Waching daily Apr 2 2017

Hello everybody,

This video is the fourth and last part about this baby crib

I don't know if you remember, at the end of the last episode I still had

to install the spring system for the rocking box to stay centered

and the locking system. All of that is done

but I had quite a hard time to make it work

and I didn't really recorded anything because it's not easy to film when you don't really know what you're doing

when you're testing and trying a lot

What I wanted to show you however is what I finally came up with. Let's start with the springs

As you can see the crate is turning around this axle

There is the same thing on the other side. It's symetrical

If we get closer, we can see these 2 springs on the sides

They are compression springs that will keep the box in central position

the box in central position

When the box is in the middle both springs are identically compressed

the force they create is thus the same and the box stay in the middle

If I pull it on one side. This spring will push harder since it is more compressed

this one won't push so hard since it is less compressed

As a result the box will tend to come back in the middle to rebalance forces which is what happen if I let it go

To choose the right type of spring I had quite a hard time.

I started with extension springs

I used that model which is very weak

It didn't work at all. The box wouldn't come back to its middle position and stay where you let it go

I then tried with harder springs

I used this model, much stiffer, but I had exactly the same result

It didn't work, the box wouldn't come back

To be absolutely sure I tried with this model, somewhat in betweend

but again, it did'nt work

So I changed my strategy and I used compression springs instead of extension ones

I started with this model made of 2 mm wire

It worked but it was too stiff. The whole bed started tipping

if you pulled on the box

So I had custom-made springs made

I made this model with 1.7 mm wire

and the springs currently mounted with 1.5 mm wire

These latter are actually the ones that work best

So if you want to build yourseflt such a bed these are the springs that worked for me

13 cm lenth, 10 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm diameter wire

and 1.5 mm for the wire diameter

As I told you I had these springs custom made

I went to a very nice man who make springs in his garage

He accepted that I record the process of making them

Here are a few shots of what I recorded

He uses a wood lathe in which i mount a round stock

of the same diameter as the inner diameter of the spring he wants to make

and with these pliers that cling to the stock

he is coiling spring wire around the stock

The wire is coming along his hand as the red arrow show

and with the lever on the pliers, he set the angle of the wire in relation to the stock

if the wire is fed at a straight angle the distance between individual coils will be null and they will touch each other

the more he increase the angle, the bigger the distance betweend the coils

He makes a few spring one after the other

at the beginning and the end of each spring he makes a few coils sticked together

so that the tip of the spring will be clean and flat

To measure the length of each individual spring he counts the coils

using this simple but very efficient system : a bell mounted directly on the shaft of the lathe

Once all the springs are done, he dismantle everything

and with this guillotine he separate them from each other

THe last step is to heat them up to ca. 250 deg.

to relieve the tension in the spring that appeared during the coiling

on the lathe

For the rocking lock system, it works that way:

under the mattress that I removed there is this little frame

on which a command bar is mounted

and by pivoting it, it operate these 2 long dowels,

that goes through the box panels

and into the outside panel frames

if you're in the right position you can put them in and completely lock the rocking mechanism

To unlock it, you just pull backwards

Here, I added this ugly screw just to prevent the dowels to be pulled

out of their hole

This system can look a bit complicated for the simple task he has to achieve but he has a few advantages

it locks the box in 2 points, on the 2 sides of the box

it is necessary because if locking only on one side

the other side will keep rocking because the box is not totally stiff

The second advantage is that in one action

you can lock the box on both sides

and the last is that the command is accessible on both sides of the bed:

from here and also from the other side

no need to go around the bed when you want to lock it

which is quite practical

The last point I wanted to talk about is the finish

what you can see here is a linseed oil layer

that didnt'd soak into the wood and that hardened on its surface

I fucked up quite a bit at this point. I didn't know that boiled linseed oil gets hard

and once applied it's important to remove any excess

because otherwise it gets hard in place and create this thick, sticky and ugly layer

of hardened oil

I had to scrape it of most of the surfaces to remove it

and resand them with 400 grit paper soaked into fresh oil

in order to obtain an acceptable look

then I waxed it and polished it with an old T-shirt

That worked pretty well

This video is the last of the baby crib series

I hope you liked it

If you did please don't hesitate to like it and share it

I will see you in a next episode with a new project

Bye