… better get used to these bars, kids.
Assembling the rails for the crib has proved quite tedious. Without a dedicated assembly table, I’ve had to make due with my table saw table for marking and setup – which works fine until you have to slide longer pieces across the table, throwing off any hope of perfect alignment. Can close enough be close enough? Right now, the magic 8-ball points to yes:
I expected this glue-up to be difficult, so I enlisted the help of my wife. With 13 rails and 52 dowels I certainly needed it. Despite Kari’s Rule #9, my wife was a willing assistant. I can’t imagine getting this assembly laid out, glue applied, and clamped without the extra set of hands. After some mallet pounding, a few curse words, and the obligatory gnashing of teeth we were able to get the rails glued and clamped:
The parallel clamps were a huge help, allowing me to crank down on the the pieces and fight my way through some not-perfectly-drilled dowel holes. I have 26 more holes to drill in another board, then we get to do it all over again for the second set of rails!
Besides being closer to finishing this crib (and its finally starting to look like an actual crib), a huge benefit from tonight’s work was my wife coming to the realization that I need both more garage space and more clamps. With Christmas just around the corner…
