Abigail's Crib Done... Finally!

So I finally got Abigail's crib finish sanded, cleared, and assembled... I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (and even more excited to see that cherry darken over time)!  Abigail hasn't really tested it out yet - just naps.  I'm so glad Jon (and Holly) were nice enough to put up with me constantly coming over and stealing their garage to work on it.  It also would have taken even longer if Jon hadn't been there to keep me from doing things wrong the first time!  Here are some pictures of the process and the finished product.  If anyone wants a custom-made crib, just let Jon know - I'm out of the business for a while! :)

p.s. please excuse the less-than stellar pictures... a lot of these were taken with my phone in a dark garage :)

Jointed, planed, cut to size and labeled

Jon at the jointer

Lots of jointing

Cutting tenons

More tenons

Cleaning up the joints

Look carefully for proof of blood, sweat and tears... :)

Jon worked hard, too!

Resident expert

Mortises for the side bottom rail

One frame complete

Two down...

Glued and clamped front panel

Steam-bent caps clamped in place to cure on the side panels

Same from the side

Back panel cap clamped in place - it's actually 4 separate pieces individually steamed, bent and glued in place...  That was a frustrating day!

Detail of the brass hardware

One of the trim pieces glued up before application to the crib

This is our makeshift paint booth - aka the garage...  I ended up using a wipe-on polyurethane (5 coats) for the finish, which kept the dust down, but it still required LOTS of sanding and tack cloth between coats!

All done.  It should darken quite a bit as it ages (one of the cool aspects of using cherry).