Thread: Cot Sides

The old cot we have was the one that my wife used when she was a tot and our 3 kids used has mortised top and bottom rails, maybe you could make some sort of jig for the spacing and centering the cut!...

G'day Benji, I would go for mortice & tennon for extra strength. I am on my 2nd cot and am using M&T for the slats.
Do a search on a morticing jig by Rocker - very very handy and easy to build.
Another option is to to cut a slot all the way along the top and bottom rails the same thickness as the slats and then fill in the gaps between the slats with spacers.
Good Luck

Hi mate

I built mine using biscuits. To use biscuits the slats need to be pretty wide so you get a lot of glue up area.

cheers

dazzler

Just a quick warning....be sure you get all your measurements right in the gaps and areas a tot could get caught or hurt in.

The cots you buy from the retailers, whilst not the best made are designed to Aussie standards and must have correct gaps etc to try and stop the kids getting hurt and helping to prevent SIDS.

Cheers

Pete

I used the ozzie jig and dowels and was very happy with the results.

Rgds

Made up a jig that seems to work really well, thanks guys.
just have to slide the wood through, to easy.

Attachment 24527

Attachment 24528

Your jig should keep all the important parts in the right place.

I used mortice and tenons for the frame.

My slats were 10mm thick so I routed 10mm mortices in the top and bottom rails( about 25-30mm deep).

Once I rounded over the square edges of the slats I just slipped them in.
I would not expect the rails to flex enough to let the slats come free.

It is a lot of work to cut tenons on each end of all the slats and I don't think you need the extra rigidity.

My grandson hasn't been able to break out yet. He is still trying to chew through the top rail.

Originally Posted by Scally

It is a lot of work to cut tenons on each end of all the slats

Tell me about it. each cot I have built has 36 1/2" slats (sides and ends), fair bit of work pairing down tenons. If I ever build another I will use your method Scally. Oh well, at least it is good practice

Benji I see that I could be a bit late with this but this is how I built the cot for our First grandchild (son) a couple of months ago.
1 The slats were 40X10
2 The top and bottom rails were 50x19
3 Cut a slot 10ml wide the length of the rails about 20ml deep
4 Then cut some packers about 52x20x10ml and glue between the slats.
In actual fact I put all the packers in first using small pieces of 40x10 with some teflon tape on ( not plumbers teflon but a tape sticky one side) to enable the spaces to be removed withease. Then just did the glueup.

Good luck however you do it. Hope to see a picture when finished.

Cheers Peter

Benji the only dumb question is the one that is not asked.

Peter