By the rules of our HOA, we have to keep plants off the surface of a balcony. My wife has been working in the room just inside our front balcony and wanted something nicer to look at. So she asked me to make a low stand for some plants that she'll be putting out there.
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| The completed stand, on the balcony |
This post will include some pics of the joinery used to make the stand. As usual, I made this with joinery that was far more than needed. She would have been happy with pieces of wood screwed together, but where's the fun in that. I use just about any piece I build to practice the skills.
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| The pieces, ready to be joined |
The plant stand is basically four legs and four aprons, with five shelf boards running the length. However, the shelf pieces were almost four feet long and 3/4" square in cross section, so they needed some support in the middle. I made two more legs, with a rail between them that had five notches to fit the shelf pieces.
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| The two extra legs and the rail that connects them |
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Joined with m&t. The outside "shelf" on these legs supports the long apron
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| The short aprons are mortised to take short tenons on the ends of the shelf boards |
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| Here's the five shelf boards connected to the short aprons |
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| The corner legs are joined to the aprons with m&t joints |
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| After the rest of the stand is assembled, the center rail assembly can be added |
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| Center rail fits in from below |
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| Gluing up a long apron with two legs ... |
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... but I added the rest of the assembly to ensure the
legs would not get clamped cockeyed |
Doing a couple of dry-fits was a good idea before glue-up. A certain order makes it much easier. First, glued the long aprons to their legs. I didn't have clamps long enough, so used dogs in the bench and in the moveable jaw of the end vise. When those had set, the shelf boards were glued into the short aprons and those were glued into the long apron / leg assemblies. The center rail and middle legs were glued in later.
This project was finished with a coat of BLO thinned with turpentine and that brought out a nice color in the reclaimed oak that I used.
Now it's on to another honey-do: a couple of shoe shelves.
Nice looking stand. I don't know if I could live in HOA where they dictate things such as how potted plants on the porch are done.
ReplyDeleteYeah, some things are a bummer. But it all has to do with keeping up property values and making it easier for the workers to do maintenance. At least it gives me a project to do.
DeleteIt's an attractive looking stand and so is the wood
ReplyDeleteThanks, Salko. It will live outdoors, so it will get wet in the Winter and endure harsh sunlight in Summer. I'm sure it will go gray in a year or two. I hope to be good about oiling it once a year.
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