & hook up the cable, but the outlet is wired and ready to go. The saw, combined with the lights, was too much for 1 - 20A breaker. Hopefully this one is enough. Apparently, that 13A motor can draw as much as 100A when it is first starting. The existing cable to that outlet was inadequate, anyway, because it was a 14-3 AWG tied to 12-2 hooked to a 20A breaker. Duh! Now I'm noticing several other 14-3 and 14-2s tied to 20A breakers because people were so lazy they just tied into junction boxes that were fed by 12-2 hooked to 20A. So that is bugging me, and I will probably have to put in a couple more 15A breakers and run some new 14 to tie into those that are snaking all over the house. I also invested in an outlet tester, and discovered that none of the 3-prong receptacles are actually grounded, except a handful. I have lots of electrical work to do... I feel like the person who did the inspection on our house and signed off on the electrical should have to pay for all of that stuff. Bastard...

-m