On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 00:18:27 -0500, (J T)
wrote:

http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/major_project.htm

As some of you know, I'm not a fan of cradles. Cute idea, but
the kid outgrows the thing in just weeks, then it takes up room, and
collects dust. Unlelss you can unload on someone else that thinks
theyd're cute. Better to make a rocker, then you can rock the kid to
sleep, put the kid to bed, or on the floor (believe me, a baby will
sleep anywhere, once they get to sleep), then you sit in the chair and
relax. Then you can keep the chair, and use it, untill you've got
grandkids, then you can give the rocker to your kid, and make one for
yourself thats not all beat up.

Absolutely.

When looking around for cradle designs and ideas just over a year ago,
more than one person gave me this advice.

I should have listened to them, but flushed with the pride of
approaching grandad-hood, I reckoned I knew better.

Combined a whole lot of ideas and designs until I arrived at a one-off
pendulum cradle for my fast-approaching new grandchild (grandson as it
turned out), in Scots ash with a dark hardwood trim (materials alone
came to twice what a store-bought cradle would have cost me). A few
years ago I'd have made it in a week, but I'm increasingly disabled
these days, with about an hour of productive work in me each day at
best. The job took me three months, and left me hors de combat by the
time I was finished (having needed to push myself as the birth
approached). Just about everyone who saw it reckoned it was a work of
art. Some refused to believe I'd made it myself, and one visitor
offered me a very substantial sum if I'd sell it to him on the spot
(refused of course). I have to say I was extraordinarily (and
immodestly!) proud of it.

My son seemed pleased with it, but my daughter-in-law clearly thought
I'd made a custom cradle simply because I was too cheap to buy a
'proper' one for my first grandchild.

All academic, as the in-laws breezed in a week after grandson was
born, with a (suspiciously) expensive store-bought cot, and my cradle
ended up in the attic.

I've now assembled a collection of books and plans on traditional and
other wooden toys - usual predictable grandad stuff. But whether or
not I'll bother when anything other than Mothercare plastic seems to
be viewed with suspicion, I really don't know.

The design shown here is a pretty good one, but Joat's advice is good.
Take it.

John