Plant Stand

Plant stand in poplar and walnut. built from “scraps.” the design was inspired by bud's. joinery is floating M&T with mortises made using my new router jig. finish is 1 coat minwax antique (oil/varnish wiping blend) followed by several coats of 50% wiping poly, finished with paste wax buffed on with 0000 steel wool.

some notes:

Design: I liked Bud’s design and wanted to test out some joinery, ideas, and tool skills. specifically, the shaped legs and such. I didn’t draw a a scale model, let alone one in sketchup first, and consequently i think the proportions are off a bit. I think the overhead projection of the piece is too square – making it more rectangular wouldve helped. also, i think the legs project too high above the “table” level. the little circular cutouts in the two table pieces simply result from not having a piece of walnut long enough and wanting to make that negative into a positive. I welcome constructive critisicm! ;-)

Joinery: These are my first edge and M&T joints. The edge joints came out great – i used hand planes to joint the edges and it went very well. seemless, actually. i didnt think it would be that easy. the M&T joints also – WAY WAY easy with the router. those joints are super tight, and it feels almost like cheating!

Skilz: these are my first curved pieces as well. i roughed out the stock with a jig saw (no bandsaw yet :( but it works ok, if a little slow. then i cleaned those up with a spokeshave… which was SWEET. i just love going straight from rough to finish without having to sand. also, i’m happy with how square i made it all – there was no wobble upon assembly – that felt nice.

anyway, there it is. a plant stand made from some longer lengths of scrap. in terms of the design, i dont know – experimental i guess! but in terms of technique, i’m quite satisfied with it all – it’s going faster, easier, nicer, and more enjoyably with every new project.