Rocking Chair/Crib

Someone built a rocking chair/crib.

The final product.

This was the image I initially got the idea from a couple of years ago. I loved the concept but didn't much like the design.

Research: Babies get long really quick!

Here's what I started with. I found two identical rocking chairs from different sellers on eBay. I've taken one apart to look at here. I got a standard crib mattress. Some plywood from the local hardware store.

Trying to map it out

I took the back off one of the chairs and shortened the spindles.

Sanding off the varnish with the B&D Mouse. Not really the right tool for the job. Later I got a more hardcore sander.

Lowering one arm of the other chair.

Used the B&D Scorpion combi-saw to cut the ply. Love this tool. I wonder if all B&D tools are named after animals...

Used a jigsaw to trim the end. Also B&D... I swear I have tools from different brands.

Fixing the back in place.

I drilled inserts and screwed in the larger supports here.

As you can see; I'm really good at taking photos.

Starting to build up the crib here.

Pictured here is the drill I used. I love it. It is essentially a family heirloom at this point. It just never gives up. I don't actually know what brand it is.

Oh...

Drilling out inserts for the struts.

One side done.

Chair part in place, trying to connect the crib and chair.

Hmmm... This didn't go too well. Wood-fill will probably sort it though.

This was one of the trickier parts. The chairs had a nice bit of wood underneath which gave the illusion of extra thickness. I wanted to keep it if I could but had to negotiate this bend.

A bit of thin ply to give the gap I needed.

There. Ish... I think my words were "Screw it, I'll wood-fill and sand it later." Are you sensing a theme yet?

So the chairs were on a backwards slant. No good for a baby lying in a crib. The plan was to make wedges to correct the slant and make the seat and crib level. It was... challenging. With this 'method' I figured I needed the wedges to be 12 degrees.

Grandad-To-Be did some trigonometry. His results came out at about 7 degrees. But Grandad-To-Be hasn't been to school in a while so I made the wedges 12 degrees.

Fitting the 12 degree wedges.

Adding the rockers.

Bollocks. Grandad-To-Be's trigonometry was not as rusty as I thought.

Cut down and refit the wedges. Also making some repairs to the top which I may have broken when fitting the rockers.

After much deliberation and discussion we decided to go with off-white paint. The other furniture for the baby was painted in this colour and it meant I could hide the mismatch wood more easily.

Priming.

Primed.

Painted and in place. I cut the mattress to fit the sightly odd shape (curved at one end) and Grandma-To-Be resized the cover for me.

I'm really happy with how this turned out considering how it looked at first.

So it's a little bumpy on this side. Still pretty happy with it.