Hi everyone, and welcome to Bob's Wood Stuff.
Today I'm going to show you how to make this elegant redwood plant stand out of a single
2x6, using solid joinery.
It's a great way to practice the angled shoulder bridle joint, and the half lap joint.
You can find a link to plans for this project in the description of the video.
Let's go to the shop.
For this project, I wanted to nail down the design before starting, so I built it in SketchUp
to see how it would look.
I started with a redwood 2x6, and cut it into two 23" lengths, and one 17" length.
Then I ripped all six of those pieces to 2-1/2" wide.
I first ripped the edge off to get a clean edge and remove the rounded part.
Then set the fence at 2-1/2 inches and made my final cuts.
(surprise Reginald photo bomb)
On the four long pieces which will be the legs, I cut off one end at 5 degrees using
the miter gauge.
To cut off the minimum amount possible, I tilted the miter gauge to the right, so I
can lead with the corner.
Because I want the pot to sit 18" above the ground, I measured 18" up from the bottom
of the leg and made a mark.
Then I placed a knife in that mark, butted my square up to the knife, and struck a line
across the edge.
I took out my bevel gauge, and locked it at 85 degrees, using the angled end of the leg
as a guide.
And I cut a line to meet up with the previous one, marking the angled top shoulder of the
bridle joint.
I wrapped the line around the other edge using my square.
And I matched up the lines on the last side using the bevel gauge.
I took one of the shorter pieces that will go in the center, and lined it up with the
line I just scored.
And I traced it with the knife to mark the bottom shoulder, undercutting it a small amount
so it's a tight fit.
I want the middle section to be 1/3 of the thickness of the leg,
so I measured the piece into thirds and made a small cut 1/2" from the edge.
Then I placed the blade of my marking gauge in that notch, pushed the fence against the
piece, and locked it in place.
I scribed a line between my existing marks, from each face of the board.
And did the same thing on the opposite edge of the piece.
I also scribbled some pencil to indicate which parts are waste.
To transfer the markings to the other legs quickly, I butted them up against a board
and clamped them together,
then scribed a line across using my square.
And I used the bevel gauge for all the angled marks.
I placed the stretcher on top of the legs, to mark the edges of the shoulder.
Then I wrapped a line all the way around, using my combination square and my bevel gauge.
And I marked the bridle joint with my marking gauge, which has not been changed.
I installed my dado stack and set it to the height of my lines.
Then I set my miter gauge at 85 degrees and removed the waste area.
Since my miter gauge has some wobble to it, I did not go all the way to the shoulder.
You can see that there is a little bit of waste left.
To do an accurate angled cut on the shoulder, I decided to add a temporary angled fence
to my crosscut sled.
I want it to be angled at 5 degrees, so I used an online rise over run calculator to
see how much to offset one side from my fence.
This can be also done with trigonometry, SketchUp, or a really big protractor.
Once the angle was marked, I screwed the temporary fence in place.
I placed my leg piece against this new fence, and lined up the tooth of the blade with my
knife mark
Then I cut both of the shoulders on this side of the leg,
exactly on the mark.
I did this on all four legs.
I set up my shop-made tenoning jig on the table saw, and clamped the stretcher into
the jig.
These cuts can also be done on a band saw with a fence.
I raised the blade up to the lower part of the shoulder,
and moved the fence so that my cut removes the center part of the stretcher, just inside
my lines.
I made the cut,
and then flipped the piece around to get the other side.
After making these cuts on both ends of both stretchers, I moved the fence by small increments
to remove the bulk of the inside waste.
You should aim for a perfect fit right off the table saw, but if the joint is too tight
on the face grain, it can be fine-tuned by shaving down the middle part with a sharp
chisel.
Because my tenoning jig cuts at 90 degrees, I needed to chisel out some material to get
that 5 degree angle.
I secured the stretcher to my bench using bench dogs, and held the chisel at 85 degrees,
while I chopped away the waste.
I start by making a notch where the shoulder will be, and then start chopping, taking only
about 1/8" off at a time and working towards that line.
While cutting these, it is important to sight down the side and make sure your chisel is
the same angle as your line.
Then I flipped the piece over to the other side, and chiseled from that side also.
It's important that the bottom of the mortise is clean with no obstructions, so I cleaned
it up a bit with a chisel.
I tested the fit of the bridle joint, and found the stretcher slightly too wide, as
intended.
Using my hand plane, I took a few shavings off the stretcher and checked the fit again.
I repeated this process, checking often until I achieved a perfect fit.
To join rails of the two frames together, I used a half lap joint that will be removable.
I found the middle of the stretcher pieces, and marked out the waste section with a knife.
Then I removed the waste with a crosscut sled on the table saw using multiple passes.
And cleaned up the bottom of the joint with a 1" chisel.
And then test fitted the half lap joint.
I had intentionally cut it too tight, so that I could fine tune the fit with a hand plane.
I would test the fit, and then do a couple passes with the hand plane, and then test
the fit again, repeating this process until I had a perfect fitting joint on each side.
Now that all the joinery was finished, I glued it up in two sub-assemblies, using Titebond
III since it was an outdoor project.
I applied one clamp to each bridle joint, and waited for it to dry.
I drew a small curve at the top of the leg freehand, and then attached some clamps and
bent a piece of wood to trace the long curve.
Then I cut those curves on the bandsaw.
I smoothed out the curves with the oscillating spindle sander,
and then decided to use a spokeshave instead, because it is quicker, there's no sawdust,
and it leaves a smoother surface.
Then I coated the whole project with some timber oil, which helps preserve the wood
and has a little bit of red pigment in it.
And after a few minutes I wiped off all the excess oil.
Once the oil had dried,
I brought the stand to my local garden center, and tried out a bunch of pots to see how they
look and fit in the plant stand.
This black pot was the best-fitting one, but it was a little too tight,
so I pared down the tops of the legs a little bit with a chisel to achieve a perfect fit.
I taped two pencils together, so I could trace the contour of the pot onto the leg.
Then I used that line as a guide for paring.
So this was a really good project.
I enjoyed it a lot.
It's incredibly strong, and it makes my plant look a lot classier.
I originally developed it so I could teach my joinery class
how to make the angled shoulder bridle joint
and the half lap joint
and make them fit really well,
using both hand tools, and power tools.
Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video,
and make sure to download the plans and try it for yourself.
Bye.