Fern Stand

   A while ago we where in a nursery looking for garden plants when we encountered a very large Boston fern being sold off cheap.  We can not turn down a deal, and I have been rescuing orphan plants that no one else wanted for years.

 Once we got the plant home the question was, Where do we put it?  It  needs floor space in a very sunny spot.  The solution was  building the plant stand that you see in the above photo. The stand was pretty basic but it gave me  chance to try two techniques.

    One was cutting the top round after doing an edge to edge glue up. This time I tried it  on the band saw.  I think I will try using a router and jig the next time.  For this application the top will be lost under the fern soon anyway so the precision of the circle is not too important. 
   
   And the second techniques was to cut fluting in the pillar section.  I saw an article in a wood working magazine talking about using the router and router table and thought I would give it a try.

    I set up the router bit on the table and went from marks on the project by eye rather than from set stops.  I think that set stops will give a more accurate result.  Also I think I will try to make the cuts on two passes, I hope getting a much smoother finish on the second pass, making sanding unnecessary. All together I was pleased with the result since this was a prototype using left over bits of wood from the scrap bin
   
    For the final project I will make the pillar a long hollow box with mitred corners so that there will be no glue lines to distract from the fluting.  I think I will also stain it old style walnut colour to get some of the antique feel to the project. Stay tuned for the result.