Stools by Stuart
and
Stands by Stuart
Every stand (every stool) has a story.
"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it!"; Kurt Vonnegut.
Stands #4 and #5: Stands are more involved than they look - at least for me. There is a lot of centering and fussing around in cutting, gluing, and putting them together. I think since the pallet is smaller it requires more attention to detail in choosing the wood and in joining the pieces.
Ready for finish.
I was getting a little short of Walnut so I didn't use a solid piece. This left a hollow core to the stand which begged the use of a threaded rod to hold the whole thing together (previous stands used lag bolts).
Cutting base pieces. (Click for closer look)
Getting the pieces of the base cut out and lined up for gluing is a pain. This step is always the bottle neck of the whole process - time wise - mainly because it takes me so long to build up the resolve to begin the assembly process. Once I get going it's not so bad.
Pieces ready to assemble.
I try to build at least two at a time of everything I make. Every step requires some setup time and thought so the more pieces I can work up at one time the less over-all set up time per piece. The last time I visited my sister she commented on how well these stands work for speakers. Many of the new sound systems have very small speakers which are perfect for these stands. This is another reason to build them in pairs - matching pairs - or even in fours (for surround sound).
Glue-up of post.
Hollow post. Conserves walnut and may actually make stand more stable. These pieces are glued together with biscuits. Biscuits make things easier to line up after applying the glue and they may help with strength and stability.