Hanging plant holder

This is a plant holder made for my mom for her birthday. The wood is mahogany and the curved outer edge is actually made from three separate pieces of wood. Each one was wrapped around a jig and then glued together. (Catherine)

I saw a picture of this plant hanger over 20 years ago.  I always thought it would be fun to try something like this.  Two years ago my daughter got me a bandsaw for Christmas, which has opened up a new world of possibilities of woodworking projects that I can attempt now. The first step to making this plant hanger is to rip 2×4’s down to 2” wide, then cut some short pieces approximately 6” long.  Draw a circle 20-1/2” diameter on a piece of ¾” board.  Lay the 6” pieces on the board (laying the 1-1/2” side on the board), covering up the circle.  Now screw a short block at the center pivot point of the circle and re-draw the 20-1/2” circle on top of the 2” tall boards.  Note that at the top of the circle you will go straight up to a point at the top.  I made it 30” tall.  Next step is to cut the arch that you just drew on the 2” boards, with your bandsaw.  Save each cut off piece and number them with the mating boards.  You will use these later for clamping.

Now you can screw this pattern back down onto the ¾” plywood.  Lay wax paper down under the pattern pieces so that when you glue the wood later, it won’t stick to the ¾” board.  I used pocket hole screws to fasten the pattern pieces down.  To pick the wood for making the plant hanger you want to make sure there are no knots in the wood.  Also a wood with a lot of distinguishing grain may not be as good for bending.  For this reason I used mahogany.  Rip the board down to 1-7/8” wide by at least 82” long.

Next lay the board at the top point of the pattern and cut the board to match the angle at the peak.  Now you will rip your 82” long board to 3/32” thick.  Make 3 boards this thick.  Using a bandsaw makes less waste when ripping these boards, however, you could use a radial arm or table saw.  With the boards at 3/32” thick they will bend easy enough without soaking or heating them.  Line up the angle cuts you made at the peak of the pattern.

Using a disposable foam brush spread glue on the boards and start clamping all three of them at the same time onto the pattern.  Make sure you use waterproof glue.  Use the pieces of the 1-1/2”x2” boards, that you cut off with the bandsaw earlier, to clamp the 3/32” boards with.  Don’t worry if you can’t keep the three pieces exactly even.  You can trim the edges later.  Let the glue dry at least 24 hours before removing the clamps.  Next you will want to cut a small piece of wood to put inside the peak to help hold the point together and to give yourself something to drill mounting holes in.  Make it big enough for two ¼” bolts.  The edges of the three laminated pieces may not be perfectly even.  You can run the entire piece on the router table to even it out.

Now you can lay the tear drop shape on the edges of two ¾” x 4-1/2” boards.  Mark the angle you need on the two boards to fit them inside the tear drop.  I used ¼” dowels to mount the shelves in place.  You’ll want to put 3 coats of spar urethane on this to protect it from the weather.

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