Keith Starosta
03-02-2009, 3:09 PM
Mission-Inspired Plant Stand
I'm sort of in between projects at the moment, as I just completed a clock for my wife, and am gathering funds to purchase the lumber for my trestle table. I needed a quick-turnaround project, and remembered that my wife's plant stand at the front door was falling apart. PERFECT! I did a quick search, and found a picture that I liked. It was a scanned image taken from a 1912 Popular Mechanics magazine. Here it is...
111891
I got a quick design approval from the LOML, and away I went. Ideally, I would have used QSWO, but since I didn't want to spend any money on this project, I was going to use some recycled lumber. The SYP I'm using is from an old king-sized waterbed frame. :D It cleans up pretty well, I think.
Obviously, the first thing I did was mill up all components of the stand. I glued up panels for both the top and the secondary shelf, and moved on to the stiles. I milled the tenons first, and then started on the grooves that would accept the decorative panels beneath the top. This is where I encountered my first (of hopefully few) problems.
I was going to "drop" the stiles onto a spiral straight bit chucked into my tabletop Delta "shaper", but when I turned on the machine, the motor ran but the spindle wasn't turning. I opened it up, and saw that the drive belt had broken. Nice. :mad: I didn't want to wait for a new belt, so I started noodling how to accomplish my task. Ultimately, I did end up using the Delta shaper...or the top of it, at least. :D Turns out the width of the stiles is such that it fits perfectly into the miter track. I used a stile in the slot as a backstop of sorts, and clamped a block of wood to the right side of the table to keep everything in place. I ganged all of the stiles together so that my router had some stability, and away I went. It may look a little strange, but it worked great!!
111892
I'm at the point where all parts are milled and awaiting initial glue-up. Everything is going along pretty well at this point...
111893
My next steps are to cut out the diamond shapes in the panels, and then cut the top and shelf to size. I've also started messing around with colors for the finish. My wife isn't a fan of super-dark wood....or even dark wood, for that matter. I told her that she was going to be involved in helping with the color selection, for which she initially balked at. Then she saw all of the choices she was going to be able to play with, and changed her mind... :D
111894
I'm hoping for some shop time later today, but we'll see. I've got a ton of snow to shovel, and kids who want to play. :D
More to come...
- Keith
I'm sort of in between projects at the moment, as I just completed a clock for my wife, and am gathering funds to purchase the lumber for my trestle table. I needed a quick-turnaround project, and remembered that my wife's plant stand at the front door was falling apart. PERFECT! I did a quick search, and found a picture that I liked. It was a scanned image taken from a 1912 Popular Mechanics magazine. Here it is...
111891
I got a quick design approval from the LOML, and away I went. Ideally, I would have used QSWO, but since I didn't want to spend any money on this project, I was going to use some recycled lumber. The SYP I'm using is from an old king-sized waterbed frame. :D It cleans up pretty well, I think.
Obviously, the first thing I did was mill up all components of the stand. I glued up panels for both the top and the secondary shelf, and moved on to the stiles. I milled the tenons first, and then started on the grooves that would accept the decorative panels beneath the top. This is where I encountered my first (of hopefully few) problems.
I was going to "drop" the stiles onto a spiral straight bit chucked into my tabletop Delta "shaper", but when I turned on the machine, the motor ran but the spindle wasn't turning. I opened it up, and saw that the drive belt had broken. Nice. :mad: I didn't want to wait for a new belt, so I started noodling how to accomplish my task. Ultimately, I did end up using the Delta shaper...or the top of it, at least. :D Turns out the width of the stiles is such that it fits perfectly into the miter track. I used a stile in the slot as a backstop of sorts, and clamped a block of wood to the right side of the table to keep everything in place. I ganged all of the stiles together so that my router had some stability, and away I went. It may look a little strange, but it worked great!!
111892
I'm at the point where all parts are milled and awaiting initial glue-up. Everything is going along pretty well at this point...
111893
My next steps are to cut out the diamond shapes in the panels, and then cut the top and shelf to size. I've also started messing around with colors for the finish. My wife isn't a fan of super-dark wood....or even dark wood, for that matter. I told her that she was going to be involved in helping with the color selection, for which she initially balked at. Then she saw all of the choices she was going to be able to play with, and changed her mind... :D
111894
I'm hoping for some shop time later today, but we'll see. I've got a ton of snow to shovel, and kids who want to play. :D
More to come...
- Keith