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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    The Gap, QLD
    Age
    40
    Posts
    48

    Default Cot and Change Table (including WIP) - Lots of Pictures

    Hi All,

    Its been a while since I've posted any of my work on here, and its been a while since I have built anything worthy of these forums. But late last year I was given some exciting news, being that we're expecting our first child in July. So after the news had sunk in, I put my woodworkers cap on and began designing a cot. I went out and looked at the current available designs on the market and while some of them were nice, I thought I could easily craft my own out of better materials for similar or cheaper money.

    I did my research (thanks in part to these forums) and obtained the details from the Australian standard for cots, regarding spacings etc. for the bars and the gaps permitted. I decided against a drop-side, as there is quite good reasons why they are no longer on the market. The design I settled on was a bit of a traditional convertible toddler bed / cot.

    The design is loosely based on the Boori country cot, which you can remove the sides from. My design uses fixed sides, with the ability to raise and lower the sides and bolt them into a different position.

    I will give a basic run through of the steps involved in the project. This project was the first time I have used a router, so this was a big learning experience for me. This whole project was constructed using a double flute 6mm bit, and a 1/8" round-over bit.

    1. Design was mocked up in Sketchup.


    2. The obligatory timber purchase from the big green shed.

    I chose to build it out of Tassie Oak as its a good durable and easy working timber. Total cost of materials was around $400 (which it doesn't look much like on top of the Forester).

    3. Once unpacked in the garage / workshop it looks a little more respectable.


    4. The design was intended to be 5 separate individual parts (4 sides and the mattress base) so that when the time comes to pack it up, the whole thing can be flat packed. The design includes a whole stack of (144 in total I think) partial mortice and tenon joints for each of the slats, so there was no way I was cutting them all by hand, so a Jig was needed. This is what I came up with:



    The jig allows me to cut 5 slats at a time, so it made short work of the huge number of these things.
    Quite happy how they turned out.


    5. Next step was to cut the sockets (mortices?) for the slats (tenons?) to slot into, once they were done they were test fit and was surprisingly solid even loose fit with no glue.




    Lather, rinse, repeat. Both sides completed:


    6. Repeated the process for the ends, which were made out of different stock for the slats, 65x19 instead of 40x12 so the jig needed to be adjusted to suit the thicker stock. All came together reasonably easily and good tight joints.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    The Gap, QLD
    Age
    40
    Posts
    48

    Default

    7. Completed the mattress base, which was just a series of simple dowelled butt joints. Screwed down the slats to the rails to ensure the slats didn't rattle or move.


    8. Did a trial fitting to see how it was going to look with it all standing up together. This was half and half me just being impatient and wanting to show the wife how far the thing had come.


    9. This project required rounding over each and every edge on every.single.piece of timber. Cant have little bubs getting a splinter! So of the little I know about routing, it was never going to be easy / possible to do it hand held. So I needed to build up a basic router table. No photos of this one, its a couple of bits of ply with a Kreg router table insert plate bolted into it. Nothing fancy. Very quickly (relatively speaking) all of the corners were rounded over, and there was a shop vac full of shavings.

    10. Now that the basic edge treatments were done, I glued up the ends, which I was very please with the fit and finish. The tops and sides were attached using a bunch of dowels. Very solid and perfectly square and straight.


    11. Did another test fit. This time to test the fit of the mattress base to the ends for the toddler bed before the sides went on.


    I bolted it together and gave it a test. Mum + bubs (0.5).


    Did a quick test fit with the sides, perfect fit. Happy customer.


    12. Drilled holes for the sides, and assembled all in place. (this shows the mattress in the raised position).


    13. After a bunch of sanding (boring stuff) and painting (frustrating stuff), here is the finished product:


  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Blue Mountains
    Posts
    813

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    Lovely work, and the start of a lifetime of building things for your kids. I made our cot 23 years ago, and have made beds, tallboys, bedside tables etc etc for my 3 kids over the years. It's enormously satisfying, and the kids love it.

    Well done.

    cheers,

    ajw

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    The Gap, QLD
    Age
    40
    Posts
    48

    Default

    14. The original plan was to make a quick and simple change table "platform" that would hook over the rails on the sides of the cot, with the usual hot dog bun pillow insert etc. but the last minute change of plans from the boss said it needed to be a separate standalone unit. This sub project was codenamed the "Drinks Trolley" as when its done being a change table, it will double as a useful little cart.

    This project was designed to be much more simple than the cot, and much quicker to build. It was so much quicker to build that I forgot to take many WIP photos, so heres one of the end portals created and glued:


    You can see the routed grooves in the three levels of the shelves. These are to receive the sheets of ply which form the shelves.

    15. Drilled the holes in the end and fixed with bolts (allowing it to be flat packed like the cot). Shows the top shelf installed:



    16. Fixed with wheels, and middle shelf (currently held in by clamps) acts as a drawer that slides on ply rails in a groove in the side of the drawer.


    17. Fast forward to completed product:


  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    The Gap, QLD
    Age
    40
    Posts
    48

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ajw View Post
    Lovely work, and the start of a lifetime of building things for your kids. I made our cot 23 years ago, and have made beds, tallboys, bedside tables etc etc for my 3 kids over the years. It's enormously satisfying, and the kids love it.

    Well done.

    cheers,

    ajw

    Thanks mate, its certainly easy to be motivated to build things when you have such a good reason to. It's been a really satisfying project.

    -Scott

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Woodstock (Cowra)
    Age
    74
    Posts
    3,372

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    Brilliant, excellent and Mum and Bubs will be very happy
    The person who never made a mistake never made anything

    Cheers
    Ray

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    VIC
    Posts
    32

    Default

    They look amazing

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