sxlalan
Established Member
Looking back through my posts I've noticed that I first submitted a question about how to make a cotbed on 24th April 2005. Well, thanks to everyone’s help on this forum, nearly 6 months later it is finally finished! For those who don't already know, a cotbed is a 1400mm*700mm cot with fixed sides. The bed base can be lowered as the child grows, starting high when the baby is new (and can't stand up) and being lowered as it gets more active/mobile! Here is a brief overview of the construction, my first woodworking project...
The first part of the cotbed that I made (having bought a router and built a table for it) was the bed base.
The base was made from pine and consisted of 2 rails and 15 connecting slats. The rails were routed into an L shape and all edges rounded over. The edges of the slats were also rounded over (to avoid any sharp edges anywhere on the cot)
The slats were screwed to the rails. With a brief spark of inventiveness I made a small jig (i.e. L shaped bit of wood clamped to my drill press) to make locating and drilling the pilot holes in the slats quick and easy. Not earth shattering but my first jig and I was embarrassingly pleased with the simple idea!
The ends of the cot were a simple frame and panel construction. The rails and stiles of the panel were made of Poplar and joined via M&T. The mortises and tenons were created with the router and a groove was also routed to accept the central plywood panel. The panel was routed with shallow vertical V groves on one side to give the appearance of multiple tongue and groove boards.
The rails along the side of the cot were also made from poplar, with holes to accept 18 17mm dowels drilled in each.
Once all of the parts had been constructed and sanded I taped and painted them before final assembly.
This went quite well but was a **** of a job with a paintbrush. Next time I will lash out on a spray gun!
Once painted I started the final assembly. The glue-up of the panels was fairly straight forward
but the side rails were a tad tricky, trying to line up all of the dowels with the corresponding holes!
The final part of the build was to put a beech surround around the top of the cotbed. I routed mortise along the top of each side and end of the bed and in the bottom of the beech. A floating tenon was placed in each of these groves and the and the whole lot glues together.
The beech was finished off with some Chestnut Finishing Oil which came up quite well
A final rubdown with some 0000 steel wool and I was finished. The whole lot bolts together to make moving it around easier!
Caitlin Mary (born 11th July) will be moving into her new accommodation in the next week or 2. Fortunately her Moses Basket has been big enough until now! I would highly recommend cot building to any prospective parents wanting a first woodworking project as construction is pretty straight forward and great fun!
I would like to thank everyone on this forum who helped be get this cot together by answering my not inconsiderable stream of questions! Here is a list of credits in no particular order...
Credits
Shady
frank
WiZeR
Gill
Travis Byrne
batty
Alf
Newbie_Neil
ike
DaveL
Dewy
dedee
WoodMaster
Neville Lawler
Roger Sinden
Steve Maskery
ydb1md
devonwoody
MikeW
CHJ
beech1948
Philly
andrewm
polyvinylacetate
Les Mahon
Waka
Tony
les chicken
cambournepete
derek681
colinc
ColG
Terry Smart
jasonB
Sawdust Producer
Argee
waterhead37
Argus
SammieQ
The first part of the cotbed that I made (having bought a router and built a table for it) was the bed base.
The base was made from pine and consisted of 2 rails and 15 connecting slats. The rails were routed into an L shape and all edges rounded over. The edges of the slats were also rounded over (to avoid any sharp edges anywhere on the cot)
The slats were screwed to the rails. With a brief spark of inventiveness I made a small jig (i.e. L shaped bit of wood clamped to my drill press) to make locating and drilling the pilot holes in the slats quick and easy. Not earth shattering but my first jig and I was embarrassingly pleased with the simple idea!
The ends of the cot were a simple frame and panel construction. The rails and stiles of the panel were made of Poplar and joined via M&T. The mortises and tenons were created with the router and a groove was also routed to accept the central plywood panel. The panel was routed with shallow vertical V groves on one side to give the appearance of multiple tongue and groove boards.
The rails along the side of the cot were also made from poplar, with holes to accept 18 17mm dowels drilled in each.
Once all of the parts had been constructed and sanded I taped and painted them before final assembly.
This went quite well but was a **** of a job with a paintbrush. Next time I will lash out on a spray gun!
Once painted I started the final assembly. The glue-up of the panels was fairly straight forward
but the side rails were a tad tricky, trying to line up all of the dowels with the corresponding holes!
The final part of the build was to put a beech surround around the top of the cotbed. I routed mortise along the top of each side and end of the bed and in the bottom of the beech. A floating tenon was placed in each of these groves and the and the whole lot glues together.
The beech was finished off with some Chestnut Finishing Oil which came up quite well
A final rubdown with some 0000 steel wool and I was finished. The whole lot bolts together to make moving it around easier!
Caitlin Mary (born 11th July) will be moving into her new accommodation in the next week or 2. Fortunately her Moses Basket has been big enough until now! I would highly recommend cot building to any prospective parents wanting a first woodworking project as construction is pretty straight forward and great fun!
I would like to thank everyone on this forum who helped be get this cot together by answering my not inconsiderable stream of questions! Here is a list of credits in no particular order...
Credits
Shady
frank
WiZeR
Gill
Travis Byrne
batty
Alf
Newbie_Neil
ike
DaveL
Dewy
dedee
WoodMaster
Neville Lawler
Roger Sinden
Steve Maskery
ydb1md
devonwoody
MikeW
CHJ
beech1948
Philly
andrewm
polyvinylacetate
Les Mahon
Waka
Tony
les chicken
cambournepete
derek681
colinc
ColG
Terry Smart
jasonB
Sawdust Producer
Argee
waterhead37
Argus
SammieQ
