A baby cot for my sister

**Kuffy** · 8th July 2018, 12:49 PM

My sister had her first baby back in February of this year. She asked me to build her a baby cot and asked me to build it like a photo she found online. The design was some mass produced plastic and pressed metal garbage. So I told her that “I’ll do something a little better than that, so leave it with me and I’ll get it done.” This is what I came up with.
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Made from Tasmanian Oak and a great piece of Grey Gum that I picked up at the last Melbourne woodworking show. I should have purchased all three slabs

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It's a pretty basic and complex build. Basic because all of the joinery is just doweled, but complex because there is a bunch of processes needed to build it. I had to make a few jigs and templates to shape the legs, curved side slats and the curved header panel which also had a bent lamination capping added to it.
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Possibly the most challenging part of the build was gluing up the front and back panels. I broke the glue up down as much as I could, but inevitably I had to connect one of the rails to ALL of the slats in the single glue up. It took an unbelievable amount of clamping pressure to overcome the hydraulic pressure created by the tight fitting dowels. Hide glue would have been a better choice rather than sticky Titebond Original but I rarely have any hide glue around here.
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Because the baby cot is pretty big ~1500 x 800 x 1000mm. There was little chance of being able to maneuver through a common house with hallways and doorways as a solid piece. So It all comes apart. The mattress base, drawer, two sides, front and back panels are all individual components which get bolted together using 12 demon bolts and insert nuts. It's a good thing too because the entire piece is damn heavy.

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The green background I am using really sucks up the photos. It is casting a green hue over it all. Ah well, I was in a rush to snap some pics and then get the cot to my sister's place because she was threatening to be induced. As it turns out the baby didn't come for another couple of weeks.

**Optimark** · 8th July 2018, 02:25 PM

Looks fantastic, love the kitty litter slide-out tray.

Mick.

**Uncle Al** · 8th July 2018, 02:53 PM

What a great uncle!. That cot will last several lifetimes, certainly won't fall apart in a hurry.

Good job you have made it in sections, it would be very heavy and problematic to move in a house.

Alan...

**elanjacobs** · 8th July 2018, 02:56 PM

Very nice! What did you finish it with?

We found at work that the Euro Beech dowels tend to be oversize; the KD fluted dowels from Porta are a much better fit, although they are more expensive

**old1955** · 8th July 2018, 03:13 PM

That is one beautiful cot.

**Kuffy** · 8th July 2018, 03:24 PM

Cheers guys.

Mick, you mean the "kiddy" litter slide out tray. I never thought about it as being a catch-all.

The finish I used was Osmo clear satin Polyx. If it wasn't for the lingering smells and offgassing, I would have used a danish oil for this.

The hardwood dowels are much better. They tend to take much longer to swell back up after being compressed and exposed to the elements, or waterbased glue. The beech dowels when fresh in the small bags are generally pretty good, but they do swell up pretty quickly after opening. I keep mine in ziplock bags with those silica things which come with shoes to help prevent the swelling. Sometimes I get an extra month or so before I need to lightly sand the dowels back to be usable. I didn't sand any of these dowels because i figured I had enough purchase with enough clamps to overcome the issues. technically I was correct, but it had me sweating!

**Simplicity** · 8th July 2018, 10:00 PM

Fantastic stuff Kuffy.
You should take a patent out on the catch all .... tray.

Cheers Matt

**cava** · 8th July 2018, 10:11 PM

Great work.

Are there any plans for this, or was it all done on the back of an envelope sketch?

**Kuffy** · 8th July 2018, 10:15 PM

Matt, I think the barbecue people beat me to the patents with their drip trays

I have made the SketchUp file available for download on my website. It's free at the moment, but if the video takes off like a rocket (looks bloody unlikely), I'll probably quickly produce a genuine set of plans and charge a couple of bucks for them. You can get the sketchup file at Kuffys Woodwork – Handmade with care for you. under the shop menu -> project plans.

**Wongo** · 5th August 2019, 07:16 PM

Beautiful cot. You sister must be very happy with it.

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