Spalted Maple ladder style plant stand

21incher · January 14, 2014, 01:32:58 PM

My wife started with 1 African Violet plant several years ago and has somehow been able to make it multiply. She asked for a stand to hold part of her collection and I asked for a LOGRITE to add to my collection. We are both now happy. I had some 5/4 spalted maple boards that were cut in my yard several years ago and managed to find enough good spalted wood for the project. Here are some pics.

shelves glued up with biscuits

Used pocket holes and screws to assemble

Some good spalting

Assembled and finished with 3 coats of polyurethane

I glued some heavy duty solid no slip shelf liner on the bottom of the uprights and placed 2 finish nails in the back if the top shelf that protruded 1/2 inch and were pressed into the sheetrock to support it before allowing the plants to be placed on it. This was a quick simple project using the pocket holes and seemed to come out extremely strong.

isawlogs · January 14, 2014, 01:46:07 PM

Nice trade :D I like the ladder shelf, makes them violets easy to look at. I also often use pocket holes, I got the Kreg system many years ago.
With boards that nice it makes making the decision of wich side to use hard.

thecfarm · January 14, 2014, 02:06:29 PM

Two wonderful things for the eyes to look at. Tell your wife those violets are looking good. Them critters are kinda fussy with where they grow. And that stand looks some nice.Them boards really make it stand out.

21incher · January 14, 2014, 03:04:48 PM

Quote from: thecfarm on January 14, 2014, 02:06:29 PM
Two wonderful things for the eyes to look at. Tell your wife those violets are looking good. Them critters are kinda fuzzy with where they grow. And that stand looks some nice.Them boards really make it stand out.

She just picks leaves off a old plant and sticks it in a new pot of dirt and a couple of weeks later a new plant starts growing. As long as you keep them out of direct sunlight and don't get any water on the leaves they seem to grow easily.

21incher · January 14, 2014, 03:14:14 PM

Quote from: isawlogs on January 14, 2014, 01:46:07 PM
Nice trade :D I like the ladder shelf, makes them violets easy to look at. I also often use pocket holes, I got the Kreg system many years ago.
With boards that nice it makes making the decision of wich side to use hard.

You know the old saying " You can't always get what you want, but when you get the chance jump on it". I have only used the pocket holes twice and am finding out that for some things you just don't have to spend hours making fancy joints. I feel like I am cheeting but 90% of the people looking at it will not notice because they will be distracted by the unique wood.

clww · January 14, 2014, 03:31:21 PM

Great looking shelves and violets!

thecfarm · January 14, 2014, 04:32:34 PM

Got a small piece left over for Jeff??
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,18953.0.html
I know he would like it and I know he still has some room. ;D

WDH · January 14, 2014, 11:43:03 PM

Pocket hole joinery is the best thing since sliced bread.

That is an exceptionally nice plant stand. I love it.

m wood · January 15, 2014, 05:16:12 AM

Nice work. that is purdee

Magicman · January 15, 2014, 08:01:16 AM

Very pretty and such a neat design.

ron barnes · January 15, 2014, 07:06:09 PM

Pocket holes and are the best thing going for shelves. I love the spalted maple. My wife has dozens of the African violets. I believe that I will have to steal your idea.

samandothers · January 15, 2014, 08:34:00 PM

Very pretty wood and product. Looks like it wants to fall over toward the wall!

Jemclimber · January 16, 2014, 06:50:46 AM

Very nice wood and shelf. When you cheat :D with pocket screws do you also glue or just screw?

21incher · January 16, 2014, 08:03:10 AM

Quote from: ron barnes on January 15, 2014, 07:06:09 PM
Pocket holes and are the best thing going for shelves. I love the spalted maple. My wife has dozens of the African violets. I believe that I will have to steal your idea.

My wife has more violets also. The shelf was going to be larger as I started with (4) 5/4" x 12" x 10 1/2' boards but after cutting away all the cracks and basically soft punkie sections that was all I had left to work with. Just make sure to put some good heavy no slip shelf liner on the bottom and a couple of pins in the wall on the back of the top shelf to keep it in place.

21incher · January 16, 2014, 08:08:33 AM

Quote from: samandothers on January 15, 2014, 08:34:00 PM
Very pretty wood and product. Looks like it wants to fall over toward the wall!

There are a couple of pins in the back of the top shelf that stick through the sheetrock to keep it from sliding down plus some super sticky shelf liner on the bottom. Put my 200 lbs on the middle shelf and it did not budge. I thought about putting pocket screws into the wall studs but did not need them.

21incher · January 16, 2014, 08:12:34 AM

Quote from: Jemclimber on January 16, 2014, 06:50:46 AM
Very nice wood and shelf. When you cheat :D with pocket screws do you also glue or just screw?

I use glue, but when attaching end grain I don't think it really does much. I am new to pocket holes and hope they will keep the joints tight over time.

Holmes · January 16, 2014, 12:10:07 PM

Your first picture made me think you had built the stand with the wood stepped as in the picture, and the plants would sit in front of the wood. That might not be a bad way to do it. It just gave me the idea . Thanks and that is a great looking stand.

21incher · January 16, 2014, 04:05:23 PM

Thanks everyone for your comments. Sounds like there will be some more stands built members here in the future. I hope to see pictures of them all.

Greg Brown · January 17, 2014, 07:52:22 PM

Very, very nice. But I was expecting to see Logrite pictures. :D

21incher · January 18, 2014, 08:35:03 AM

Quote from: Greg Brown on January 17, 2014, 07:52:22 PM
Very, very nice. But I was expecting to see Logrite pictures. :D

There seems to be a Logrite shortage it was ordered and yesterday I got a email from Baileys.

"Due to an unusually large response, we are temporarily out of stock on the item(s) you ordered listed below.
LOGRITE CANT HOOK (60)" CH 060
Additional quantities are on order and we expect them 1/28/14. Your order will receive priority upon receipt in the warehouse and we expect to be able to ship your order within 30 days. We are sorry for the delay, and assure you that we are making every effort to speed your order to you."

Looks like it will be another 30 days and 30 nights until I get it. I guess due to reviews on this forum Logrite can't make them fast enough!