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 Today I have two goals, the first is to cut and fit all the dowels that will be used as spindles in this Nanny Rocker. Warren likes the "primitive" look of this piece and chose to stay with the plain dowels rather than substituting turned spindles for them. That's a good choice in my opinion, this piece looks better without all that frilliness. I cut the dowels to length on the table saw using the Incra miter fence to get the lengths consistent.
 After cutting the dowels to length I test fit them in their places. In some places, this can be a little tricky. I cut the first dowel just a bit longer than I think I'll need it, test fit that one, Trim it to exact length, then cut the rest to that length.
 This is what it looks like with all the dowels in place. This means that parts making is almost complete; just one more thing to fashion; finials.
 Before going on to that, I dismantle the upper parts and begin sanding them. When my hands grow tired from the sanding I work on the finials.
 The finials start with a scrap of post stock, used as a turning square. I find the centers of each end, punch them, then hammer the turning lathe's drive spur into one end and mount the blank on the lathe. Check the speed... you want a fairly low speed at first.
 I use a large heavy gouge to knock the corners off and round out the blank. I won;t need the whole piece; I'm just making two finials, so I round down enough to make three... just in case something goes amiss.
 I start the shaping process by laying out the ends of the finials and cutting a deep groove with a parting tool, then I can start rounding off the ends to form beads. The plan shows the rocker with balls as finials, but these were designed to be commercially made pine pieces bought at the lumber yard when you bought the construction grade pine from which this rocker was supposed to be made. Such a thing is not available in walnut, maybe they are somewhere on the Internet, but in the time I'd spend searching for them in the right size, I can make my own.
 Except they won't be balls. Turning a perfect sphere free hand is quite difficult and very time consuming. Turning something that is almost a sphere ends up goofy looking. So I go for more of a pear shape; quite common as a finial. Here I have the shape I want pretty well defined.
 After sanding the pieces to 150 grit I work on the separation points. If I completely sever the end piece while working between centers like this the whole shebang will come flying out of the lathe at me at over 1200 RPM. I could do this if I were working with a shorter piece and a jawed chuck, but I decided to go with the centers, so I'll get the separation points close, but then cut them through with a saw after I remove the stock from the lathe. Much safer that way.
 But, before I take it off the lathe there is one more thing to do; bore the dowel holes. I *could* do this on the drill press, but would most likely not get the hole down the finials center line, and when mounted it would "lean" a bit. By chucking up a bit and mounting the chuck on the tail stock I cane use the lathe as a horizontal boring machine, except that the bit doesn't turn, the stock does. But it does a great job of boring a hole straight up the pieces center line.
 I cut the end finial loose, punch the center of the second finial so the bit has a starting point, bore that one, cut it off as well and glue in some dowels. A little touch-up sanding at the top where I cut them apart and they are ready to install on the shoulder posts. But I won't do that yet... I may need those nice flat post tops to draw the shoulder posts down tight against the base plate with clamps. I'll install the finials once that's done.
One final note on the finials -- The picture on the cover of this plan shows finials on the back of the chair and on the headboard posts. But safety regulations for cradles are adamant about not allowing more than a quarter inch or so of post to stick up above the rails. Putting finials on the head posts would be a violation. Ms Pfauts must have realized this at some point for these finials are not shown on other photos (black and white) or the plan itself.
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