|
Today we crate the Nanny Rocker. Since the young lady this piece was built for is named Maria Camila, we will give this design her name.
 We start by laying a soft blanket on the floor and rolling the nanny rocker over onto it so I can get at the rockers more easily.
 We will remove the rockers to make the crate smaller and thus save a considerable amount on the shipping cost. The screws that hold the rockers in place are on the inside faces of the rockers and run through a dowel/tenon that fits into a socket in the top of the rocker.
 This arrangement gives the screw a cross-grain bite on the dowel. If I ran the screws up from the bottom, it would get an end-grain bite which is not nearly as secure and would probably work loose in time.
 Instructions for putting the rockers back on are written right on the rockers; one rocker goes on the chair end, one on the cradle end, put the 'front' to the front, and the 'back' to the back and insert the screws that are strapped to the rockers and it's ready to use. You may apply some wood glue in the sockets to make this a permanent installation.
 An odd shaped piece like this is difficult to keep from jumping around inside the crate as it bounces along the road in the back of a semi. To hold it in place I make a pair of bed-logs that will serve as a base during transport. I drill the holes for the dowel large enough to allow some packing foam to be inserted to keep the dowels from being scarred up.
 Then I strap the bed-logs to the rocker using stretch wrap around the spreaders. This stuff leaves no debris behind and does not chafe. Just cut the cellophane to release the rocker. I also wrap the rockers and strap them to the stringer so they won't bounce around.
 Most of this crate is made of 1/2" thick corrugated cardboard crate board that is supplied to us by International Paper in Morristown. They give us these 5' x 5' "scraps" thereby saving us the expense of buying plywood or crate board; what we don't have to pay for we don't have to charge for, so they help everyone with their generosity. The head designer, Mark, says he's happy to help out little guys like me.
 The narrower cuts can be made on the table saw using an inexpensive, disposable blade I keep on hand for doing just this; cardboard is terribly dulling to a saw blade.
 Most of the cuts are laid out with a giant T square and cut with a utility knife. I always put in a new blade before starting a crate because this blade too will dull quickly, and a dull blade makes for inaccurate cuts and increases the likelihood of cutting myself because I'm using more force than is needed with a sharp blade.
 In case you're interested, I use my table saw as a work bench here, just lower the blade and remove the splitter. I line up the cuts with a miter slot so that when the blade comes through the bottom of the crate board (3 or 4 passes) neither the blade nor my table saw are damaged.
 When I've got the 6 panels cut and set aside I begin cutting up the 1x6 pine lumber used for the crate framing. I use the chop saw to cut the pieces to length. Some of it I'll rip in half on the table saw for banding.
 The base of the crate is made up of two layers; an outer layer that gives the base it's strength and an inner layer that forms a shelf for the bottom panel of the crate to sit on. I glue and screw the shelf pieces to the outer pieces then cut the recesses in the lower edge of both at the sane time. These recesses allow a forklift or pallet truck to be used to move the crate around.
 The base parts are made to herringbone together making the corners quite strong and secure. With the parts completed I can now apply glue and assemble the base with nails.
 I glue in the bottom panel and set the rocker in place. Slip the side and end panels in place to determine where the rocker will sit on the bottom panel, then remove the sides and ends and trace the position of the bed-logs on the bottom panel.
 Then I tip the rocker forward again and apply glue to the bed-logs and the bottom panel. Sitting the rocker up again and aligning it with the trace marks I made, I get it positioned back where it needs to be. It's own weight provides enough force to get a good bond.
 Then I slip each side panel back into place one at a time and mark on it where the Styrofoam blocking will need to go and how thick it must be to apply the right amount of pressure to hold the rocker in place within the crate. The blocking is attached with glue and held in place with masking tape until the glue sets up.
 The final step is to use a spray contact cement to affix the wooden banding pieces to the crate board. Screws are used to hold each crate panel to the others so that the crate can be easily dismantled once it arrives at it's destination. All that is needed is a #2 Robertson (square drive) screw driver, the same that will be needed to re-attach the rockers.
This crate took 8 hours and 15 minutes to build, weighs 110 pounds (46 pounds of that is the rocker) and it is now ready to ship.
|
