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I made a doll cradle for LOML Jr, for Christmas 2005. I got the inspiration for this design from a web page I found while doing a search (sorry, that site is gone now). I liked the simplicity of that design, and I was intrigued by the use of dovetails on the angled sides. I thought that was a great project, but there were a few things I didn’t really like about that design. For one, it seemed a little too boxy - no clear head end/foot end. Second, I thought the tails should go on the ends, not the sides. Third, the grain direction in the rockers probably should be horizontal instead of vertical, for better strength. I also had no indication how the bottom panel was made, and how the rockers were attached to the bottom.

So, I just used the basic idea and dimensions (roughly), and made it up from there…

For this project I learned a special technique on my Leigh D4 dovetail jig. I learned how to make angled through-dovetails. I provided more details on how this is done on the next page.

The sides are all 5/8″ thick, with 3/4″ stock used for the rockers. I used a 1/2″ solid panel bottom, and attached the rockers using sliding dovetails. Hopefully it is clear from these pics (taken before glueup) how it all goes together.

The rockers are not glued in their grooves - just friction fit to allow cross-grain wood movement. I was concerned that this would be a weak point in the design — I thought the rockers might break off in their grooves. So I decided to add a stretcher. I used sliding dovetails again to attach the stretcher to the rockers.

The stretcher is glued to the rockers and to the center of the bottom panel, and will keep the rockers centered (since they’re not glued in). The bottom panel floats in its groove, with about 1/16″ clearance all around. It’s snug, but can be moved with firm pressure - should be just right to allow for wood movement. I’m thinking about firing a single brad through each end of the bottom panel right in the middle, to keep it centered.

Routing the stopped dadoes in the sides for the bottom panel required some thought. Since the sides are angled 10°, they had to be elevated 10° off the router table before cutting the groove. This shows how I set that up - hopefully this makes sense.

The result was perfect - just a little paring with a sharp chisel to finalize the fit:

The inlay is purpleheart. I modified the pattern from this online project to get the basic shape.

This was the first time I had used purpleheart in a project, and I was a little surprised by the color of the wood when I first cut into it - BROWN! Over a period of about a week in the shop, it gradually turned to a nice shade of purple. I made the inlay just under 1/8″ thick, and routed out the recess in the maple free-hand using an 1/8″ spiral upcutting bit in my plunge router. I used an Exacto knife to shape the sharp corners and finalize the fit. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s not too bad considering this was my first inlay attempt!

Next page: Angled through-dovetails on the Leigh Jig

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