Handyman Advice Needed for Baby Crib

Hello, I have a son coming due in about a month and we were kindly given a crib by a woman via Freecycle. However, the sliding side does not work, and so I’m looking to permanently hold it up.

So, I’m just looking for somebody good with tools to provide a good solution for how to permanently hold this crib side up.

Thanks as always.

One Ideas:

You could make an S-shaped hook from sheet metal and make a hook that sits under the mattress, and supports the bottom of the sliding side. Simply by pressing in on the bottom of the hook will move it back (lifting the mattress slightly), and allow the side to lower.


Materials:

  • Aluminium Strip, probably 5cm x 40cm x 1.5mm

Tools:

  • Vice
  • Hands
  • Tinsnips
  • Sandpaper (to smooth the edges)

If you just want to hold it permanently, use PVA glue: (Assuming the runner is wood on wood. I can’t quite see)

  • Sand the varnish off on the edges that touch when the side is up
  • Lower the side, and put a layer of PVA where the side will be when raised (you don’t have to cover all of it)
  • Raise the side into position
  • Clamp overnight.

Thank you. That’s a good thought. The only issue will be getting the S-shaped angle of the proper length and with holes to screw, because I don’t have a vice to bend one to the precise dimensions. (I was thinking of a more complex S-shaped curve hanging from the top of the crib; your way is much cleaner and simpler.)

That seems like a very viable solution. I will measure it appropriately and plan to implement this.

If anybody has any methods they think are better, I’m all ears.

sdfgeoff,

I just wanted to let you know that a handyman work-around was not necessary, after all. It turns out that the latch was just stiff and jammed, and so I just needed to really press the bastard into the crib to jar it loose, and so now its slides into the hook properly. Thanks for your helpful Plan B, though!


Just put a couple of screws in the wood, countersink and fill. through the leg into the rail. Top and bottom left and right. I see the top is round put it there any way. I know this stuff trust me.
or you can drill a hole and put 4 dowels in it with wood glue. easy as pie. more easy then pie. sand it of and put some rattle can lacquer on it.

I appreciate it, but as noted in my last post, I worked this out. (Although it seems to me that getting a pair of S-shaped hooks might be a bit simpler than repositioning the whole frame, but I think this would have worked, as well.)

Good to hear that tye good ol’ brute force and ignorance worked!