Baby gift

My good friend and graduate school classmate had a baby boy a few weeks before my new baby boy came along and I decided to make a gift for him. He also has a little girl. He is crazy about rabbits for some reason and not in the same way I’m crazy about rabbit stew. We don’t talk about rabbit stew. He has a couple of shelter rabbits and he volunteers at a rabbit shelter as well as sometimes taking “foster care” rabbits temporarily. And that’s in a NYC apartment so you know he’s dedicated. I thought rabbits would be a nice incorporation into a baby gift.

I didn’t take too many photos and its a pretty straightforward project so I won’t bore you with a long post about it like I usually do. :-)

The entire thing is oak pallet wood. I incorporated the knot holes because I thought they were interesting. I screwed in the hardware a little higher than I like but I did that so it wouldn’t interfere with looking at the knot near the bottom.

The rabbits are finished with a mix of oil poly, mineral spirits and some oil artist paint my wife has. The goal was pink and blue but thin enough so the grain would show through. It worked on my test scrap but I applied it too heavy to the real pieces. The grain doesn’t show as well and the color is too dark -especially the pink, which is too red. Oh well. It’s not THAT bad so I’m ok with it.

I cut the rabbits and the shelf brackets on the bandsaw. I bought a 1/8" blade after cutting the rabbits. The 1/4" one was a pain to cut tight curves. I’m still learning to use that machine, but I’m really happy I bought it on a whim a few months ago.

I made a French cleat to hang it. I’m still waiting for my friend to call me back about coming over. I plan to bring all the tools that might be necessary to install it. He’s not as handy as me and I’ll be very glad to help him do it right.