Plant Stand

The finished plant stand. There's plenty of room for more plants!

For many years Ms. Kitty used to chew on any sort of plant I tried to grow, so I couldn't keep plants. A year ago I tried growing some basil and she didn't chew on it, so I tried a few others and sure enough, she left them, alone. 

Remember the stand I built for the sound bar? I have been using it for a plant stand ever since I mounted the TV on the wall and found a piece of old furniture to set the sound bar on. That stand was pretty narrow so it was a little risky keeping plants on it, and a little too low, and Ms. Kitty seemed to finally be done chewing on plants, so I decided to build a proper stand just for plants.

The sound bar stand that I cannibalized for the new plant stand.

One of the sound bar stand legs. It's all 1" iron pipe with printed TPU feet so it won't scratch the floor. I reused them for the plant stand.

I was at the Habitat For Humanity ReStore one day and saw that they had live-edge wood that was cut from local trees and kiln dried. I checked the size of the machines at the makerspace to make sure I'd get a piece of wood that would be easy to work with, then selected a piece of Honey Locust that was within the envelope of the makerspace machines. It was a little over 6' long and about 1 3/4" thick and about 17" wide at the widest point. It weighed about 50 lbs. It had a little twist and a little bow in it, so the first step was to flatten one side so it could be run through a planer.

We have a 5x8' CNC router at the makerspace, so I set the board down on it, with shims under the edges to stabilize it, then ran a 2" fly cutter over the entire surface to flatten it. Next I took it to a planer and put the milled side down and ran it through several times, shaving off just a little until the planer blades cut across the entire surface. Then I flipped it over and ran a couple passes on the other side.

Once it was flat, I used a table saw to trim off the ends. Now the whole board was flat, cut to length, and ready to finish.

Both sides of the board had really nice grain and I wasn't sure which side would end up as the top surface, so I finished all surfaces the same. I started by sanding with 80 grit, then 120, and finally 220. After sanding, I cleaned off the dust and applied Minwax Prestain Wood Conditioner, then applied two coats of Minwax oil based cherry stain. Finally I finished it with two coats of Minwax oil based Spar Urethane, chosen for its resistance to UV and water.

Finishing what would become the bottom side of the stand. This was at the literal center of the tree.

Finishing what would become the top side of the stand.

I wasn't sure which side would be the top surface- both sides had plusses and minuses- but the finish came out better on one side than the other so the decision was made. I stole the 1" iron pipe legs from the sound bar stand and added a couple tees and a 48" long brace. I screwed the pipe flanges at the tops of the legs directly to the wood top after drilling pilot holes for the screws.

Attaching the legs. The pipe flanges are screwed directly to the wood after drilling pilot holes. That #3 Phillips head bit in my Wera tool kit really came in handy- Honey Locust is very hard, dense wood!

I spent $125 for the Honey Locust board, about $35 for iron pipe fittings that I didn't already have, and another $40 or so for sanding discs for my orbital sander and the finishing supplies. The finished stand is 65" long, about 17" wide, and stands 29.5" high. I think it weighs about 70 lbs.

You can see the legs/feet a little better in this photo. It's all 1" iron gas pipe. One advantage of using threaded gas pipe is that all four feet can be adjusted to level the stand. The combo of the pipe and wood looks great in the old industrial building that I live in.

You can see the wood grain in the top surface here. It seems a shame to cover it with plants!

Happy plants! That's oregano on the left, aloe in the center, and basil on the right. Both the oregano and basil were started from $3 plants from Trader Joes. I like to use them for cooking and will probably grow a few more herbs now that I have space for them.