Woodworking projects under way. #24: The artificial Christmas Tree Stand is underway...

I should sub title this entry “fun with 2×4 scraps”...

I have an artificial Christmas Tree, or as my Hebrew and Messianic friends would call it, a Hanukkah bush…

I may have mentioned this, but upon my Christmas decor tear down, which much to the consternation of my HOA, happens the second weekend of January in my home, a family tradition I will not break to make my HOA happy… anyway when we were tearing down the tree, the original plastic base snapped, and let me know I needed either a new base, or a new tree. Now I have been putting this off for FAR too long, and I need to get with it, so…

With plenty of 2×4 cutoffs from the water heater stand project, I ran the stuff through the jointer and planer and came up with some nice, square, clean stock, which I then laminated to come up with a block 3.5×3.5×4.125”.

This block was then sanded smooth, and the ID of the original stand post hole was measured. A 1.25” forstner bit was chosen, and it was time to mark my center, and move on to the drill press… The 1.25” hole was bored 3” deep, not the max stroke of my DP, but the max depth of this particular forstner bit… That’s fine, it’s .25” deeper than the original, which means the post should actually wedge into the base nicely…

Next up on the agenda is to joint / plane some more of the 2×4 stock down to 4/4 to create the legs. The legs will be 18” tip to tip, but remember, they will be set to the back of each side of the 3.5” thick block, so the overall base width will be 32.5”, which is a hair longer than original, but still well within the canopy of the tree, and easily covered by the tree skirt.

The leg joinery will be glue and dowels for added strength. I have 2 faces that are end grain, and I need the dowels to hold it all together…

Once assembly is complete, and the base is verified level, and sanded of course, I am planning on at least a coat of Kilz2 primer, and at LEAST 2 coats, but probably 3 of Ace Royal Touch Hunter Green high gloss Latex Enamel paint. I like Ace paint, probably comes from the fact I worked several Ace Hardware stores while I was in college, and spent plenty of time in the paint dept…

Once this project is done, I need to get busy with some shop cleanup… I am putting things away as I go, but the dust collection on the miter saw stinks so bad that I have a terribly thick layer of dust on the CMS bench… My next project has got to be a roll away folding miter saw bench with a proper hood!

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!