Last weekend I finally got back to work on the crib: I cut the curly maple boards into strips that will become the slats. The band saw is a great tool for this job. First, the blade is thin and leaves a very narrow
kerf, so very little wood is wasted. Second, it's simpler to cut uniform strips without a complex and dangerous set up, as would be required on the table saw.
The band saw jig is very simple: it consists of a wood strip cut to a rounded point at one end. The strip is clamped to the band saw table with distance between the tip and blade set to the width of the slat. The trick is that as long as the left side of the board touches the point, the slat will come out the right width, even if I don't hold the board perfectly straight.
The only downside of the band saw is that the resulting edge is rough. After each slat is cut, I re-joint the edge of the board before I cut the next slat. Once all the slats are cut I use the planer to get a smooth surface on both sides. The third picture shows a set of slats (for the front) all cut and planed.
In the last picture you can get a sense of what the front and back of the crib will look like with the rails and slats in place. Notice that I cut the slats from 6/4 curly maple, so the side of the board becomes the face of the slat (which is 5/8" thick). The next step will be to cut
mortise and tenon joints along the top and bottom of the rails.
Last weekend I finally got back to work on the crib: I cut the curly maple boards into strips that will become the slats. The band saw is a great tool for this job. First, the blade is thin and leaves a very narrow kerf, so very little wood is wasted. Second, it's simpler to cut uniform strips without a complex and dangerous set up, as would be required on the table saw.
The band saw jig is very simple: it consists of a wood strip cut to a rounded point at one end. The strip is clamped to the band saw table with distance between the tip and blade set to the width of the slat. The trick is that as long as the left side of the board touches the point, the slat will come out the right width, even if I don't hold the board perfectly straight.
The only downside of the band saw is that the resulting edge is rough. After each slat is cut, I re-joint the edge of the board before I cut the next slat. Once all the slats are cut I use the planer to get a smooth surface on both sides. The third picture shows a set of slats (for the front) all cut and planed.
In the last picture you can get a sense of what the front and back of the crib will look like with the rails and slats in place. Notice that I cut the slats from 6/4 curly maple, so the side of the board becomes the face of the slat (which is 5/8" thick). The next step will be to cut mortise and tenon joints along the top and bottom of the rails.
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