Okay yes I realize there is no such thing as a $200 bill. Old family joke there in that blog title. Enough about old family and jokes right? This here post is all about the cradle, my shop time, and you being forced to read about it all.
You will continue reading. You will think I'm funny. You will enjoy this post. Afterwards, as a reward, you may have many cookies.
And so we begin.
I've spent the last couple of weekends, pretty much full-time, working on a cradle for the new kiddo. And it's finally all done. I've included a few pics/comments of the process for you to peruse. Hope you enjoy it!
Here we have the entire set of cradle plans. I really only draw out the parts which concern me most and sort of work from that. The rest of a project is always built around a central piece, in woodworking. Everything else revolves around that for the dimensions. In this case, the cradle ends determined most everything else.
In this image you can see one of my most favorite tools. The crosscut sled I made for my tablesaw years ago. Very handy. It normally doubles as an additional layout table for me. Notice beneath the cradle-end you can see the cradle-sides peeking out. I forgot to take separate pics of those during construction.
The pattern is all laid-out here. Got a shot of my engineer square that my wifey bought for me. Everybody say "awwwww".
And BAM, cradle is all assembled. Yeah I'm really great at giving the step-by-step process yo.
More gratuitous shots.
Little shot of the cradle side panels after they had received the lighter stain. Later this didn't work out so well as I'd imagined and I had to rely on some craftsmanship to fix things.
Okay somehow I skipped all construction pics on the cradle rocker assembly too. This "play by play" thing is falling apart fast now. I hope the cradle stays together better than this post has so far :)
Another quickie shot of the cradle once the lighter staining was finished.
Here we have a shot of the shop in "work mode". If you look closely you can see a cradle and rocker-base in there. Also that workbench central to the photo, with the yellow extension cord hanging down to it. I built that two a couple of years ago. It's my workshop "baby". I really love having it.
Okay now we're staining things up a bit. At this point I was becoming encouraged that this sucker might actually turn out to be something. Cause hey, you never know how things are really going to go until the finish work is done. Tis truly true that the Devil is in the details.
Oops we fast-forwarded in time again. Okay, when you're staining and such you really REALLY can't run a camera too no matter how much you like your blogophiles.
Here is the final untouched image. If you scrolled through all the rest to see the finished product, shame on you. Scroll back up and read my post darn ya. I'll wait.
[whistles]
[taps foot]
[looks annoyed]
[plasters on smile]
Oh good you're back! Oh yeah, the image ...
Cause I'm all interested in "imagey" stuff and manipulating photos I tried this out on the cradle pic. Supposed to be a "portrait effect". I'm still on the fence about it.
And finally, just like the 4th of July we finish with a flurry of explosive eye-candy!
And done.
See there? Now you know how to build a cradle. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.
You have now read the entire post. You feel good about yourself. When I count to three, you will awaken, feeling refreshed, and you will want a cookie.
One ...
Two ...
Hey is that a bird over there? [shuffles away]
2 comments:
What a great daddy you are! This is not easy squeezy at all; this is a major project if you ask me!
Bravo to you, Rob. Isabella's gonna love it.
Okay so judging by the pictures... I need to draw what I want. lay a pencil and an engieer square on the paper, make a wish, and POOF! my cradle will appear. (okay I just had to harass you a bit!)
It is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. Clearly it won't hold a candle to the baby who will lie within, but it is amazing and you are clearly part Dryad.
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